Transforming our relationship with water through culture.
"[…] narratives are powerful mechanisms to inform and drive policy and behaviour change. While the GCEW has focused on facts and evidence to inform such narratives, culture is the ultimate medium to form and disseminate them. This piece of work would benefit from attempts by story tellers to transform it into vernacular art forms that reach communities around the world. This would demonstrate a fascinating alliance between science, policy and culture to drive change."
Closing paragraph of the final report of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water (GCEW), 'The Economics of Water – Valuing the Hydrological Cycle as a Global Common Good' (October 2024).
November 19, 2025​
Third 'Flying Rivers' event at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale & first partner
The 'Flying Rivers' cultural programme had its third event at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale in the context of its closing week. Under the title, "From 'Flying Rivers' to water justice: the cultural sector as a model for climate action", the event discussed the soft power of cultural institutions as enablers of climate action, while reflecting on the systemic changes required within cultural institutions, and the ways in which these may catalyse wider shifts. In addition, the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, in Gateshead, was announced as the inaugural partner of the 'Flying Rivers' cultural programme.
Water matters!
Water is the lifeblood of our planet, essential for ecosystems, climate regulation and nutrient cycling. For millennia, societies have organized themselves around stable water supplies they could use to drink, grow food, produce materials and goods, and develop entire civilizations and a global economy.
Yet today, the hydrological cycle feels increasingly out of balance. Wet and dry seasons no longer come as expected, and at any given time, large swaths of the world face severe water stress, while others face torrential rains, swelling rivers and deadly floods. Sometimes both extremes occur in close succession.
As UN Secretary-General António Guterres put it during the 2023 United Nations Water Conference, water is "in deep trouble". And, as Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO warned: "This situation could bring about a systemic crisis in our societies. If humanity goes thirsty, fundamental questions on education, health, and sustainable development will be sidelined, eclipsed by the daily struggle for water."
