The Three Bells

In this special roundtable episode marking the tenth edition of AEA Consulting’s Cultural Infrastructure Index, Stephanie Fortunato speaks with four members of the research team – Natalia Vartapetova, Luna BuGhanem, Jess Nickelman, and Laura Gildenstern – about what ten years of data can tell us about how cultural infrastructure is changing.

Transcript: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ffdc6706aed0b20d49b81e9/t/6a20a43d7cfcfb7761ba87e9/1780524093056/3bells_Transcript_S6E6.pdf

External Links:

• Cultural Infrastructure Index dashboard
• 2025 Cultural Infrastructure Index: The 10th edition of AEA Consulting’s annual report on major cultural capital projects worldwide.
• Doris Duke Theatre, Jacob’s Pillow
• Spartanburg County Public Library Planetarium Learning Center
• Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen
• Eco-Museum and Orla Piratininga Park

In this latest Reflections, Adrian Ellis draws on a recent panel at the Hong Kong International Cultural Summit to outline six tests for cultural districts today – and what happens when background issues become foreground pressures.

Transcript: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ffdc6706aed0b20d49b81e9/t/6a0e42a62c1a2f6d1e711660/1779319462679/3bells_Transcript_S6Ed5.pdf

External references:

• Hong Kong International Cultural Summit 2026
• West Kowloon Cultural District
• Le Quartier des Spectacles
• Guggenheim Abu Dhabi
• Royal Arts Complex

About our contributor:

Adrian Ellis is the founder of AEA Consulting (1990) and the Global Cultural Districts Network (2013). He has worked in senior management and as a board member in both museums and the performing arts and as a strategy consultant to leading clients in the cultural, public, and business sectors around the world. + 

Stephanie Fortunato, speaks with Danielle Brazell, Executive Director of the California Arts Council, about the state’s cultural districts programme, California’s first creative economy strategy, and why public investment in culture should be measured not only in economic impact, but also in imagination, innovation, and inspiration.

Transcript: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ffdc6706aed0b20d49b81e9/t/69fa2314583a216d3c7a1807/1778000660301/3bells_Transcript_S6E5.pdf  

External links:
California Arts Council
California Arts Council’s cultural districts program
California’s Creative Economy Strategic Plan
Arts for LA
Highways Performance Space

About our guest:
Danielle Brazell, is Executive Director of the California Arts Council. An artist, teaching artist, presenter, and arts administrator, she has held leadership roles across advocacy, local government, and the cultural sector, including at Arts for LA and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. She now leads the state agency supporting arts and culture across California, including the California Cultural Districts programme and the state’s new creative economy strategy. + 

In this new episode of Reflections from The Three Bells, Adrian Ellis marks the 10th edition of AEA Consulting’s Cultural Infrastructure Index by asking what slowbalisation, geopolitical volatility, and changing public expectations mean for the future of cultural infrastructure.

External references: 

• AEA Consulting’s 2025 Cultural Infrastructure Index (10th edition)
• AEA Consulting’s Cultural Infrastructure Index dashboard
• IMF on slowbalisation

About our contributor:
Adrian Ellis is the founder of AEA Consulting (1990) and the Global Cultural Districts Network (2013). He has worked in senior management and as a board member in both museums and the performing arts and as a strategy consultant to leading clients in the cultural, public, and business sectors around the world. + 

Ahead of the opening of V&A East on 18 April 2026, Adrian Ellis speaks with its Director, Gus Casely-Hayford, about involving young people in shaping the institution, widening access, and creating the kinds of transformative opportunities that can change futures.

External references:

• V&A East: https://www.vam.ac.uk/east/
• V&A East Storehouse: https://www.vam.ac.uk/east/storehouse/visit
• Young V&A: https://www.vam.ac.uk/young/
• The Music Is Black: A British Story: https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/the-music-is-black-a-british-story
• Order an Object: https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/order-an-object

Gus Casely-Hayford is Director of V&A East. A curator and cultural historian, he joined the V&A in March 2020. He writes, lectures, and broadcasts widely on culture, and was previously Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. +

In this latest Reflections, Stephanie Fortunato draws on her experience reviewing letters of support as part of California Arts Council’s process to select new cultural districts for its state program, reflecting on what those letters reveal about community pride, local identity, and the futures people hope to build through cultural districting.

