This is a collection of all virtual resources produced and presented by the CCA. This page will be updated periodically with new materials. Make sure to follow our twitter so you stay up to date on the latest releases.
Keynote Presentations
Description of the video:
00:00
I'm Lucy Bernholz I'm recording this on May 30th 2020 in Northern California
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on the land of the Ohlone and coastal Miwok peoples I was asked to prepare
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these remarks back in April and I started my writing several weeks ago but
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I put off recording this because of what I was writing when I received the
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invitation I remember thinking that it was a tiny reflection of exactly what I
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feared that by inviting me a middle-aged white woman educated employed at a
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university with food shelter clean water and broadband was as sure as sine as any
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that our collective response to a public health crisis was likely to be different
00:39
for me than for most it's going to be very different for black people for
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people of color and indigenous people for people who have some jobs as
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compared to those people who have other jobs for those people who've benefited
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from and continue to support policies and laws that build justice educational
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health and employment systems that destroy both people and the planet
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I feared then and I'm seeing now that even a nonhuman pathogen isn't going to
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be enough for us to focus on our common vulnerabilities six weeks ago when I was
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invited to speak I was afraid that we wouldn't be seeing anything new and now
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I'm recording this on a weekend when the pain and anger of living in a racist and
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unjust society is bringing us into the streets even as we know of the
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biological dangers of being in close proximity with others and we're only at
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the beginning of this whatever its next its roots are here in the very
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brokenness of this now I've organized these thoughts in three parts the first
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is about this idea of newness the second is about digital civil society and in
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the third I'll try to offer some observations specifically for arts and
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artists so first my thoughts on newness I'm an historian I was trained to find
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patterns to tell stories and to examine my own blind spots
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what do I not see Who am I not hearing from because historians rely mostly on
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the written word we focus on the few people who recorded their lives and so
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we're prone to a very skewed sense of who lives who dies and who tells the
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stories we have to assume our stories are incomplete we have to ask who's not
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here this matters now in what may be a world shifting moment I was asked for my
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thoughts but I don't speak for the people whose lives have already been
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touched by the disease and unemployment although I may join them at
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any time and I can only speak to racism as a white person and my thoughts here
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are not profound racism defines our country our systems our current moment
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we could only change that by seeing it committing to an anti-racist future
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actively and comprehensively pursuing reconciliation and repair as an
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historian I've been trained to ask why things happen when they do and I've
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learned that we don't know the answer to that until the new things become old
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distinguishing between what is superficially new and what will be
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meaningful and lasting only happens in retrospect collectively we won't know
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what's new about this moment until we look back at it and the new has become
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the old now that's not true for individuals a new normal
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won't just happen we will create it it's an accumulation of our individual
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choices what we're experiencing now collectively is old not new our systems
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are failing now because of decades of political and financial choices built on
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centuries of racism changing that is on each and every one of us number two some
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thoughts on digital civil society in 2010 some colleagues and I went
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looking for the new we asked ourselves what's changing about nonprofits and
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philanthropy what's new my interest in the question in that particular moment
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was sparked by the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in the Citizens United case I
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thought the decision would fundamentally change the nonprofit sector most
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everyone else who was writing about it at the time was focused on its impact on
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political campaigns I agreed with their concerns but I was looking at something
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else it seemed to me then that a wall between two systems two different sets
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of values was about to be breached the wall was between charity and politics
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one system charitable giving was designed to encourage unlimited
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participation and it privileges anonymity the other political giving had
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been structured with individual limits and requirements on disclosure the court
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decision was going to make breaching the wall between the two too tempting to
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ignore the lure of being able to direct large amounts of money into politics
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through the adjacent system of charity which also conveniently provided a way
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to wash away the donors identities was going to be so strong it seemed to me
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like the path to abuse was clearly marked and that I thought wasn't going
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to work out well I changed my life to pursue this question I sold the company
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and returned to academia I'll spare you the details of the next few years and
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cut to the chase for three years we tried to answer that question what
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changes in charitable and political action really mattered in this weird
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space we call civil society this psychic and privileged realm outside of
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governments and markets what's really different for three years we looked at
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things like money in politics impact investing new philanthropic forms even
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organ donations and we learned slowly that each of these innovations mattered
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but none were the real root of change these were mushrooms in a new soil and
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that soil the thing the mushrooms all shared was digital dependence we operate
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our daily lives now in the liminal space between digital systems and physical
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spaces broadband cell phones video software it's how this conference is
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happening we ignore the political economy of this digital infrastructure
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at our own peril because the digital systems we rely on are commercially
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created and government surveilled they're not neutral public democracy
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supporting or free this is a problem democracies rely on some space
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where we can express ourselves come together peacefully create alternatives
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that governments and markets won't provide and to do this there needs to be
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a way to have a private conversation to think without being observed to choose
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with whom you associate and where in digital spaces all of those activities
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are seen and watched and stored and analyzed by others when we stop looking
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at the mushrooms and started sifting through the soil we had to stop looking
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at institutions and start asking about first principles to move from form to
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function what's the purpose of civil society and democracies why did we
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invent nonprofits and foundations in the first place what's worth keeping and
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what can be updated or gotten rid of what can we invent now that will serve
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the first principles and use the digital capacities productively and
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democratically we went looking for new things and found old ones we stopped
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looking at forms and focused on functions and we realized that digital
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civil society this idea of a digitally dependent space for voluntary action one
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where we can use private resources both analog and digital for public benefit
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doesn't yet exist it was circuitous route from concerns about
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campaign finance to deeply understanding the challenges that Digital dependencies
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present for democracies we may look at the mushrooms the surface level changes
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and think that they matter but what really matters is not the mushrooms but
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the soil in which they grow this experience repeats itself over and over
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again when we get together to think about the present and future of the Arts
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I hope will distinguish between the mushrooms and the soil we're seeing a
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new permutation of jobs health services educational experiments and political
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platforms right now I think these are mushrooms we need to keep our eyes on
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the soil why am I telling you all this because in our pursuit of understanding
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we went looking for new in all the wrong places
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we went looking for something and instead found the empty space that that
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something needs to fill there isn't a digital civil society that's just
