Musings from the Three Bells: Sustainable Development in Cultural Districts

As COP29 Azerbaijan comes to a close, we’re resurfacing insights shared by GCDN’s Director of Special Projects, Stephanie Fortunato, on the role we all must play in mitigating the climate emergency. Stephanie’s reflections were inspired by Sustainable Development in Cultural Districts – a report commissioned by The City of London Corporation with the support of GCDN.

One of the themes that came across in the Sustainable Development report is an impatience to implement changes in our practices and policies, and to move further and faster on the journey towards a more sustainable existence. Every step we take is necessary to move the needle in the face of an overwhelming urgency to do something.?

This pressure to act is echoed in a 2023 report issued by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an assessment of what we have learned about climate change, its widespread impacts and risks, as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation. As The New York Times reported at the time: "Climate Change Is Speeding Toward Catastrophe. The Next Decade Is Crucial ." Equally crucial is our need to create conditions for a more equitable cultural sector,? one in which creatives, especially those who have been historically marginalized, are able to thrive.

A friend and mentor of mine —an arts leader who has dedicated over three decades to supporting artists and creatives responsibly in communities, and to nurturing equity, diversity, access, and inclusion along the way—recently expressed frustration with the lack of resources available to support change at a pace in line with the operating realities of most arts and cultural organizations. Our conversation quickly shifted from the specific constraints and opportunities of the structures within which she is working, towards the needs of the cultural sector to adapt. In the end, we had to acknowledge that these challenges were not much different for any of us living in a constantly changing world. This conversation was a good example of how it can be challenging to narrowly focus on the decisions around advancing specific incremental changes when the charge is so big and important. Daily operational challenges can feel as cataclysmic as the big existential question.?

Systems created to sustain continuous operations and make opportunities available to many—if not all—can be cumbersome, requiring tending at many different points, with gatekeepers and intersecting interests to be navigated along the way. This makes transformation feel aspirational in some cases, elusive in others, and all in all, a process that can take time to get right, in even the nimblest setting. Far from linear, committing to a collective and creative endeavor can be messy, even circular at times.?

As noted by the authors of Sustainable Development in Cultural Districts, Helen Kearney and Kat Pegler, some of the challenges are in gaps of knowledge, and some in skills and capacity. On the former, data-informed decision making is often the strongest foundation for advancing ideas. Data is always a time capsule, though, and we are living in a time when data available to us feels slightly misaligned from reality.?

Around the same time that the UN issued their report, the US and UK released 2022 numbers about cultural production and cultural participation. These showed overall increases that were positive, and yet, included caveats about growth in the context of 2019 data, which reflected a pre-COVID-19 state. We are all getting good at adapting our understanding amidst uncertainties, but one has to wonder how relevant is this data now available to us. Already, we are at a different point in the post pandemic reality, and our lived experience seems to diverge from the record, yet shared understanding takes time and trust. It doesn't always feel like we have that, which is why so many of us look to learning, training, and upskilling as a pragmatic bridge to the future.

There are promising long-term practices that aid our capacity. New trends in "Systems Philanthropy," a collaborative cross-sector approach to addressing root causes of systemic social issues that draw on data. Strategic planning efforts are infused with more flexibility. "Scenario planning," "adaptive planning," that is less prescriptive and more able to be responsive and future-facing.?

?We can't let go of the big picture altogether. There are too many issues that will require collective action and the best thinking available to us. Every arts leader should have one great challenge on their whiteboard - one thing for them to think about that is beyond their concerns from the day-to-day, one thing to aspire to. If you take anything away from this podcast, that's what I encourage. A quick post-it note giving you one big idea that you want to think about in the long term.

Read more about how cultural districts can embed sustainable practices in their work in the report, Sustainable Development in Cultural Districts , available as a free download on gcdn.net .

Stephanie first shared these thoughts in an episode of The Three Bells podcast, S3:E5 Sustainable development in cultural districts featuring Helen Kearney and Kat Pegler, authors of the report, Sustainable Development in Cultural Districts – commissioned by The City of London Corporation with the support of GCDN. Listen to the full episode at https://www.thethreebells.net/episodes/s3e5