Manises Town Council met a few days ago with the Spanish ambassador to UNESCO, His Excellency Mr. Andrés Perelló, to present its candidacy to the organisation in order to opt for the designation as a UNESCO Creative City in the modality of Crafts and Popular Arts. Mr. Perelló attended a reception in the Plenary Hall with the Mayor, Jesús Borràs and the councillors of Tourism and Culture, Àngel Mora and Xavier Morant, as well as the deputy and councillor Pilar Molina and the heads of various areas of the City Council Pilar Bastante, Carles López and Irene Camps. María José Guillén, the focal point of the candidacy, was also present at the meeting. During the meeting, the councillor for Tourism explained the reasons why the city was worthy of becoming a Creative City. An argument that Mr. Perelló supported: “Without a doubt, ceramics is part of the city’s identity, in fact, Manises produces a very unique technique that is only made in five places in the world”. He added cautiously: “Manises fulfils all the conditions to be a Creative City, although I don’t want to give too much hope, as this can never be known until the evaluation by international experts is carried out. Nevertheless, he enthusiastically encouraged the municipal corporation to present the candidacy to UNESCO. Also present at the meeting with the Ambassador was the director of the drafting team of the candidacy dossier, María José Viñals, professor at the Universitat Politècnica de València, the expert working on the project who knows the history of Manises ceramics well and who said that “the materials and documents consulted suggest that it could be a successful candidacy”. He added that “the dossier is already very advanced and also the process of social participation that accompanies this process in order to be able to arrive in time for the call for applications with the work well done”. Dr. Viñals’ team was responsible for drafting the dossier that Llíria presented to UNESCO in 2019 and with which it obtained the nomination that same year as a Creative City in the “Music” category. This candidacy of Manises aims to recognise the more than 700 uninterrupted years during which ceramics have been the identifying and structuring element of society in Manises. For these reasons, the Valencian Parliament recently recognised Manises as the “Valencian City of Ceramics” through an institutional declaration. The Mayor of Manises, Jesús Borràs, has valued this declaration by the Valencian Parliament and the candidacy to UNESCO as “a further step in the recognition of such a valuable tradition that forms part of the history and idiosyncrasy of Manises”. On the other hand, the councillor for the Promotion of Ceramics, Xavier Morant, pointed out that “after the long centenary history of ceramics in Manises, we finally have recognition by the public representatives of the Valencian Cortes. We have been, are and will be a city linked to the manufacture of ceramics”. Finally, the councillor for Tourism, Àngel Mora, welcomed the process in which the city of Manises is immersed. “It is an opportunity to promote this added value and give it continuity and future. It is a joy to have been recognised in the Valencian territory; now we also aspire to this international recognition”. Only 9 Spanish cities are creative, two of them Valencian Currently, Spain has 9 creative cities, only two of them are Valencian. Dénia, Creative City of Gastronomy and Llíria, Creative City of Music. In the rest of the country, Seville (Music); Bilbao (Design); Granada (Literature); Burgos (Gastronomy); Barcelona (Literature); Terrassa (Cinema) and Valladolid (Cinema) also have this recognition.