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happening we need to imagine it to cultivate it to
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bring it into being and I think this will be true perhaps it's always been
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true for artists and the arts so let me turn now to some thoughts on artists in
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the arts the first two parts of this brief talk I've tried to give you a
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sense of how I think because I don't know what the future holds but I do
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watch and think about a wide variety of things that are happening now what might
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be thought of as ingredients that I'll offer to you here for your own scenario
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planning or debate or discussion but I want to be clear these are observations
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in a moment they may matter individually but a new normal will depend on what we
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do with them they're recombinant possibilities and the collective
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imaginaries we choose to pursue from this moment on so here are some thoughts
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or observations more likely it's notable that the diverse
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economic supports adjacent to the arts that individual artists rely on for
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income separate from their art things like teaching hospitality work cleaning
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services copywriting transcription and temp work they're all falling apart at
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the same time the new normal for the arts it seems to me depends as much as
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anything on finding ways to keep artists alive intellectual property rules that
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have separated physical and in-person work from it's digitized or streaming
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versions are probably not the right fit anymore we live in a world in which our
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physical spaces are digitally controlled and at least for the moment digital
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presentation is about all we've got those spaces are shaped by several
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things intellectual property among them this is
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an this is an opportunity for the arts physical distancing rules means we have
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to think not only about individual or small performances but also individuals
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and small audiences what does that look like from an artist perspective how will
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artists collective eyes what do artists and technicians need from
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IATSE or the Screen Actors Guild now and in the future some of our biggest
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arts presenting organizations in this country
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things like museums symphonies operas and such it seems to me they've been
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trying to attract younger audiences for forever but this moment flips that in
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order to speak to be seen anywhere now you have to fit onto a digital platform
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whether it's YouTube or twitch or Instagram in other words it's no longer
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in this moment about trying to invite young people to your performance space
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but about fitting your performances into young people's attention spaces
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congratulations we're all at the kids table now what an opportunity to learn
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on that note artists will be tempted to and they may already have
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be putting be putting their lives and their livelihoods onto GoFundMe
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patreon and YouTube this is a bad idea look no further than the news industry
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or nonprofits to see why these platforms will eat the arts alive
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can there be a collective effort toward a different outcome can all the museums
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and libraries and performance and presenting organizations and all the art
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nonprofits and creative industries and artists come together to create their
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own collectively owned digital infrastructure a public digital
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infrastructure for the Arts to use what exists now as an on-ramp but build one
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for artists themselves and take the audiences with you that's a possibility
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many people are getting to no place in space and time and sound in different
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ways than before I think these are the raw materials of dancers painters
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musicians and actors and I can't wait to see what the artists have to show us
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thank you for the opportunity to reflect on these ideas and perhaps provoke your
14:30
thinking a bit I look forward to the discussions
Description of the video:
00:04
in the shadow of mourning a man runs for pleasure in
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three weeks time a virus will shut down his country but he doesn't know that yet
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he's making his heart work breaking a sweat because
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the young man is alive he's 25 he was born on a sunday he's wearing all
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white because he's fly he's not going to a ceremony whatever his gear is bright
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as fuck he has nothing to hide running for his health
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his country is sick symptomatic systemic violence sadistic bigots and a
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complicit network of badges and judges and a
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stunning lack of originality really fellas in georgia
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pickup trucks and rifles and lynching the crude instruments soothing the
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cancerous hands bloody racist trigger fingers itching a
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man running for pleasure american illness
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killed him while someone was filming three district attorneys reviewed the
01:02
case two whole months went by and the whole world watched the tape
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before anybody thought to put his killers in prison you want to talk about
01:10
a virus you want to talk about contagion you
01:12
want to talk about something you want to stay
01:14
inside because you just might catch it when you step out your own front door
01:18
on an arbitrary tuesday and you alone finding yourself fighting for your life
01:23
hear something explode like a raisin in the sun heart
01:27
beating at the pace to meet the blood needs of your
01:31
run and suddenly you realize that you can't
01:34
breathe the disease was inevitable but the fallout is preventable we cannot
01:41
eliminate racism but could we america cure
01:45
ourselves of racial injustice justice
01:49
for Ahmaud Arbery i wrote that poem in a moment of anger and despair
01:54
the night before mr Arbery's murderers were charged and jailed
01:58
two weeks later as i write these notes george floyd is dead
02:02
killed while an officer of the law literally knelt down on his neck
02:06
in between i had an illuminating conversation with a mental health
02:10
professional about the nature of race-based hate
02:14
which i initially characterized as pathology
02:18
pathology as in there's got to be some kind of test a person can take
02:24
before they're admitted to the police force that measures a dangerous level of
02:27
racism that officer those men in georgia their
02:30
psychopaths their sociopaths she patiently clinically
02:35
corrected me she says at a minimum racism is not a
02:38
psychological disorder because it can be taught you cannot
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teach a psychopathy so if the racist can be a healthy
02:46
individual it stands to reason that the society and the social codes therein are
02:50
the underlying issue racism is a symptom of a sick
02:57
society a psychologist diagnoses an individual the individual does the
03:03
work to self-stabilize or heal similarly an artist diagnoses society
03:08
an artist gives society the tools it needs to see itself all the good all the
03:13
possibility and also all the dis-ease from which it might
03:17
heal in a short period of time we're gonna go from thinking about
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public health from a virological standpoint
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to thinking about health from an emotional standpoint
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health from a post-traumatic standpoint what i want to do right now is spend a
03:33
little time advocating for the deployment of artists
03:37
as leaders as we collectively heal from the
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trauma of the pandemic i want to challenge the future
03:44
functionality of the cultural sector itself i want to suggest that
03:48
without inspired cohesive political leadership
03:52
it's going to fall on cultural leaders to design and
03:55
model our post-covid healing apparatus i want to talk about how we relearn to
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feel alive in public for the last decade or so i've made a
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lot of art centered work where i used the words cross sector
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or interdisciplinary cross-sector fellowship programs at yerba buena
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center for the arts in san francisco interdisciplinary social practice
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projects through the guggenheim museum interdisciplinary performance from
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carnegie hall to bam cross-sector culture
04:32
caucuses at the kennedy center the terms are accurate
04:35
and useful but the frame that makes them useful
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is the context of the fairly transactional spaces
04:42
that funded the work itself my work bears the mark of class
04:49
distance and privilege there's a healthy share of our arts
04:54
economy that's teetering on that very specific tension the public good
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over here and private or philanthropic wealth over
05:01
here but 2020 has collided those two things
05:04
together in this theater of the absurd called the public
05:08
health for the artist and for arts institutions
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we've been using this frame of cross sector but that implies economic
05:16
categories or vectors our current call is to think about the frame of
05:21
integrated healing instead now i've lived in california my
05:25
whole adult life so the idea of a therapeutic cocktail that involves
05:29
chinese herbs acupuncture exercise poetry readings
05:33
advil and a puppy that just sounds like right
05:36
to me for an individual body integrated
05:40
healing is an intentional approach it involves a
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reciprocal relationship between patient and practitioner it definitely
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combines a wide array of therapies aimed at improving
05:51
one's total health so now extrapolate that to social ill
06:00
our postcovid body politic still runs the course of a pre-covid
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racial timeline a pre-covid climate response a
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pre-covid heteronormative patriarchy this
06:16
particular epidemiological sickness is chaotic it's
06:20
catastrophic and it's an opportunity to address the
06:24
total health of the body politic with art and culture centered as
06:30
medicine the chamber of commerce is thinking about
06:33
the economic crisis the humanitarians our allies we have to think about the
06:38
impending mental health crisis the psychology
06:43
of re-entry
06:54
here is where i wish we weren't experiencing such a crisis of leadership
06:59
it would be awesome for somebody to call out covid 19
07:02
as an integrated opportunity rather than a political problem
07:06
someone to inspire a manhattan project but centered on