About our Contributor

Stephanie Fortunato is Director of Special Projects of the Global Cultural Districts Network. Her expertise sits at the intersection of cultural planning and urban development, collaborating with local communities on creating policies and partnerships to strengthen neighbourhoods and transform public spaces. + 

Our host, Hilary Knight, speaks with Alex Costas of Bloomberg Connects about the nonprofit’s history and mission – and how its free platform and dedicated support team help institutions and districts worldwide tell their own stories through thoughtful digital storytelling.

External references: 

• Bloomberg Connects: https://www.bloombergconnects.org/ 
• Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts: https://www.bloomberg.org/arts/ 
• Denver Art Museum on Bloomberg Connects: https://www.denverartmuseum.org/en/bloomberg-connects 
• Museo de Arte Popular: https://www.map.cdmx.gob.mx/ 
• Portland Japanese Garden: https://japanesegarden.org/visitvirtually/ 

About our guest:
Alex Costas is the Global Head Recruitment, Onboarding & Relationship Management at Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app that offers digital guides to hundreds of cultural organizations around the world. Prior to joining Bloomberg Connects, Alex worked with the City of New York at the New York City Economic Development Corporation and NYC Tourism & Conventions encouraging businesses and tourists to choose NYC. Alex is a native New Yorker, a resident of Brooklyn. + 

In her first Reflections of Season 6, Hilary Knight explores the idea that luxury brands could replace museums as sites of cultural trust for Gen Z – and why she doesn’t buy it.

External Links

• ‘Enshittification’ is coming for absolutely everything – FT article by Cory Doctorow 
• Brand Valued: How socially valued brands hold the key to a sustainable future and business success– by Guy Champniss & Fernando Rodés Vilà

About our Contributor

Hilary Knight Hilary Knight  is a creative leader with over 20 years of experience driving strategy, innovation, and digital transformation for cultural organisations worldwide. Currently a Senior Associate with AEA Consulting, she has held senior roles at the BBC, Channel 4, Film4, and Tate, where she led pioneering initiatives that embedded digital thinking and expanded audiences. + 

Stephanie Fortunato, speaks with Conrado Uribe about the power of networks to break cycles of isolation – and to make “collective imagination” a practical force in how cities evolve. Moving from Medellín to Barcelona to a Latin America-wide network of cultural districts, Conrado reflects on collaboration, governance, and why the real foundations of a district are its people, not its buildings.

External references:

• Conexiones Creativas: Conrado’s organisation, designing and delivering projects to strengthen cultural and creative ecosystems. 
• Plataforma de Distritos Creativos y Culturales: The network platform Conrado describes, supporting exchanges across creative districts in the Americas and Europe. 
• Campus Colombias: The convening format Conrado references as a catalyst moment in the organisation’s early years. 
• Museo de Antioquia: Museum at the centre of Conrado’s Medellín experience and a key cultural anchor in the city. 
• MDE – Encuentro Internacional de Arte de Medellín: The four-year international art encounter organised by Museo de Antioquia, referenced in the episode’s Medellín context. 
• LOOP Barcelona: The moving-image platform and festival Conrado mentions as a formative collaboration-led model. 
• Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: The “humans succeed through collaboration” framing Conrado references via Harari’s work. 
• “Scenius, or Communal Genius” (Wired): A widely cited explainer of Brian Eno’s idea of “scenius” that Conrado invokes (collective creativity over lone genius). 

About our guest:
Conrado Uribe Pereira, is a curator and cultural strategist, and Content Director at Conexiones Creativas, the Colombia-founded platform behind a growing network of creative and cultural districts across Latin America and parts of Southern Europe. In the episode, he traces how his work in Medellín (including at the Museo de Antioquia) and later in Barcelona shaped his conviction that districts succeed when they invest first in talent (“software”), then governance (“artware”), and only then in infrastructure. + 

In this first Reflections of Season 6, Stephanie Fortunato looks back on the curatorial choices that shaped our 2025 season. Reflecting on a year that deliberately centred women and non-binary leaders, she considers what the data on gender inequality tells us, why progress cannot be taken for granted, and how storytelling can help expand our collective imagination of leadership, belonging, and cultural power.

External references:

• The Reykjavík Index for Leadership: background and latest findings for the index referenced in the episode, measuring perceptions of women’s suitability for leadership across 23 sectors (including generational differences).
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg on “When there are nine”: Clip/source for the quote Stephanie references about representation on the US Supreme Court.

About our Contributor

Stephanie Fortunato is Director of Special Projects of the Global Cultural Districts Network. Her expertise sits at the intersection of cultural planning and urban development, collaborating with local communities on creating policies and partnerships to strengthen neighbourhoods and transform public spaces. +