GCDN Annual Convening – Los Angeles 2025

Cultural institutions are increasingly being asked to demonstrate not just artistic excellence, but public value. As audiences shift, diversify, or disappear altogether, the question of relevance is no longer rhetorical – it is existential.

This closing session returns to some of the questions raised at the start of the convening – about leadership, values, and responsibility – but asks them with a longer view. How do we define relevance in a moment where institutional trust is faltering, cultural debates are increasingly politicized, and traditional metrics of success no longer hold? And how can leaders respond – not just to the pressures of the present, but with a sense of care and commitment toward those who will come next?

Drawing on insights from across the programme, this conversation explores what it takes to build institutions that are not only relevant today, but capable of evolving tomorrow. What does it mean to lead with relevance as a civic practice, not just a strategic imperative? And how do we cultivate the courage, imagination, and humility to make space for new voices – ensuring that relevance is not something we defend, but something we continually co-create?