07:11
amelioration or a moonshot with culture as the launching pad
07:15
someone operating from a moral center and at the edge of culture but shit is
07:19
too real for me to wait for that particular cure
07:22
i can't act like politics is inherently a force of nature
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when we're facing actual natural disasters in real
07:30
time i'm in the demo of arts workers impacted
07:34
by covid 19. i've lost revenue i've been furloughed
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i've cancelled premieres this is the season of loss and
07:41
adaptation my entire livelihood is built on
07:46
bringing people together and i am personally struggling
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with the fear that it'll be years not months before i feel
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comfortable around people again i am personally
07:58
implicated in the stakes of what we in the culture sector do now before
08:04
any of those identity markers i am human i crave connection
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safe compassionate and expansive human connection
08:13
as the country's traffic lights switch from red to yellow
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arts institutions should be in the crossroads of american culture
08:20
directing us how to walk toward healthy embodied connection
08:25
artists should lead us in the literacy of postcovid social interaction
08:30
rather than producing shows i advocate for arts institutions to intentionally
08:35
produce cultural health funding creatives mental
08:39
health professionals urban planners economists and
08:42
sociologists to intentionally design the landscape of our social
08:47
reintegration arts institutions can skillfully safely
08:51
humanely and imaginatively be the civic glue
08:55
for how our country re-learns to feel alive in public space real-time example
09:03
i'm completing an opera libretto in march of 2020
09:06
when the performing arts field starts to shut down
09:10
through a mixture of savings and hustle unemployment and god's grace
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i get myself to the end of the year i complete the libretto by the end of 2020
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only to find out that the producing theater isn't sure
09:22
how to manage the social or financial economics of presenting a work of scale
09:28
in 2021 so what if instead of work for the
09:33
theater we spent the next year commissioning
09:36
artists to help institutionally design how theater is
09:39
gonna work like if a theater commissioned me to
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design and implement a system to lead a
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collaborative team of staff and stakeholders to rethink our physical
09:52
architecture and design creative experiences within them for our
09:56
postcovid times rethink theaters as sites of
10:01
creative wellness my belief is that most performing arts organizations
10:07
are going to struggle to restore their pre-covid functionality
10:11
you can't realistically imagine in 2021 that the
10:14
goal is to sell every seat in your current
10:17
house even as social distancing policies
10:21
gradually relax there's going to remain this cloud of nervousness
10:24
over our public gatherings at least for a while the proscenium
10:28
cannot be the beating heart of your institutional
10:32
purpose so smart performing arts organizations are presently crafting
10:37
immediate three-year strategies that anticipate a significantly lower
10:41
appetite for extended proscenium experiences
10:45
in crowded spaces arts institutions have to reconfigure how we think about
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space itself my belief is that a viable performing arts organization has to
10:55
reconsider their postcovid mandates so that they
10:59
include social practice artistry public health
11:02
fiscal health brand expansion digital production
11:06
embodied creative commons if you put it another way if general
11:11
motors can be reapportioned to produce ventilators
11:14
how could currently empty theaters and music halls
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be utilized in service of social health used as food distribution platforms or
11:24
testing sites or polling places or spill over waiting
11:28
rooms for hospitals ask ourselves how does our country need
11:32
us tell ourselves maybe i could pay for a
11:35
new work on stage but more urgently i could commission an
11:39
artist leadership in building more equitable
11:42
creative health-centered systems quickly and to
11:46
use my site literally as safe space as the
11:50
country comes back online when i hear news of a hitchhiker struck
11:55
by lightning yet living or a child lifting
11:59
a two-ton sedan to free his father pinned underneath
12:03
or a camper fighting off a grizzly with her bare hands
12:07
until someone a hunter perhaps can shoot it dead
12:12
my thoughts turn to black people the hysterical strength
12:16
we must possess to survive our very existence
12:21
which i fear many believe is and treat as
12:24
itself a freak occurrence those are the words of the incredible
12:30
poet Nicole Sealey i began this talk talking about the
12:35
difference between psychopathy and social ill between a sick person and
12:40
a sick society and maybe now i'll close not by talking
12:44
about difference but the symmetry between acts
12:48
of courage and acts of survival i speak from the vantage point of the
12:54
privileged and the hunted when i think of most of
12:59
the organizers i really love and have learned from Brett Cook, Chinaka
13:04
Hodge, Hidari Davis, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Theaster Gates, Rick
13:09
Lowe, Quran Davis they're artists that are
13:12
making oasis for cultural health in soulful
13:16
ways theirs are acts of intellect of
13:20
community and also the intense feeling that both
13:25
their ancestors and the slave catchers is on
13:29
... and they are and fight i ask of arts institutions and
13:38
the people who support them if not a pandemic what act of nature
13:42
would give us the hysterical strength we need to
13:45
lift the country up to act as some of us must act with the courage it takes to
13:52
survive with our collective health intact
13:59
thank you ♫♪♪ and i see what's being done to my kind ♫♪♪
14:04
♫♪♪ every day i'm being hung to this parade my people don't want no trouble ♫♪♪
14:14
♫♪♪ i just wanna live ♫♪♪
14:18
♫♪♪ god protect me i just wanna live ♫♪♪
14:27
♫♪♪ i just wanna live ♫♪♪
Description of the video:
00:00
hi i'm Jon Leland vice president of insights at kickstarter
00:04
i've worked at kickstarter for over six years and i currently lead
00:07
all research analytics data science and strategy development kickstarter
00:13
if you are not familiar is the world's largest crowdfunding platform for
00:17
creative projects we define creative projects very broadly so we support
00:23
everything including dance theater fine arts
00:27
video games board games design objects consumer products
00:31
technology projects like 3d printers and virtual reality machines we also have
00:37
apparel comic books films music journalism we've had more
00:42
than 180,000 projects successfully funded on the
00:44
platform and just a few days ago we surpassed five
00:48
billion dollars pledged all time the projects on the platform since our
00:51
launch in 2009 that is several times more than the
00:55
national endowment of the arts has given out over the same period with
00:59
such a broad community of creators we have a unique lens
01:02
on how the coronavirus is impacting uh creative communities broadly
01:07
and during this period i've been leading our analysis of how the crisis has been
01:11
impacting our business and our users and helping craft our long-term strategy
01:14
of how to respond i'll walk you through some of the
01:18
acute challenges that we're facing including data and research we haven't
01:21
shared anywhere else and some of the opportunities we see on the
01:24
other side so starting with the business
01:29
we've seen project volume as the number of campaigns just on our site fall 35
01:35
from pre-covid levels so we would normally have about
01:38
4,000 or more projects live at this time of year
01:42
and we're currently under 3,000 live projects at this point
01:47
so that's obviously a significant drop and we're seeing that
01:51
across all categories um however the the less consumer driven the more creative
01:56
type categories have been impacted the most
01:59
and the ones that are dependent on uh physical spaces
02:03
for performance or uh or recording have been particularly hard particularly
02:11
impacted so food has taken a substantial decline
02:14
obviously because restaurants and even commercial kitchens have been
02:17
closed music has been hard hit as musicians cannot record
02:22
in studios and can't perform in most venues
02:25
film has has been severely disrupted as it's very hard to shoot anything at this
02:30
time you can really basically only do editing and the arts have taken
02:34
it particularly in dance and theater which have become virtually impossible
02:39
the categories which have done the best to date
02:42
have been design technology and games and publishing where
02:46
you can continue to work on a lot of these projects
02:50
and develop them under quarantine conditions and
02:53
still often maneuver to manufacture and distribute goods
02:58
even if there are disruptions within that process
03:01
so live projects have declined we've actually seen
03:05
record uh pledge volume on the site so it's a bit of a paradox we have
03:09
far fewer projects but far more money going coming into the platform than
03:13
we've ever seen before
03:16
over the last few weeks so we took a our pledge volume
03:19
definitely took a hit with covid around week 11 of the year which you can see
03:25
on this on this chart but it rebounded after a few weeks
03:29
and has been quite strong over the last several weeks
03:35
and so the way this discrepancy discrepancy works is that for us live
03:39
projects under a hundred thousand dollars
03:40
we've seen take this big nose dive um and had a hard time recovering
03:45
where live for projects over a hundred thousand dollars
03:48
uh we've actually seen more of those projects uh since covid
03:55
and so those large projects are are bringing in a lot of revenue to sort of
04:00
cover for the decline in smaller projects and the
04:04
factors driving their successful fundraising
04:07
we've determined are digital marketing prices so those
04:10
are really low right now facebook ads and things like that can provide really
04:13
good roi for creators that leverage those cards those kinds of tools um
04:19
people are spending just more time and money online under quarantine conditions
04:24
so for creators that are trying to get in front of an audience that is online
04:28
it's actually a great time to be working um
04:32
creators are also being more creative so in terms of what they're leveraging to
04:39
engage their audience and make ends meet so we have more creators turning to
04:43
platforms like kickstarter uh if their physical space
04:48
distribution so if they were distributing through stores that's no
04:50
longer an option um so they're turning to platforms like
04:53
kickstarter raise money or distribute their products
04:58
and while many people are facing significant hardships
05:01
due to the crisis and we'll talk about how it's impacting creators
05:06
people who have maintained their income often have more money to spend
05:10
right now because they aren't spending as much by going out
05:13
and are frequently feeling very generous from what we've seen
05:20
so we wanted to understand what's happening with our community
05:23
a little bit more deeply and so we surveyed them we surveyed 264 creators
05:28
who've had a successful campaign in the last three years
05:32
most of these creators are from the u.s 84% and they really represent
05:36
the broad swath of and broad diversity of creators on our platform
05:42
and what we found was creators are hurting
05:46
so one of the aspects one of the things we asked them about is how
05:49
covid 19 has impacted a number of aspects of their work
05:54
uh over 80% of creators that we surveyed reported disruption to their operations
06:00
or logistics with about 50% saying was very disruptive so that is a
06:05
significant blow to the fundamental ways that creative
06:08
people kind of work on their projects um
06:13
creators are having a hard time balancing creative work with their other
06:16
obligations i think this isn't just true for creatives but
06:18
as we've had to transition and change our lives it's been very difficult
06:22
balancing creative work with family and other other work and just
06:28
transitioning in this crisis they're also feeling less confident
06:31
about the success of their work and they're having to
06:34
evolve um about half of creators are changing the scope of their work
06:38
uh in the face of this crisis and more than 30 percent about a third of
06:43
all creators are actually changing the content itself
06:46
of the work that they're making in response to the crisis because they have
06:49
to adapt to what is now happening in the
06:52
culture
06:56
covid has also delayed timelines across the board for all phases of
07:00
creative work so we we're seeing or we're hearing from
07:04
them that they're being delayed in planning new
07:07
projects and launching existing projects and completing
07:11
projects currently underway so all these are
07:13
significantly disrupted and then delayed as a result of covid 19.
