GCDN Annual Convening – Doha 2026

Climate and weather shape what public culture can be and when it can happen. Every place negotiates this, but some geographies have always had to treat it as a primary design and programming question rather than a backdrop. In the Gulf and other arid regions, heat pushes public life indoors or into the night. In far northern contexts, long winters, darkness and snow reshape how and when people gather outside. In both settings, artists and cultural leaders have developed a distinct curatorial language for working with time, seasonality, and comfort in environments hostile to lingering.

As climate extremes intensify everywhere, these places are becoming laboratories for how culture can keep public space usable and meaningful under changing conditions. How do artists, curators, and cultural leaders treat climatic extremes as a creative brief rather than a limitation? What does creativity look like when concerns over materials, maintenance, and energy use must come before artistic choices? Looking at contrasting examples from the Gulf and the “great north”, this breakout explores these tensions and asks what lessons other geographies might draw as they adapt to a less predictable world.