S6:E10 The lifelong cultural enabler… Jorge Pinto, Senior Cultural Advisor & Strategist
Guest
Jorge Pinto
In conversation with
Adrian Ellis
Adrian Ellis speaks with cultural strategist Jorge Pinto about a career spent creating the conditions for culture to thrive – and what decades of cultural investment in the Gulf can teach us about moving from buildings to institutions, ecosystems and human capacity.
Date of Recording
4 September 2026
Date of Publication
24 September 2026
[00:00:00]
Jorge Pinto: I remember always saying that my role was to question, to raise the questions, and to hear the answers, and then someone would take a decision and I would do my best to implement it... the best way I could.
[00:00:14]
THEME MUSIC
[00:00:19]
Adrian Ellis: Hello, and welcome to The Three Bells. This podcast is part of the sixth season produced by AEA Consulting for the Global Cultural Districts Network. The focus is, as always, the relationship between cultural and urban life and the ways in which cultural life contributes to urban vitality, and vice versa.
The series and supporting materials can be found at www.thethreebells.net. And if you like our content, please subscribe and give us a positive review on your favourite podcast listening platform.
I'm Adrian Ellis, the chair of GCDN and a director of AEA Consulting. I'm thrilled to have as my guest this week on The Three Bells, Jorge Pinto, who is both a friend and a colleague, and somebody of vast experience from multiple perspectives of the management of cultural institutions, cultural strategy, cultural policy.
And I'd like, if I may, to start – by obviously welcoming you to the podcast, but also to ask you to describe a little how you came to be the professional with the professional skills that you have, because you've worked in a number of arenas, both European and in the MENA region, and it's a very unusual and rich perspective, so I'd love just to hear a little bit more before we get into substantive issues of your own professional biography. And thank you again for coming on.
[00:01:47]
Jorge Pinto: Thanks for having me.
…
About our Guest
Jorge Pinto is a senior cultural advisor and strategist whose career spans cultural policy, strategy, institutional development, and the creative economy across Europe and the Middle East. Trained in economics and management, he began his career at PwC before moving into cultural policy at the European Commission. He has since worked across government, consulting, and major cultural development programmes, bringing together experience in policy, cultural infrastructure, institutional development, and capacity building. +