07:17
and that's very difficult for creators that rely on their work
07:20
for as their primary or secondary income source
07:26
particularly when 73 percent of creators report a loss of personal
07:31
income they need for creative work that is a staggering percentage
07:35
i think the jobs that have been cut in in this crisis which have been
07:42
things like drivers wait staff service workers of all kinds
07:46
museum staff have been particularly hard hit these are
07:50
positions that frequently creative people rely on
07:54
to support themselves and their development of their practice
07:58
and that is a terrifying number 55% report a loss in external funding and 38%
08:06
are reporting an increase in project costs and expensive
08:10
expenses so while they're seeing less money coming in they're actually having
08:14
more expenses in order to complete their work
08:19
so of the 55 percent of creators who reported loss external funding
08:25
most of those expect those losses to be really
08:28
uh substantial the majority are expecting losses of over 40%
08:33
of their current external funding for work this is again
08:36
really concerning for us um from our end you know
08:40
if a creator has run a kickstarter campaign and promised to make work to
08:43
their backers uh and they're relying on external
08:46
funding as a piece of that financing puzzle to make their work and
08:50
that's going away really such a huge cut it's gonna be really hard for
08:54
them to complete the work that they've promised to their community
09:00
so we also also asked all these creators what they want from us
09:03
and i don't think the answers here will be too surprising
09:07
uh at least they aren't surprising to us because these are things that we tend to
09:10
hear from creators but um publicity uh lower fees that we
09:14
charge five percent on all money raised on the platform
09:17
um and just help with funding those are the big three
09:20
um and for for kickstarter publicity is goes hand in hand with funding so
09:28
uh both of those all three of these from our end
09:31
point to just how
09:35
how much in need creators are for additional sources of funding and
09:39
additional support
09:42
um given that there have been so many delays um
09:46
and reports of delays amongst our creators we asked
09:49
what are things that could help accelerate their creative work
09:53
again funding is the top thing on that list time
09:57
is another big one which i don't know what we can
10:00
exactly we can do there market demand and just opportunities
10:04
uh for their work to meet an audience is just huge so those being the big
10:10
three again it's it's it goes to speaks to the financial
10:14
burden that creators are facing in this in this crisis and the challenge that
10:19
they have is their process and forms of distribution
10:22
disrupted how do you get access to that to an
10:25
audience now if normally you were you were reaching them
10:28
in a theater or through a comic book shop
10:30
or through a bookstore
10:34
as we look to the future we see a few things
10:37
one is that the devastating impact of the crisis on independent creators will
10:41
continue to have ripple effects over the next year
10:44
i think a lot of creators are going to struggle to make ends meet um
10:48
they're going to have to adapt and that's going to be
10:52
continue to be disruptive to their livelihoods and their work
10:58
um we know that creative work is being delayed
11:01
uh but we are already seeing creators adapt to the new limitations of this
11:05
uh period and the new paradigm uh we're expecting actually an expansion of
11:10
creative work in about six to 12 months as creators respond to this moment
11:16
there's so much happening in uh in our society and culture at the
11:20
moment not just covid but the social unrest we're experiencing i have
11:24
helicopters hovering over my apartment at the moment
11:28
as i record this and we're already seeing creators
11:32
wanting to respond to the moment um and historically
11:35
throughout american history you know moments like this have uh
11:39
generated quite quite a bit of creative work
11:44
and finally we know that creators will need significant support they're going
11:47
to need increased opportunities for unrestricted funding the unrestricted
11:52
there is very important they're going to need new methods for
11:54
creating given the the concerns around covid 19 if that
12:00
if the restrictions here continue or we're moving in and out of quarantine
12:04
um we're going to find new ways to help creators make things
12:08
and give them new avenues to find their audience and connect with them and share
12:11
work because as we've seen venues shutting
12:15
down space is closing we have to find new
12:19
ways to support creators as they make work in this environment
12:24
so the opportunities that we see for ourselves and for organizations that are
12:27
also thinking about supporting creators and creative work are to
12:32
find new ways to provide direct and unrestricted funding to artists
12:36
to support their lives or their work at scale
12:40
this is huge the unrestricted piece is really important
12:45
and the at-scale piece is really important so organizations like united
12:49
states artists is doing a great job of this
12:51
they have a relief fund they're doing grants i think about five
12:55
thousand dollar grants to directly to artists just to support them
12:59
during this time just to help them make ends meet
13:01
it's unrestricted it just goes in their pockets and that's such a great um
13:07
project and fund because of the scale they're operating at you know i'd much
13:12
rather see um you know a hundred artists get five
13:17
thousand dollars and five artists get a hundred thousand
13:19
dollars uh it's just so much more important to spread
13:23
um those financial resources broadly to help the creators
13:27
and communities creators because communities are so important here
13:30
get through this period in kickstarter we are
13:34
exploring partnerships with nonprofits and foundations
13:37
to spin up a fund that would do something very similar leveraging
13:41
kickstarter and our model to put money small amounts
13:46
of money into campaigns across our platform to help creators
13:51
raise money through kickstarter give them a boost and
13:54
put a spotlight on their work
13:59
we know communities want to help save the creative work and spaces that matter
14:02
to them both the local community local
14:06
communities and communities of interest of fans
14:09
of work so it's on us the organizations that support those
14:15
creators to provide dignified opportunities for them
14:18
to get support from community networks that dignified
14:22
piece is really important i think one that has we know a lot of creators
14:26
have struggled with during this period as
14:29
gofundme type campaigns which are really like charity
14:33
um you know support us with nothing in return sort of holding
14:38
out your hat has been really difficult for a lot of creators
14:41
who don't feel comfortable with that mechanism of support and mechanism of
14:45
giving so we've done we've launched initiatives
14:48
to help organizations sort of fundraise but
14:52
putting a focus on their work and the creative aspects of their work rather
14:56
than the need aspect of the moment and i
15:00
think um anyone any organization within the
15:04
space needs to really understand how they're providing
15:06
a dignified method of support for these creators
15:13
and finally just a note here that uh creative work that brings
15:18
small groups together either online or in person is
15:21
uh really powerful right now tabletop games is exploding on the platform or
15:26
seeing interactive online theater starting to spin up watch parties for
15:29
films finding ways to build these kinds of
15:33
practices into your support for artists and
15:37
helping them think through what their strategy is in
15:39
this moment can be really helpful so finding creators are leveraging the
15:44
moment the way behaviors are changing amongst people
15:47
and the way that they're consuming content and connecting with each other
15:50
is really smart um so i'd encourage anyone's working with
15:54
artists to consider that as well um thank you that's it for me hopefully
15:59
this is under time uh i look forward to discussing all of these more
16:02
with you in the panel uh during the conference
16:05
and thank you very much for listening
Description of the video:
00:00
hello my name is Amaka Agbo and i am the founder and principal of Nwamaka Agbo
00:06
consulting I use restorative economics as the framework to inform my consulting
00:12
practice and based in the Bay Area Oakland California and I come from a
00:16
longtime social and racial justice organizing background I came to the work
00:20
of the restorative economics over the past few years namely coming out of the
00:26
last economic recession 2012 I would say was right about the time we
00:31
started to observe social movements in 501 C 3 organizations starting to
00:37
experience the delayed impacts of the 2008 recession and so I spent some time
00:42
really trying to understand what was going on with our economy and therefore
00:47
what did it mean for foundation starting to actually shift change their ways of
00:52
giving and then the negative impacts that this had on social movements and
00:56
organizations like the one I was a part of through this process I started to
01:01
learn a lot more about to the interconnection of economy capital
01:05
government and systems and really started to wrestle with the large
01:08
questions of what are the resources what are the skills and the capacities the
01:14
communities need in order to be able to develop their neighborhoods their
01:19
communities in their own image and being able to really exercise collective
01:24
determination and agency over how they want to live work and play with one
01:29
another close together so with my work on restorative economics I provide
01:35
project management support to community owned and governed projects which I'll
01:39
talk about a bit more and I also spend time advising donors investors financial
01:45
institutions on how they can move their resources in mission aligned ways and so
01:51
really ensuring that they're activating all of their resources financial and
01:54
non-financial to really help reinvest those resources back into those
01:59
communities that have been most disproportionately impacted by harmful
02:03
economic practices as a way of helping to rebuild them and as a way of helping
02:07
to ensure that they their they have the resources that they need to actually
02:12
help create a more equitable economy going forward
02:18
the global pandemic has definitely laid bare a lot of the systemic and justices
02:24
that many of us are aware of in the actual meaning of the word apocalypse
02:30
right is a great revealing a great uncovering and and I would offer that
02:36
the Covid 19 global pandemic is revealed a lot of the weaknesses the flaws and
02:41
the failures of our federal government of our education systems of our public
02:47
health systems even our food systems and being able to support the needs of those
02:52
that are most vulnerable and need them the most
02:55
it's also really lifted up the fact that the racial wealth divide as we
03:00
oftentimes talk about it in rhetoric it's not just a crack right it's a
03:04
gaping hole a chasm and it's actually a cliff the rich majority of Americans
03:09
have actually fallen off of particularly black and brown low-income marginalized
03:15
communities and so for me the work is really trying to figure out what are the
03:20
strategies that not only help to close that racial wealth divide but ensure
03:25
