2018: A Year in Review and Look Ahead

Jan 2019

Happy New Year! 2019 promises a lot to look forward to, including our annual convening co-hosted by the National Museum in Singapore, new research on the Social Impact of Cultural Districts and a special event in Bahrain.

As for many of our members, 2018 has been an eventful year for GCDN, starting with the appointment in March of our new Director, Beatrice Pembroke, and followed soon after by our annual convening. Co-hosted by Alserkal Avenue in Dubai, it once again provided a forum for meaningful exchanges and a platform for both new encounters and enduring partnerships. Some of these discussions, notably the topic of anchor cultural institutions, were carried over to our Asia-Pacific regional convening held as part of AAPPAC’s 2018 conference hosted by Auckland Live in September.

In Dubai, we also unveiled “Governance Models for Cultural Districts“, our newest piece of original research co-commissioned with UAL Eastbank and featuring global case studies written by James Doeser and Anna Marazuela Kim. This autumn we started on our next research piece, an upcoming study on the Social Impact of Cultural Districts written by Professor Geoff Crossick with relevant case studies from GCDN members.

Last but not least, 2018 saw our network grow significantly. Over the year, we were delighted to welcome six new members: Better Bankside in London, the Music Center in Los Angeles, the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, the Onassis Foundation in Athens, Kingston Creative in Jamaica, and newcomer HOTA, Home of the Arts in the Gold Coast.