Gregorio Lucena Scarpella leads the Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN), a membership organisation of more than 70 cultural districts worldwide, with a mission to improve the quality of urban life through the arts, culture and creative industries.
He is responsible for the network’s strategy and development, the stewardship of its members, and its year-round programme of activities and research, as well as its flagship annual convening, of which he has curated and overseen multiple editions in cities around the world.
Greg is interested in cultural districts as instruments of governance, diplomacy, and connection, and in what it takes to lead them well in a complex and contested world. His work centres on convening, facilitation, and the relationships that let a peer network function across very different international contexts.
Greg holds an M.A. in Arts & Cultural Management from King’s College London and a B.A. in Communications and English Linguistics & Literature from the Université de Neuchâtel. Born in Brazil into a multicultural family and raised in Switzerland, he is fluent in English, French, Portuguese, and Italian.