that we're closing it in a way that we're starting to move out of a system
03:28
that privileges the haves and hurts the have-nots and actually starting to
03:33
create an economic system that's rooted in shared prosperity the other piece of
03:39
what we're experiencing right now over the past couple of weeks and most
03:43
recently over this past weekend we started to experience and witness a lot
03:48
of uprisings across the country in response to the murder of George Floyd
03:53
of Brianna Taylor of Ahmaud Arbery and there's so many more I think this moment
04:00
is also revealing how it's not just our economy that's designed to
04:05
disproportionately hurt and impact those communities but it's also revealing the
04:09
collective anger the hurt the pain and the ongoing trauma that black
04:14
communities continue to experience every time we witness a death on the screen
04:18
and our inability to bring about justice means that those that are most
04:23
disproportionately impacted the same communities that are disproportionately
04:27
impacted by COVID 19 being the same communities that are impacted by
04:31
police brutality are starting to rise up and starting to demand a fix to the
04:36
systems that have hurt and harmed them for so many decades and centuries I
04:43
think the other thing that's worth noting in this moment is that all the
04:48
various systems that govern our way of life here in the global North and
04:53
Western countries they're actually operating exactly as they're supposed to
04:58
be if anything what we're starting to witness is the fact that there are
05:03
negative externalities that for so often we've been able to invisiblize we've
05:09
been able to kind of fall off of the news media and now we're actually
05:14
starting to see what those negative externalities look like and how they
05:18
continue to privilege a few wealthy white minority and hurt the majority of
05:24
us so to start us off we do a little screen share
05:36
one of the things that I think the global pandemic is really lifting up as
05:41
well is this piece around how our economy is designed to extract natural
05:47
resources the extraction of natural resources is what has actually led to
05:52
climate change and what has led to humans living in such close proximity
05:56
with wildlife that would then allow a virus like COVID 19 to proliferate around
06:03
the world the other thing that's really becoming clear is that our ongoing
06:07
exploitation of labor right now as we talk about essential workers and
06:12
essential businesses it's evident that the majority of essential workers are
06:17
made up of working women of color and these are low wage workers low wage
06:22
workers who are not being compensated in a way that actually reflects our
06:27
understanding that they are essential in fact the way that we compensate them the
06:32
way that we treat them and disregard them is saying that you're actually
06:35
expendable we also continue to have an economic system that focuses in on
06:42
consolidating control and power this is a system where we have in the case of a
06:49
lot of the police brutality that's happening right now we have we can see
06:54
that our systems are designed to protect property over people that we have a
07:00
justice system that is actually not willing to hold police accountable when
07:05
they exert or use their power and so the questions of how do we also start to
07:10
bring our power back into the control of the people and then also the
07:16
accumulation of wealth and the last two months on many of us have either been on
07:20
the front lines of essential workers or have been sheltering in place the
07:25
richest 1% of the United States the billionaires have amassed over four
07:29
hundred thirty four billion dollars over the last two months
07:34
and this is happening while a number of Americans a record number of Americans
07:38
are filing for unemployment so to just being able to look at the disparities of
07:44
how our systems continue to privilege a few and hurt the many and then really
07:50
lifting up this piece of exclusion we continue to have systems and have an
07:54
economic system that only that excludes many of us from being able to
07:59
participate in so many of the benefits that our economy has to offer
08:04
and so there's an opportunity for us to start thinking about how do we move
08:08
towards an economic system that's rooted in regeneration a system that is
08:13
actually focused in on governing for the common good how do we lift up shared
08:17
prosperity as a way of being and then start to move towards inclusion start to
08:22
ensure that we're sharing I'm all that our economy has to offer with all those
08:26
that need it
08:30
and so my work on restorative economics I think it's helpful to kind of spend
08:37
some time redefining economy I found this extremely helpful for me because
08:41
often times when I think of economy when I you know I was studying my graduate
08:48
school 101 economics I'm my no sharad economy fully centered on dollars and
08:53
cents I would think about elasticity I would think about import-export taxes
08:58
and what an organization a movement generation has really lifted up for me
09:04
is that the meaning of the word economies actually the management of
09:08
home and so when I think about the management of my home I think about the
09:14
culture and tradition of my household I am Nigerian my partner is Japanese in
09:19
Greek I think about our health and well-being I think about what does it
09:23
actually take for that space to feel sacred and whole and so we could
09:27
actually expand this definition of economy the management of home to think
09:31
about our collective home and I raised this point because I think the moment
09:37
that we're in right now is an invitation to start thinking about how do we
09:41
ultimately redefine economy how do we rather than moving towards reopening the
09:49
country and going back to the same systems that got us here what are the
09:53
interventions that we need to start to make to actually ensure that we're
09:56
creating an economic system that is rooted in our collective well-being
10:02
and so to do that my work around restorative economics calls us into
10:07
really recognizing that at first there is there is the need to repair a
10:15
significant amount of harm that's been done to black indigenous and communities
10:19
of color and so let me think about the economy
10:21
that we're trying to transition to we can't just kind of leapfrog over that
10:26
gap we actually have to spend time mending that gap healing the harm to
10:31
ensure that those same communities that have been hurt harmed locked out enough
10:35
behind how the resources the tools that they need to be a part of the
10:40
conversation and actively building a more just and equitable economy going
10:45
forward so for me restorative economics is quite intentionally rooted in a
10:50
framework of reparations and repair and I think this goes hand-in-hand once
10:55
again we understand this in the context of the uprisings happening across the
11:00
country right now
11:03
and so in order to kind of guide in my work the methodology that I use is to
11:09
first spend some time figuring out how can we support projects that our
11:13
community stewarded how can we help groups of people and groups of
11:17
individuals come together to collectively own and manage an asset and
11:21
this is important because the way that we manage walked together is what allows
11:27
us to kind of transition out of a system of capitalism that's very much focused
11:31
on privileges wealth for an individual and at any and all costs and start to
11:38
actually move towards as a model a system that's focused on collective
11:42
well-being and shared prosperity I think the other piece to this is how are we
11:49
looking at who gets to make the decisions around how that asset is used
11:54
in held within our community this really strikes at the heart of governance the
11:58
work that we're set up to do and so how do we start to actually create
12:02
governance structures that Center the needs in the interests of the most
12:06
vulnerable in our community and do so in a way that we're inviting people to
12:11
collectively come together to make decisions about how to steward those
12:15
assets together for the collective good how we
12:18
make decisions is just as important as the decisions that we end up making and
12:23
part of what we need to be in is a practice of actually engaging in a
12:28
collective governance for our collective well-being and for me and my work at the
12:33
end of the day the goal is not to just have more people owning more projects
12:39
and more community assets together while I think that is a great endeavor
12:45
for me the goal is to really figure out how we're able to then leverage those
12:49
assets to those assets whether they are a building that's collectively owned by
12:53
a group of people whether we're looking at a community governed alone fund or
12:57
maybe we're looking at a community governed micro grid energy system the
13:03
fact is that when those assets are actually collectively held in the
13:06
community together we're building their political cultural and economic power to
13:11
be able to assert their right to live in their full dignity and to be able to
13:16
defend those rights on the political terrains that are critical to ensure
13:20
long term shifts in systems transformation
13:26
and so in order to move through the work as I mentioned one of the pieces being
13:31
able to really start off with a piece around acknowledging the harm that has
13:36
been done and understanding that there's particular habits and patterns
13:40
extraction exclusion and accumulation of wealth and power that got us here and so
13:45
how do we start to identify the choice points and how we actually are able to
13:50
start building and practices of regeneration governing for the whole and
13:55
inclusion and understanding that our ability to work on a project together
14:00
that is collectively owned and governed is what allows us to not only shift
14:05
culture in structures and institutions but it also allows us to be transformed
14:10
through the work as individuals because of our what requires us to show up
14:14
differently it requires us to be in deep an authentic relationship with our
14:18
colleagues and our neighbors to see the overall success of the project
14:23
then the other piece is ensuring and really starting to rethink governance
14:29
overall and so my work really tries to figure out what are the mechanisms what
14:34
are the opportunities for identifying those individuals that are most impacted
14:39
and how do we make decisions that speak to their needs they're all beings that
14:44
include their voices with the understanding that if we meet their
14:48
their basic daily needs chances are that the rest of us will be better off as
14:53
well their siblings their friends their families their neighbors and so one of
14:58
the ways I like to think about this is if we ensure that a young person has
15:03
access to three meals a day the hope is the likelihood is is that their siblings
15:09
are also eating three meals a day and not going hungry and the same with their
15:13
parents their family and their friends and so what are the things that we need
15:17
to really Center those that are most impacted around when we look at health
15:22
care when we look at education when we look at housing making decisions that
15:27
are best for the common good and lastly that the work once again is about how
15:34
are we building power and understanding that power sits in three realms cultural
15:39
power speaks to our ability to lift up the norms and the values that really
15:43
Center our commitment to collective well-being and shared prosperity
