The Three Bells

Stephanie Fortunato speaks with Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat of Daily tous les jours about their book Strangers Need Strange Moments Together, participatory urban art, and why moments of shared joy between strangers are essential to building healthy, resilient cities.

External references: 

• Daily tous les jours
• Strangers Need Strange Moments Together
• US Surgeon General Report on the Loneliness Epidemic
• GCDN Research: Culture, Health, and Cultural Districts

About our guests:

Mouna Andraos & Melissa Mongiat, are the co-founders and co-directors of Daily tous les jours, a Montreal-based award-winning art and design studio known for creating large-scale interactive installations that invite public participation. Their work blends storytelling, technology, and design to transform everyday environments into spaces of encounter and collective imagination. + 

In this new episode of Reflections from The Three Bells, Adrian Ellis, shares insights on capital project planning and the value of defining purpose and impact before building and design.

External references: 

• Manal Ataya: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mataya-uae/
•  Sharjah Museums Authority: https://www.sharjahmuseums.ae/
•  The International Museum Leadership Congress (IMCC): https://www.museum.construction/
• The Bilbao effect: how Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim started a global craze: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/oct/01/bilbao-effect-frank-gehry-guggenheim-global-craze
•  Daniel Libeskind: https://libeskind.com/
•  Zaha Hadid: https://www.zaha-hadid.com/
•  Tadao Ando: https://www.tadao-ando.com/youth_2025/
•  Rem Koolhaas / OMA: https://www.oma.com/

About the 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. + 

Our host, Hilary Knight speaks with Freya Salway, Head of the Lab at Google Arts and Culture Lab which engages artists, institutions and audiences through experimentation with new digital technology. They discuss the lab’s mission, collaborations, and approach to R&D and partnerships.

External references

• Google Arts and Culture
• The Lab
• Experiments with Google
• Google Arts & Culture and British choreographer, Wayne McGregor developed an AI capable of predicting dance moves in his particular style
• Jonathan Yeo’s large-scale bronze sculptural self-portrait entitled Homage to Paolozzi (Self Portrait)
• Future Relics, A collaboration between Google Arts & Culture, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai and the British Museum in London
• Dr. Elizabeth Harmon on mining the Smithsonian Institution collections for stories of women in science
• One Minute Guides, with Cleveland Museum of Art
• Talking tours
• NotebookLM
• Es Devlin’s Please Feed The Lions interactive sculpture in Trafalgar Square

Guest bio

Freya Salway is head of the lab at Google Arts & Culture, collaborating with artists, technologists, curators, scientists and cultural institutions globally to explore the application of advanced technologies for arts and culture.

Since 2018, she has supported artistic experimentation with A.I. through residency programs and bespoke collaborations, partnering with renowned artists, innovators and cultural organizations. She has also worked as an independent consultant, enabling artists, brands and broadcasters to deliver creative projects, and previously led arts partnerships for Sky Arts, the U.K.'s only TV channel dedicated to the arts.

In this new episode of Reflections from The Three Bells, Hilary Knight explores the fast-evolving immersive experience landscape, where big players scale up rapidly and independent creators strive to remain empowered to help shape its future.

External references:

• Netflix House Set to Launch as Immersive Retail and Entertainment Destination
• ABBA Voyage, London
• The Sphere, Las Vegas + Correction: the Sphere is located in Las Vegas, Nevada, not Los Angeles, California.
• The Mukaab in Riyadh

About the contributor:
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. + 

Our host, Stephanie Fortunato speaks with Shey 'Rí Acu' Rivera Ríos, Artist – Writer – Cultural Worker from Providence, Rhode Island, by way of Borikén. Together, they delve into Shey’s visionary, interdisciplinary work at the intersection of art, civic engagement, and cultural advocacy. At the heart of their conversation: storytelling, identity, community, and resilience.

