News
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
UNESCO announces official call for World Book Capital applications
The UNESCO Selection Committee for World Book Capital has made its official call for applications for the 2014 award.
UNESCO has nominated a World Book Capital City every year since 2001, in order to acknowledge the best programme by a city to promote books and encourage reading. Madrid was awarded the title in the first year and Bangkok is the latest city to have received this prestigious designation for the year 2013.
If successful, Oxford would host a year-long programme of events – which will run from April 2014 to April 2015 – for visitors as well as city and county residents to take part in.
Among the exciting and forward looking programme for the World Book Capital year will be some signature moments, including the redesign and opening of the Bodleian Weston Library and the completion of the Story Museum, a magical new centre of children’s literature and storytelling.
The bid will also allow Oxford to highlight the debate on child literacy, and will see a number of organisations work together to raise the overall literacy attainment in the classroom.
On Wednesday 11 December 2012, the Earl of Wessex will make a visit to the city to highlight literacy projects in Oxford. He will end his trip at the Story Museum, to learn more about their work with schools and the redevelopment of the building in time for the 2014 World Book Capital year.
Oxford’s bid for the title was officially launched in September 2010, with the help of local authors Colin Dexter and Philip Pullman, but it is only now that the city has been asked to register its interest with UNESCO formally.
The city’s bid is currently being developed by a steering committee made up of 13 local organisations, including Oxford University Press, Blackwell’s, the Bodleian Libraries, the Story Museum, Oxford Literary Festival, the University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University, Oxfam, Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Arts Council England, the Oxford Times and Oxford Inspires, who is also co-ordinating the bid.
Oxford is well placed to support a programme of the kind required for the 2014 bid. The city and its surrounding county of Oxfordshire have unparalleled resources and world renowned publishing and bookselling enterprises, not to mention a strong reading public, a well established literary festival, and perhaps more published authors than in any comparable city in the world.
In order to apply for the prize, Oxford must submit its written bid by no later than Friday 27 April 2012. The bid document must be drafted in one of UNESCO’s official languages (French, English, Spanish, Russian, Arabic or Chinese) and has to be accompanied by a cover or support letter from The Lord Mayor of Oxford.
According to UNSECO’s guidelines, all programme proposals will be judged by a set of six criteria, including the content of the year-long programme, the long term benefits that this programme will afford the applicant city, its communities and groups, and the level of collaboration with local, national and international organisations representing writers, publishers, booksellers and librarians.
It is expected that the winning city will be announced during the summer of 2012.
In total, 12 cities have now been awarded World Book Capital status since the designation began. In 2001 it was Madrid, followed by Alexandria (2002), New Delhi (2003), Antwerp (2004), Montreal (2005), Turin (2006), Bogotá (2007), Amsterdam (2008), Beirut (2009), Ljubljana (2010), Buenos Aires (2011), Yerevan (2012) and Bangkok (2013).
For more information about Oxford’s campaign to become World Book Capital in 2014, and to sign up in support of the bid, follow this link.