15:47
economic power looks at our ability to be able to kind of manage our
15:52
communities through our exchange of goods and services in a way that really
15:57
lifts up those those values and norms and the political power is our ability
16:02
to actually contest for power and defend those those the types of projects that
16:09
we want to see on the political terrain and that at the end of the day as we try
16:15
to move from extraction and accumulation to regeneration and redistribution we're
16:20
ultimately dealing with how do we redistribute power and being able to
16:24
understand that the social movements that are on the front lines of
16:28
contesting for power those social movements are what make it possible for
16:33
us to actually engage in those three realms of
16:36
as well and so an opportunity to figure out as we're building shared prosperity
16:41
and building community well our ability to really resource and support and be in
16:48
deep solidarity with the social movements that support our work so my
16:53
work on restorative economics calls us to be really intentional about who we
16:57
are investing in black/brown indigenous communities of color how we're investing
17:04
in them making sure that we're actually using financial and non-financial
17:07
resources in a non extractive way moving all of our resources both our grants and
17:13
our investment dollars to mission aligned strategies and then how we
17:17
invest in them starting to really look at those projects that are starting to
17:23
experiment with models of collective ownership that are starting to innovate
17:27
with different ways of making decisions and at their core are really trying to
17:31
support the broader needs of a community and not just trying to privilege a few
17:38
I think this moment of COVID 19 and the uprisings across the country and
17:44
actually around the world we've been starting to hear about solidarity
17:47
protests and Amsterdam and in Germany it's really lifting up what some would
17:52
call challenges but what I would like to lift up as opportunities and so as we
17:58
start to really watch people or states across the country start to
18:02
quote-unquote reopen the economy as people try to kind of return to once was
18:07
I think this is an opportunity to figure out what do we want to move towards and
18:12
the fact that we have a government that hasn't actually figured out how to
18:17
intervene in market forces that are more committed to kicking people out of their
18:22
homes during a moment of shelter in place and as a way of maximizing money
18:28
then it is around protecting people we have to also call into question the role
18:32
of government so there's three key things that I'm keeping my eye on right
18:37
now and exploring through my work what are those economic models and
18:42
strategies right what are the ways that people are experimenting with
18:45
cooperatives with lending circles with other ways of moving resources and
18:50
sharing assets I'm also inviting people to really
18:53
rethink and question the role of government right now we have a
18:57
government that can mobilize the National Guard in less than 24 hours but
19:01
can't mobilize personal protective equipment to support those in need
19:06
we have a government that is willing to go to war with its own people but not
19:10
willing to actually keep them healthy and safe and fed and so for me these two
19:16
interconnected problems of our economy and the role of government ultimately
19:20
amount to what will it take to create a social safety net not only how will we
19:26
resource it but how will we make the decisions around how to administer it
19:30
and and ensure that it provides for people over the long term I think the
19:36
opportunity that we're starting to see is that as groups and social movements
19:42
move to mobilize mutual aid a lot of the mutual aid networks relationship
19:47
strategies those are actually strategies not only for us to use in a moment
19:52
of rapid-response around COVID 19 but actually start to build out that
19:57
community infrastructure for how we're able to move resources quickly over the
20:02
long term we will likely need to lean on our neighbors and loved ones a lot more
20:07
and act in solidarity together in each other's best interest as we continue to
20:12
kind of weather the magnifying crises that are impacting us I think a lot of
20:17
the calls and movements for universal basic income particularly the work that
20:21
looks closely how do we ensure that black working mothers have the paychecks
20:26
that they need to also ensure that there's food on the table and that
20:30
they're able to pay rent how do we start to really lift up the the call for
20:35
hazard pay for essential workers and stop looking at essential workers as
20:39
those that only need a minimum wage low wage workers but actually are
20:44
appropriately compensated for the level for the level of risk that they take on
20:50
in a daily basis and also recognizing how those positions are
20:54
disproportionately represented by communities of color and so for me this
21:01
is all a moment for us to do some deep questioning a deep reflection and to
21:05
start to figure out what are the ways that we seed those projects on the ground
21:09
that are also starting to really lift up some alternatives that we can look
21:14
towards some of the projects that I'm really excited about um there's a
21:18
project black land empower which is a program of the national black food and
21:22
justice Alliance and black land empower brings together a set of movement
21:27
based organizations black land based institutions farmers organizers across
21:33
the country trying to really figure out how do we ensure that black people have
21:37
access to land for safe and sacred space for healing for learning for training
21:42
for being able to rest how do we retain and maintain that land and then how do
21:47
we resource it so while we're moving towards figuring out how to acquire the
21:52
land the question of also how to finance it in a non extractive way and how to
21:57
share it collectively with each other as black people but also in solidarity with
22:01
indigenous communities as well I think other projects like sea
22:06
Commons and the Boston Ujima project that are also looking at what does it
22:10
look like for communities to be able to have community governed alone funds for
22:15
there to be infrastructure where communities actually get to have a
22:18
direct say over how resources and capital is moved and invested within and
22:23
throughout their communities for me this moment is really an opportunity to take
22:30
stock of where are the openings that we can really break open how do we move
22:35
from an economic system that's very much focused in on a punitive way of raising
22:41
funds in terms of fines and fees that disproportionately impact black and
22:45
brown communities as a resource in our government and start to actually move
22:49
towards something that's focused on really supporting care for community so
22:56
all this to say I'm excited for the conversation we'll be having
22:59
I'm excited to really explore how some of the models and strategies and the
23:04
work of cultural workers are also helping us to really rethink the role of
23:08
government how we think about economy and how we bring those pieces together
23:12
for me I always really encourage people to sit with the questions of who is
23:17
getting the financial return off of any project who is making the decision and
23:22
how in the and how are those decisions being made I think the answers to those
23:27
questions are really key to ensuring that we're really invested in supporting those
23:32
communities black brown indigenous communities of color that need the
23:37
resources that they need to be able to thrive and build meaningful and
23:42
dignified livelihoods for themselves and their loved ones
Description of the video:
00:04
I can talk a little bit about this contemporary moment of COVID
00:08
We know that first
00:11
and foremost when we talk about the economy
00:14
We need to recognize that health
00:17
is a part of the economy, and it's a false
00:20
dichotomy when we say that
00:23
let's send people to work and not
00:26
as if
00:28
sending people to work and putting people at risk
00:31
if we aren't ready to go back
00:33
to work because of COVID-19
00:36
Thinking of that as a choice between having a
00:39
good economy, I think is
00:42
somewhat of a problematic framing
00:43
because mortality has to be first and foremost
00:46
the key indicator of our economic wellbeing
00:49
And if we're thinking about the economy
00:51
first and foremost we need to protect peoples' lives
00:55
And if we think about racial inequality
00:58
there are estimates that
00:59
black people are making up one third
01:02
of the COVID fatalities or more
01:05
when they make up only 14% of the population
01:08
And then we might ask, why is the black mortality rate so high?
01:12
Well, we have an unjust racial wealth gap
01:15
We have a history of
01:17
financial deprivation that has
01:20
rendered some people in America based on their
01:23
group identity more vulnerable to deal with
01:26
economic downtrend
01:29
when they won't have the
01:31
flexibility to work at home
01:33
they have lower wages and benefits overall
01:37
and it renders them more economically insecure
01:42
I think that with the context of COVID-19
01:46
a potential positive thing could be it spurs
01:50
political action and social movement
01:53
to implement a lot of the
01:55
political and economic change we've been talking about
01:58
In other words, if the vulnerability
02:01
made vivid by COVID-19
02:04
can lead to political change towards and economic
02:06
rights frame
02:07
and we can stave off
02:10
inequality and promote a moral
02:13
and just economy
02:15
so that we can have shared
02:17
prosperity in both economic and physical
02:20
wellbeing and to achieve that
02:23
I argue that we need an anti-racist
02:26
anti-misogynist
02:29
inclusive economic bill of right frame
02:32
so that we can be better prepared for when there's a next pandemic
02:35
or there's a next climate-related catastrophe
02:38
and not only that it would
02:40
address our everyday vulnerabilities
02:43
that many people live with whether or not we're in a pandemic
02:47
An economically just system is one where everyone
02:50
has access to an adequate amount of resources
02:53
of essential goods and services
02:56
so that they can have agency in their lives
02:59
COVID-19 has made it clear that
03:02
even the most affluent amongst us are vulnerable
03:05
I mean we know the case of even
03:08
a prime minister, Boris Johnson
03:11
in the UK
03:14
was subject to the coronavirus
03:16
but when this
03:18
subsides hopefully we will ensure that no one
03:21
lives with this despair and vulnerability
03:23
again regardless of whether we're in an economic crisis
03:26
I hope that it also teaches us to take steps
03:29
where we can put in place
03:33
an infrastructure to make the population
03:36
identified as something as cursory as their race
03:38
or gender not so vulnerable
03:41
Inequality is a political choice
03:44
and we can make a different choice
03:47
We have an inadequate social safety net system
03:50
for the last 45 years as a result of
03:54
what I believe policies around deregulation
03:57
gutting government social services
03:59
as well as social wellfare
04:03
we ended up not just in the United States
04:06
but across the globe environments of
04:08
reinforcing inequality and obstacles
04:11
social mobility and political inclusion
04:14
In fact we would have to reach back to the greatest generation
04:17
a generation born nearly
04:19