External references: 

• About Shey’s Artistic Practice 
• Studio LOBA
• Antigonx, a queer, Latinx story inspired by the Greek tragedy of Antigone
• Young Lords
• Violeta Parra
• June Jordan
• Frida Kahlo
• The City of Providence’s Department of Art, Culture + Tourism (ACT) cultural plan, PVDx2031: A Cultural Plan for Culture Shift
• El Corazón de Holyoke
• Elizabeth Maynard, In Providence, “Everything Living Fights Back” Gets a Second Life Following Censorship of Shey ‘Rí Acu’ Rivera Ríos by Providence College (Boston Art Review, June 9, 2024)
• Maya Pontone, Providence College Cancels Exhibition Over “Anti-Catholic” Artwork (Hyperallergic, May 8, 2024)

Guest bio:
Shey ‘Rí Acu’ Rivera Ríos, Shey 'Rí Acu' Rivera Ríos (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker who uses storytelling across mediums to create immersive worlds of magic and liberation. Rivera was born and raised in Borikén/Puerto Rico and is based in Providence, RI - land of the Narragansett and Wampanoag peoples. +

In this new episode of Reflections from The Three Bells, Adrian Ellis, shares key insights from AEA Consulting’s Cultural Infrastructure Index – now in its ninth edition.

External references:

• AEA Consulting’s 2024 Cultural Infrastructure Index

Contributor's bio:
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. + 

Our host, Adrian Ellis, speaks with Rachel Moore, President & CEO of The Music Center in Los Angeles, about the organization’s evolving role as both a cultural and civic anchor – from its response to recent local challenges and its leadership in the newly designated Grand Avenue Cultural District, to its commitment to democratic values, inclusive programming, and long-term relevance.

Guest bio:
Rachel Moore is the President & CEO of The Music Center in Los Angeles, one of the largest performing arts centers in the U.S., where she oversees programming, civic partnerships, and a portfolio of over $3B in public assets. A former professional dancer with American Ballet Theatre, she went on to become its CEO and spearheaded nationally recognized diversity and policy initiatives in the arts.

With deep experience in cultural leadership, public service, and nonprofit finance, Moore has served on numerous boards, advised on arts equity and Olympic planning, and authored The Artist’s Compass. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and continues to advocate for the civic value of the arts in public life.

References:

• The Music Center: https://www.musiccenter.org/
• American Ballet Theater: https://www.abt.org/
• Grand Ave Cultural District: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2025-04-01/la-county-board-of-supervisors-grand-avenue-cultural-district-broad
• Bloomberg Connects: https://www.bloombergconnects.org/
• The Broad Museum Expansion: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-03-27/broad-expansion-more-galleries
• The Colburn School Expansion: https://colburnschool.edu/future/
• Refik Anadol Is Opening the World’s First A.I. Museum: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/refik-anadol-ai-museum-dataland-2543122
• GCDN LA Convening: https://gcdn.net/convening/los-angeles-2025/

LinkedIn:

• The Music Center: https://www.linkedin.com/company/music-center/
• Rachel Moore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-moore-4b5b445/ 

In this new episode of Reflections from The Three Bells, Stephanie Fortunato explores the power of practicing radical joy as a guiding principle for cultural leadership in an increasingly divided and hostile era where empathy is too often mistaken for weakness...

Contributor bio:
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, Stephanie Fortunato, speaks to Nourhan Bassam, Founding Director of The Gendered City. They discuss the necessity to rethink how cities can be more socially inclusive, the role Cultural Districts can play in promoting that inclusivity, and the many inspiring initiatives Nourhan is championing to push feminist urbanism forward.

External references: 

• The Gendered City
• The Gendered City, 2023 book
• FEM DES
• Simone de Beauvoir
• Dolores Hayden
• City with a female face: how modern Vienna was shaped by women
• The world’s most feminist city: how Umeå in Sweden became an idyll for women

Guest bio:
Nourhan Bassam, a feminist urbanist and architect with a Ph.D. in Urban Design and Placemaking, is the visionary behind "The Gendered City" which started as a book and grew into an organization. The Gendered City works on diverse feminist urban projects and research fields all centered on creating just and gender-equal cities through feminist placemaking and active citizen participation. + 

Mapping empathy… In this audio essay, Hilary Knight shares the many benefits of empathy in improving an organization’s workflow and enhancing visitor experience – and offers a framework to leverage it.

External references: 

• Frans de Waal, Evolutionary Biologist
• Mario Mikulincer, Psychologist
• Phillip Shaver, Psychologist
• Seung Chan Lim (Slim) at TEDxWellesleyCollege: How Empathy Fuels the Creative Process
• Bill Drayton, Social entrepreneur and CEO

Contributor bio:
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. +