Patricia Curty
Gallery of Ideas, a platform that brings people together to share ideas. A self-confessed people person and unrelenting optimist, Curty talked to us about what inspires her.
Curty credits her outlook on life and business to her birthplace and childhood home, Rio de Janeiro. “My city is known as the ‘Cidade Maravilhosa’ (‘Wonderful City’), and that’s always been with me. I’ve always looked for wonder, in people and in places.” As a child, Curty travelled extensively with her single mother, a journalist by profession and a big influence on her life. “She was a strong woman and a role model for me. Travelling created a curiosity in me as a child to keep looking for more. I wanted to meet more people.”
Curty has continued to travel throughout her life, and has spent periods in Stockholm, Buenos Aires, Paris and Milan. She finally ended up in New York, where she cut her teeth in the business world, first working in cinema and television, then in a glamorous restaurant in Manhattan, where showing Danny de Vito and Michael Douglas to a table was “just a normal working day”. It was there that her passion for people and business, and her love for the finer things in life, came together.
She finally landed in Barcelona in January 2000. “I love this city. There is just so much art and beauty. I fell in love with it and said to myself that I would stay here forever.”
She became involved in a number of business projects straight away, from solar power to a restaurant and a night club. She describes a giddy time of fast-paced work and play in the city, punctuated with lazy downtime in Ibiza. “It was a wonderful time. It was so good to be around all these people with so much energy.” Fast forward to 2016, and Curty was ready to make changes in her life. Now living with her husband and three young children, she began to channel her business knowledge into helping other people find or recover the wonder that she always looks for in life.
The concept for Gallery of Ideas first came to her while living in Buenos Aires some years ago but, after talking to many people, she concluded that she was ahead of her time. Over the years, she kept the idea in mind and, in 2016, realised that the time was right. “Finally people knew what this was about. There were Ted Talks and Creative Mornings. It wasn’t about giving lectures, but about getting inspirational thinkers together and sharing ideas.”
Gallery of Ideas brings speakers together for an evening of 10-minute talks designed to inspire and challenge. Always themed around one particular concept, so far the themes have included ‘inspire’, ‘dare’ and ‘provoke’. “It’s about hearing different ideas. Some of them you’ll love and you’ll say ‘okay, I’m going to take that one with me’. Others you’ll say ‘no, I’m not sure if I like that’.”
The first Gallery of Ideas took place in October 2016 at the Mobile World Centre in Plaça de Catalunya. “We had no idea what was going to happen or how many people would come, but it was full.” The second and third editions were equally successful, leading Curty to look for a bigger, better space. The next event, on May 10th, will be held at Café del Mar Club at the Fórum, this time with a lighter theme: ‘delight’.
So, what delights Curty? “People. People energise me,” she answered without missing a beat. “I am a social nerd. I need to be around people. I would never survive on a desert island. I would probably start talking to the coconuts.” Barcelona clearly energises her too. She lives a couple of blocks from the beach and when she needs to recharge she heads to the sea with her children. It reminds her of her childhood when she would go surfing with her mother in Rio. She laughs and adds that after some time reconnecting with herself at the beach, she’s always ready for some social time.
Curty says that she doesn’t dwell too much on the future, as there’s so much that can’t be known or understood yet. But she sees the Gallery of Ideas concept gaining more ground. She sees it not so much as a business but as a movement that will help present and future leaders and business people grow. “It’s not about building a business or growing. It’s about how many people really understand the concept.”
Not knowing what’s coming next doesn’t faze Curty. She comes back to the idea of wonder and how she applies it not only to discovering new people and places, but also to the less agreeable aspects of life. “A problem takes me out of my routine but it’s exciting. I like to look at a problem and ask why it is happening. Where can it take us? Even if it’s difficult, maybe it can change our lives.”
The Very Present Future is a series of interviews spearheaded by videographer Milo de Prieto. Metropolitan has teamed up with Milo to interview interesting thinkers and doers from all walks of life, all of whom have had a positive influence on the city in some way. Visit our website to watch the accompanying video to this interview.
Metropolitan has teamed up with Milo to interview more people investing in the excellence of the city, based on three key questions: How did you get to where you are today? What are you doing right now? Where are you going from here?