a hundred years ago who entered their young adulthood
04:22
right after the great depression
04:26
to find a generation with
04:28
lower home ownership rate
04:30
than young adult millenials have today
04:33
and what's even more disheartening
04:35
is that the racial gap in home ownership
04:38
amongst millenials
04:39
is as large as it's ever been for any generation
04:43
since we've been tracking home ownership
04:46
In 2013, I delivered a Ted Talk
04:49
I began by stating quote,
04:52
"That there is a narrative, an idea that with
04:55
resilience, grit, and personal responsibility
04:58
people can pull themselves up
05:00
and achieve success
05:02
This is what we call the American dream
05:06
This political discourse, it's upheld in
05:09
a bipartisan way, Democrats and
05:12
Republicans, across racial groups
05:14
blacks and whites alike they all
05:17
adhere to this discourse, basically
05:20
it goes if black, brown, and poor people
05:23
if they would simply reverse
05:25
their self-sabotaging attitudes, behaviors
05:29
and adopt the "right" attitudes,
05:31
norms, and behaviors
05:34
that that would be the pathway towards equality
05:36
But what's missing in that narrative
05:38
is all the cases of these individuals
05:41
black, poor, or whatever who also exemplify
05:44
perseverance, grit, and hardwork
05:47
but aren't able to attain successful economic outcomes
05:51
What has been glaringly missing from this narrative
05:53
is the role of power,
05:56
the role of capital, the role of endowment
05:59
and how having those resources in the first place
06:02
can influence the structures and transactions
06:05
by which people engage
06:08
Power and capital are self-reinforcing
06:11
without any intervention
06:13
and they will do what they do best
06:16
iterate and concentrate
06:18
we use words like choice,
06:22
freedom to describe what we believe is the benefit
06:25
of unfettered government
06:28
not intervening in our systems but all that is an
06:31
illusion, if people lack
06:34
the basic needs of a job
06:37
of adequate income of shelter of food
06:40
of healthcare, it is literally
06:43
wealth that gives us choice
06:45
that gives us freedom and gives us optionality
06:48
if you are an essential worker
06:51
with a preexisting condition
06:54
if you have wealth you can make a decision
06:57
to say I'm not going to put myself at risk
07:00
if you are displaced from your job and you have wealth
07:03
you have the ability to withstand
07:06
that economic calamity
07:10
Public policy should
07:13
empower all people to live dignified lives
07:16
and shield vulnerable populations
07:19
from predatory actors with self-interested goals
07:21
aimed at extracting and exploiting them
07:25
There are a set of enabling goods and services
07:28
that are so critical for our life, our liberty
07:31
and our self-determination
07:34
their quantity and quality
07:36
access to these should not be based solely
07:40
on one's ability to pay we need
07:42
policies that ensure universal
07:45
and quality healthcare, housing, schooling,
07:48
financial services, capital
07:51
and the free mobility throughout society
07:54
without the psychological and physical threat
07:58
of the tension or bodily harm
08:00
because your identity is linked to
08:03
race, gender, or some other cursory identity
08:07
And given our emerging inequality and political context
08:10
now is the time to do more
08:13
the time has come for us to be bold
08:16
the time has come for us to be transformative
08:19
to take the problems of inequality and stratification
08:22
take them head on the good news is this
08:25
change may be happening I'm inspired
08:27
by younger generations, they're leading this charge for change
08:31
there's black lives matter
08:33
there's the #metoo movement
08:35
and the recent youth inspired global climate strike
08:39
demanding the end of the use of fossil fuels
08:41
these are all examples of how younger generations
08:44
and social movements
08:47
they're redefining economic good to incorporate the principles
08:50
of our common humanity
08:53
of sustainability
08:55
and our shared prosperity
08:57
I'm gonna end by returning to the narrative and ethos of the American dream
09:02
and I'm gonna cite
09:04
one of my favorite basketball players Lebron James
09:09
In January, in a Nike commercial
09:11
he succinctly and eloquently sums up
09:15
a perfect aspiration of what
09:18
the foundation of an American dream
09:21
should and can be from my perspective
09:23
he said, "we always here
09:26
about an athlete's humble beginning, how they emerge
09:29
from poverty or tragedy
09:32
and beat the odds"
09:34
and then the video goes in and shows
09:36
a lot of rags to riches stories of people
09:39
overcoming poverty with
09:43
a great talent that allowed them fame and fortune
09:46
and those are good stories and I don't mean to denegrate them in any way
09:52
but Lebron James goes on and says,
09:55
"there supposed to be stories of determination
09:59
that capture the dream
10:01
there's supposed to be stories that let you know
10:04
that people are special"
10:06
then there's a pause and he says,
10:08
"but you know what would be really special?
10:11
if there were no more humble beginnings"
10:14
thank you
Panel Presentations
Description of the video:
00:04
[Doug] it's great to have you all here we're going to go around the virtual room or the
00:10
virtual round table and do some quick introduction so I'll introduce each you
00:14
by name and then you can you can take the mic and introduce yourself quick
00:19
title and then we'll go around the room that way and then we'll start right into
00:22
this so let's start off with making sure all right so I'm gonna start out
00:28
introducing Lucy Bernholz [Lucy] Hi I am Lucy Bernholz I'm delighted to be here
00:34
this morning with you for this conversation I'm the director of the
00:37
digital civil society lab at Stanford [Doug] perfect thank you, Linda Essig [Linda] good morning my name is Linda
00:44
Essig I'm here at the sunset of Los Angeles on the unseated land of the
00:49
Tonga people, I'm the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Cal State
00:53
University Los Angeles
00:55
[Doug] very good, and over to you Bamuthi
00:58
[Bamuthi] hey peace my name is Marc Bamuthi Joseph I'm originally
01:04
from New York live in the Bay Area work in DC I'm the vice president and
01:10
artistic director of social impact at the Kennedy Center
01:14
[Doug] thank you, Sunil Iyengar
01:16
[Sunil] yes hi this is Sunil Iyengar director of research and analysis of national
01:20
down for the arts very pleased to be here we're a proud co-sponsor of the
01:24
National Endowment for the Arts Research lab here
01:27
[Doug] yes thank you and last we'll go over to Jon Leland
01:31
[Jon] hi I'm very happy to be here I'm the vice president of insights at Kickstarter
01:36
[Doug] wonderful well this is an exciting panel for me it's a great way
01:40
to start off our day and I want to put a prompt question out to all of you
01:44
so in her presentation Lucy talked about the importance of first principles and
01:48
thinking about our systems she pressed us to push beyond ever the mushrooms that
01:53
are just on the surface and look beneath an example in the soil underneath I'd
01:58
like to you to go like to go around from the panel here and ask in light of the
02:02
recent crises we're facing what are the first principles that you think are most
02:06
important for us to be keeping in mind here maybe let's start with Linda
02:11
[Linda] okay thank you well before I answer the question about the first principles I
02:16
really want to thank Doug and Joanna for the opportunity to share my thoughts
02:19
with the esteemed panelists and with the many others watching I also want to
02:24
thank Indiana University for allowing me to defer its modest honorarium to an
02:28
artist in need rather than accepting it myself and I'm not sharing this to
02:32
highlight my own righteousness but because her story is emblematic of what
02:36
working artists especially working artists who serve communities of color
02:40
are facing right now in the world of Covid 19, Martha Carrillo is part of the
02:45
self-help graphics and art census ... working toward a full count of
02:49
all of the residents of East LA as well as under different circumstances a
02:54
resident artist with their barrio mobile art studio she lost that contract work
02:59
as a result of the pandemic as did many artists around the country so I'll come
03:05
back to that but first principles so I'm hoping you'll allow me to have to first
03:09
principles the soil in which we work and I want to share my observations of them
03:14
the first is the free market economy as a first principle and the neoliberal
03:19
version of it that we've lived in since 1980 is the soil I really love Lucy's
03:25
metaphor but it's a soil that does not really provide the nourishment we need
03:30
as a nation it's a soil that's proven to be completely inadequate to the task of
03:35
nourishing us during this time of crisis as a system it is inadequate to the task
03:39
of producing and distributing necessary goods equitably in a time of crisis the
03:45
free market as the first principle has not provided masks or testing kits or
03:50
even toilet paper efficiently and I would add that the the current regime's
03:55
responses to black lives matter protests and a note to my colleague Tyler Cowen
04:00
is speaking later these are protests they are not riots or that response is
04:06
also one of the mushrooms that grows out of this sick soil in that it favors
04:11
property rights over human rights and as Marc Bamuthi points out there is a
04:16
tension between public good and private wealth and that free market soil really
04:21
helps the latter to grow but often at the expense of the former so that's kind
04:26
of the sick soil but the the healthy first principle is community level an
04:31
individual action that we really see matter for
04:35
community well-being right now whether it's our neighbors feeding neighbors or
04:39
people in a cafe deciding whether or not to wear a mask individual actions in
04:44
community and neighborhood settings have literal life-and-death consequences so
04:49
we really need to look to community action during this time of crisis in
04:53
which I learned from Amaka Agbo presentation is it's called restorative
04:57
economics a term that I have I really love so um this raises a whole bunch of
05:02
questions for me but I'll I'll shut up now and let someone else have a chance
05:05
for a change thanks
05:07
[Doug] it's a great place to start with
05:08
lots of questions and it's a good transition I think over to mark them
05:11
with you for some your thoughts on first principles here
05:16
[Bamuthi] yeah that's hard because Linda did it I feel like we can all go home now it's
05:22
it's true the first principle is the relationship between the structural
05:26
economy and the moral economy it's it's really hard to move outside of that and
05:32
or to for me to think beyond that because it literally is the root of evil
05:37
in this country and as we are out in the streets protesting and beginning to
05:44
articulate notions of anti-racist systems necessarily we connect anti
05:50
racism and anti capitalism and if not anti capitalism at the very least contra
05:58
capitalism if we were to take an incremental step so it's it's hard for
06:02
me to really think beyond that as a first principle because it really is the
06:06
the root of division and social hierarchy here access to resources I do
06:14
think that the collective psychology as a post Covid response and principle the
06:22
nurturing of the collective psychology by reimagining what constitutes beauty
06:29
and health in terms of the public imagination is another principle that we
06:35
