Note: Event subject to change as plans develop.
Earlier this year, at Davos, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke to the world’s political and economic leaders, naming this moment as a rupture, and declared that the rules-based international order is effectively over. He called on ‘middle powers’ to collaborate on building a new world order.
Culture, globally, may be thought of as a ‘middle power.’ What are the multiple roles that culture can play in this sociopolitical, historical, and anthropological moment?
Culture is many things. Culture is an intrinsic good, important for its own sake, at the same time that it can be useful in other contexts. Culture connects and builds trust, advancing diplomatic relations where political dialogue falters. Culture is infrastructure, the shared stories, symbols, and institutions that bind individuals into publics, facilitating shared futures. Culture is memory, so societies know where they come from, and can move with ‘ancestral intelligence.’ Culture is imagination, the creative space and questions that reshape our realities. Culture is resistance, where dissent and accountability wield influence.
If middle powers are being asked to forge new systems, culture may be one of the most salient forces capable of doing that work. Culture works through relationships, co-created meaning, and values, rather than coercion.
In this open conversation, two women in leadership discuss and debate the multiple roles that culture can take up as we mobilize for better futures. Will business, media, technology, and leadership get behind culture?
‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast,’ is as true in global relations, and climate action, as it is in business.
Date and time to be announced. Subscribe for updates.
Biographies
Kirstine Stewart
From leading global media organizations to advising Fortune 500 brands, Kirstine has spent her career helping businesses and leaders thrive in an era of disruption.
Kirstine Stewart served on the Executive Committee for the Future of Media at the World Economic Forum, where she helped define the future of global media. Her strategic insights and industry expertise guided conversations on innovation, trust, and content, shaping how media adapts and thrives in a rapidly evolving landscape.
As Vice President of Media at Twitter, Kirstine Stewart drove transformative growth by leading strategic media partnerships across television, sports, news, and entertainment. Her leadership elevated Twitter’s position as the go-to platform for real-time conversation and breaking news.
As Executive Vice President of CBC, Kirstine Stewart led a bold transformation of Canada’s national broadcaster, driving record audience engagement and expanding its digital presence. Her visionary leadership introduced innovative programming and strengthened CBC’s position as a trailblazer in multi-platform content and storytelling.
Helen Yung
Helen Yung founded the Laboratory for Artistic Intelligence in 2019, and initiated the founding of the international Forum for Artistic Intelligence (Art/In Forum) in 2024 with art, science, research, education, nonprofit, and business institutions around the world.
Artistic intelligence is not a metaphor. It is a framework for the practice of working with diverse people with intersecting agendas using artistic ways of knowing and being — that is, by being inventive, visionary, values-led, and responsive to real contexts.
Helen Yung previously co-founded Culture Days, Canada’s national cultural participation campaign, leading the digital strategy and cultural community engagement strategy. She was instrumental in paving the way for grassroots-led public engagement across the country, which ultimately led to increases across arts participation, donation, education, sales, and volunteerism year-round, as verified by independent research.
As the sole staff member for the Canadian Arts Coalition in 2018, Helen Yung was at the frontlines of advocacy that led to the arts being on the national election agenda for 50 days straight. The Coalition’s policy recommendations were fully adopted by the Liberal Party as their cultural platform, which led to the historic doubling of the Canada Council’s operating budget when the Liberals came into power in the following election.
Helen Yung has served on the Board of Directors for both the Centre for Social Innovation, and Social Innovation Canada. She is a Salzburg Global Fellow, and a sought-after authority on artistic intelligence, and social innovation through the arts.