World Heritage Month
World Heritage Month is a celebration of Philadelphia’s World Heritage City designation. Originally launched as World Heritage Week, this initiative has experienced steady growth over the years—evolving into a month-long celebration in recognition of Philadelphia’s expanding global profile and its vibrant multicultural communities.
The city of Philadelphia declared World Heritage Day on the last Thursday of May to honor its status as a World Heritage City. Today, we mark World Heritage Month with a rich selection of events that highlight Philadelphia’s international heritages, diverse communities, and global connections.
The month is a collaborative celebration, presented in partnership with valued community organizations, the Office of the City Representative, and GPA-hosted events.
From May 18–24, we hosted 21 events with 24 partners and five media sponsors—highlighted by the ceremonial raising of the World Heritage Cities flag. Together, we honored our city's rich history, international ties, and multicultural communities.
What is World Heritage Month?
Philadelphia is a proud World Heritage City with a thriving network of globally engaged organizations, businesses, and institutions. As part of the 2026 Semiquincentennial celebrations and World Heritage Month, Global Philadelphia will lead a dynamic, city-wide initiative throughout 2026. Building on the momentum of past World Heritage Week and Global Philly celebrations, World Heritage Month 2026 will be a unifying event that highlights Philadelphia’s unique role as an international city—past, present, and future.
World Heritage Month 2026 will be a city-wide, multi-organizational festival with programming focused on international cooperation, culture, trade, innovation, education, heritage, and more.
This milestone year provides an extraordinary platform to showcase the global and international actors shaping Philadelphia across the nonprofit, corporate, government, academic, and private sectors. Having successfully hosted a Globy Philly conference in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019, Global Philadelphia is well-positioned—alongside 400+ international and community partners—to coordinate this major 2026 effort.
World Heritage Month 2026 is both a celebration and a call to action—elevating Philadelphia’s global identity during the nation’s 250th birthday with city-wide programming focused on culture, heritage, innovation, international collaboration, and more.
Looking back to 2025: Community Partners
Are you or your organization looking to
get involved in the 2026 festivities?
For 2026, Global Philadelphia Association is hosting a special World Heritage Month Celebration where we will expand our typical World Heritage Week into a month of programming! As a part of the 250th anniversary celebration in Philadelphia, we are excited to significantly scale this event.
We are looking to partner with various organizations that highlight Philadelphia's global/international culture, stories, culture, food, history, or communities. In addition we are looking for media partners to help us spread the word about this special edition of our World Heritage programming.
Interested in taking part? Sign out the interest form below!
World heritage month 2026 interest form
World Heritage Week 2025: A Week of Collaborative Celebration
World Heritage Month Advisory Committee
Khine Arthur, President & CEO, Asian Chamber of Commerce, Philadelphia
Paresh Birla, Chairman, Council of Indian Organizations
Hayley Boyle, Senior Vice President of Programs, World Affairs Council
Jazelle Jones, City Representative and Director of Special Events, Philadelphia
Val Kogan, President, Mid-Atlantic - Eurasia Business Council
Richard Lee, Founder, Media Copy
John Murawski, FDR Park Special Projects Manager, Office of Parks & Rec
Denzell Wallace, Director of Communications and Marketing, WTC of Philly
GPA would like to acknowledge our partners and thank the city of
Philadelphia and city council for the support of our work.
Thank you to our 3-year investors
& in partnership with The City of Philadelphia Office of the City Representative
Media Partners
Press Coverage