Mapping the world’s cultural districts

For the 9th Annual Congress of the Global Cultural District Network (GCDN) in Montreal, the Partenariat du Quartier des spectacles and the GCDN launched a census of cultural districts around the world. The result is a map of nearly 500 cultural districts!

The interactive online tool provides information on 500 cultural districts, each with a brief description, a photo, and a link to the district administration’s website. In the “Quartiers à découvrir” section, you will find a series of fact sheets that are part of a project carried out with the participation of Xn Québec and the Gouvernement du Québec. These enhanced fact sheets present the district’s mandate, vision and mission, as well as its governance model, funding and budget indicators. Three in-depth fact sheets are already available: Midtown (Detroit), The Loop (Chicago), and Hannepin Avenue (Minneapolis), with more to come.

There is no single definition of a cultural district. Several criteria have been used to identify them, including a high concentration of cultural activities, arts and entertainment productions, and major cultural institutions clustered in the same area, especially in downtown areas.

This map is an initiative of Quartier des spectacles Partnership, created for the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Global Cultural District Network (GCDN), to be held in Montreal, Canada, May 22-26, 2023.

Consult the carte.gcdn.net/