İzmir Metropolitan Municipality accelerated its efforts for the Culture Summit of the United Cities and Local Governments, which is one of the important cultural events of the world.

İzmir Metropolitan Municipality will be hosting the Cultural Summit 2021, organized by the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) in order to ensure that the culture is sustainable, in İzmir. İzmir was entitled to host the summit, which was held in Bilbao, Spain, Jeju, South Korea, and Buenos Aires, Argentina in the previous years, leaving Kazan, Russia and Merida, Mexico behind. 

The Metropolitan Municipality will introduce the Culture Summit with a logo symbolizing the idea of getting together and being connected in İzmir.

The Goal of becoming the European Capital of Culture
Stating that the Culture Summit 2021 will be an important milestone in the goal of İzmir becoming a city of culture, Tunç Soyer, the Mayor of the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, said, “Leading cultural producers, artists and opinion leaders of the world will be meeting in İzmir. This summit will also be an important step for our goal of making İzmir the cultural capital of Europe. It will also increase the city's visibility in the international arena. Culture also inspires creativity, innovation, solidarity and cooperation, which are extremely important in our fight against the global epidemics and other crises. Because culture and art is the soul of a society, of a city. If we cannot keep that spirit alive, the consequences of such global crises will be dire." Reminding that the logo of the Culture Summit 2021 shall be decided by the residents of İzmir, Soyer said, “We want everyone to share this excitement. We hope that Turkey’s people of art and culture will be standing together with us right from the stage of preparation.”