Since being selected as a new member city of UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in October of 2019, the city of Jinju has been planning to publish the International Journal of Crafts and Folk Arts. This journal aims to achieve cultural diversity and sustainable urban development by sharing knowledge, experience, and practices of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network member cities in the field of crafts and folk art.

We organized an editorial committee for the journal with experts from related academic societies, research institutes, the Korea-UCCN Advisory Council, and from the UCCN cities. I express my gratitude to many local and overseas scholars and activists for their participation as members of the Editorial Board. We have been communicating with the focal points of creative cities in our network, and posted “Call for Papers” on UCCN website. Many creative cities thankfully responded to our proposal, seven of which submitted short papers about their culture heritages and activities. Four scholars participated in the discussion of the topic “Arts and Cultural Activities under the Pandemic: Problems and How to Solve Them.” I really thank these scholars for their participation and submitting their responses to many important questions that we ask in this discussion.

We also have five academic papers in this issue. Some papers are revised work from the presentations at the International Conference on Creative City which was annually held in Jinju City from 2017 to 2019. I especially thank Professor Woralun Boonyasurat, Director of Social Research Institute (SRI) at Chiang Mai University, for participating in this journal in various ways, by serving as a member of the Editorial Board, submitting an academic paper as well as a short article, and also being a discussant.

I strongly believe this journal will contribute to strengthening international cooperation between cities and to facilitating studies, research and evaluations on the experience of the creative cities. I also hope that this journal ultimately contributes to implementing the core objectives of the UCCN Mission Statement at both national and international levels.

The journal will continue to include academic papers that cover various topics, such as creative transmission of intangible heritages in crafts and folk arts, and ways to promote creative industries for sustainable urban development. It will also offer scholarly debates on current and future issues, interviews, book reviews, and presentation of new practices and events in member cities in the crafts and folk art sector. We invite creative cities to participate in this journal by submitting academic papers, short articles, reviews, and news related to crafts and folk arts.

Finally, I would like to extend my gratitude to Ms. Ernesto Ottone R., Assistant Director-General for Culture of UNESCO, and Kwangho Kim, Secretary-General of Korean National Commission for UNESCO, for their congratulatory statements, Professor Masayuki Sasaki for his cultural criticism as a review article, and Kyoo-il Jo, Mayor of Jinju City, for his financial and moral support for this journal.