might look to and by beauty and health I don't just mean aesthetics I
06:41
mean the cultivation of narratives that embed us in an interdependent notion of
06:48
our and and maybe a more liberal understanding of our collective humanity
06:53
a greater empathy working in the arts sector as a poet as a practicing artist
07:01
and and having institutional grounding at the Kennedy Center among other
07:07
institutions I note whose stories are on stage whose stories are on screen what
07:15
gets propagated as norm or normal and this works across demographic
07:21
classification gender expression sexuality
07:26
physical capacity and physical capital so the the diversification and the
07:33
propagation of stories that uplift a more collective and democratic
07:42
understanding of beauty married to a relationship a further evolution of the
07:50
relationship between the structural economy and the moral economy is what I
07:54
propose as a as an additional principle
07:58
[Doug] that's great
07:59
Sunil your thoughts on sort of first principles it
08:03
[Sunil] thank you yes and thanks to Lucy for raising that as the frame for this I
08:08
think that's a really helpful way to think about what we have to do now I
08:11
think there in my I think I often think of to kind of first principles that
08:16
maybe collide and intersect you know lately I've been reading over the last
08:21
couple weeks over the statement you know what we see on coins the motto
08:25
e pluribus unum which you know essentially means out of the many the one and I
08:30
think what I'm talking about here is reconciling individual expression you
08:34
know the need for individual agency and voice with that of a group and really
08:39
good being larger in being part of something larger than ourselves and
08:43
being part of you know having feeling less alone and I think that's what the
08:48
arts at least historically and what especially now are showing themselves
08:51
capable of doing make bridging that and so for individuals we know and this is
08:56
from research of course we know a lot about the arts ability through the
09:00
creative arts therapies through arts education studio art studies of studio
09:05
arts or even jazz improvisation we've seen how it improves self efficacy it
09:09
gives perspective taking it really sort of shores up the individual and kind of
09:14
elevates the individual voice and agency as I said and provides clarity but then
09:18
on the other side we also see for the social benefits the community wide
09:21
benefits I think you know we all agree probably the arts are inherently social
09:24
our data have shown eighty percent of people who go to an arts event did so
09:29
because they wanted to be with family and friends 60 percent of people who
09:33
perform the music dance or not necessarily formally perform dance music
09:37
or theater did so to be with same people and more than 50% of
09:42
people who make art work you know arts and crafts for example did so for people
09:46
they personally know and I say that because you know that suggests this deep
09:50
community bonding element which we're finding now and especially now since
09:54
we're spending so much time in virtual spaces it's really critical to the arts
09:58
I'll end by saying there's recently a study by the Knight Foundation
10:02
commissioned some work on this they looked at about eleven thousand adults
10:05
across 26 cities and he saw their residents who had access to the arts as
10:10
perceived themselves as having access to arts and cultural activities showed far
10:14
greater attachment and investment in their communities and yet we know from
10:18
our own data that 35% of people out there say they don't have access to arts
10:23
and cultural amenities and resources and that's often emerges as a key barrier
10:29
for why people don't engage in the arts they don't have someone to go with for
10:32
example and or it's difficult to get to the physical location so I'm kind of
10:36
throwing all these data points is to point out that I think there's that
10:38
individual and collective benefit which are really part of core the part of the
10:43
first principle [Doug] great well thanks for that perspective it's nice mixing this
10:48
up a bit it's a good segue over to Jon if we think about some of these virtual
10:52
spaces and access so your thoughts on first principles Jon [Jon] thank you and
10:58
thank you the other speakers man this is a this has been a beautiful conversation
11:02
so far the I'll just mention what the first principles of Kickstarter are
11:06
which I don't think we've talked about publicly before and you're going to use
11:11
the language here but this is what the this is what our first principles are as
11:14
written our fuck the mono culture and art and creative expression are
11:19
essential right and there is a there is a really interesting tension here
11:24
between having a shared value of fuck the mono culture and actually fostering
11:29
that and I think you know as we look at this current moment you know what
11:34
Bamuthi sort of talked about in terms of reimagining notions of beauty and health
11:38
like what are the narratives we live by what are the narratives and whose
11:42
narratives do we listen to and doing value in our
11:45
society I think we go through periods where we've seen the sort
11:52
of the culture kind of solidify in some
11:55
respects though who were evaluate you can we listen to and the internet you
12:02
know done well it often that's been doing well but done well breaks open the
12:07
possibility for new voices new forms of expression and new speakers of that
12:14
expression into our lives it's the responsibility the platforms that hosts
12:19
that work though and invited onto their platforms to be really stewards of that
12:24
public space and of those values to try to connect those voices and allow for
12:29
them to emerge with audiences that can hear them [Doug] very interesting all right
12:35
well in a way Lucy you had the first word in this with your pre-recorded
12:40
remarks and so if maybe it's only fitting that we go around the circle at
12:43
least as it appears on my screen and give you your thoughts on this [Lucy] well I
12:47
mean I thank you and thanks to all the panelists that is already there's no
12:55
doubt that this group is inspired and and more thoughtful on this than I am I
13:02
don't want to was just a metaphor but I think that the other two really first
13:09
human principles that I have been thinking about a lot in my work are I
13:17
guess I would call them mutualism and
13:23
pluralism that that we have this innate desire to gather together to do things
13:29
together we are not are it's not just artists who are social although I
13:34
absolutely agree humans are social we we gather we have I think an innate desire
13:41
I'm not a biologist but there are plenty of them who've studied this and then I
13:47
think there's also this in the creation of mutuality and the living and
13:53
mutuality and the grouping of it we create groups that have ins and outs
13:58
there are always in and out groups or people who are in or out of the groups
14:03
and and maybe this you know that's what we're struggling with at all
14:07
times I absolutely agree with the statements about the the nature of
14:13
capitalism and the way it has set us up so that this moment is almost inevitable
14:24
but I also think the other the other I guess first principle about humans about
14:32
people that I take great inspiration from is the imaginary if you read black
14:40
liberation theory or afrofuturism the this moments is what a privilege to be
14:50
part of what it what an extraordinary opportunity so I think I guess the three
14:56
I'd add there our mutualism, imaginary, and pluralism and they're and they're
15:01
much more human centered than system centered principles because the panel
15:07
did such a great job on the system [Doug] well thank you so I think building out of
15:15
those we've each identified some of these first principles or major
15:19
priorities and I think embedded in most of those explicitly is that the current
15:25
systems aren't either are either a bit toxic or aren't handling or addressing
15:31
these first principles as well as we'd like them to so the next question I want
15:36
to throw out to the group is what kind of systems or structures do you think we
15:41
need to put into place in response to the first principles that you've
15:46
identified and for this I'm going to experiment and not go in a pre
15:52
structured sequence I'm gonna let you each decide who if we can pull this off
15:57
what order we go in so feel free to jump in at this point
16:04
[Sunil] I think probably other panelists can speak to more tangible
16:14
solutions from their perspective as practitioners or working artists but I
16:18
think what was said earlier about laying bare how vulnerable individual artists
16:24
are and recognizing and finding a way to solve that problem I know that with the
16:30
Cares Act implementation a grants that for example the National Endowment for the Arts
16:34
is supporting we're really after supporting jobs and hires as well as
16:38
providing space for artists and arts organizations but you know you look at
16:42
the data just coming in and this is from last week it turns out that you know
16:46
just the Performing Arts industry alone has lost about forty eight percent
16:49
employment forty eight percent but you know just from March to April for small
16:54
businesses especially and I think if we think of the artists in a sense as small
16:58
business owners we have to fit into that capitalist frame for policy purposes you
17:03
know we recognize that you know artists are essentially hurting the most among
17:07
except for maybe accommodate hotel transportation kinds of workers when you
17:12
look at industry statistics from small business surveys it's been going out
17:16
seventy-one percent see a large negative effect from this and are experiencing it
17:20
right now versus like forty three percent for small businesses as a whole
17:23
I say all that because we've only now begun to understanding quantify what
17:27
arts workers as freelance workers for example freelance artists as very small
17:32
businesses contribute to the economy we now know they contribute a very high
17:36
share like about twenty percent of what the top twelve arts industries give to
17:41
the total economy now that's just one lens and so again I can't be
17:44
prescriptive here but I like what Lucy said about imagination and maybe that
17:48
can get us out of this with scenario planning and thinking about these these
17:52
stark disparities and how do we resolve them through this [Lucy] can I jump in on
18:00
I think imagination here is absolutely necessary but I was really struck in
18:08
Bamuthi remarks about some of it the possibility of repurposing physical
18:15
space for example when I heard that I just thought bingo you know and and
18:22
there's a there's an e in talking about institutions it sort of were used to
18:27
looking at physical assets like that and I absolutely agree there's a possibility
18:31
there and what an opportunity to step into some of these ideas about joint
18:36
ownership mutual mutual cooperativism of the ownership of those assets but also
18:42
the governance of these resources right there is a real opportunity to not just
18:48
repurpose the physical assets but allow a whole new healthier ... ecosystem
18:55
of joint responsibility to flourish and I'm sure this is actually already
19:02
happening I don't doubt for a second that there are communities around the
19:07
country no doubt with artists involved that are beginning to do this so I think
19:14
that's an enormous opportunity there's also you know there's with all of the
19:19
the digital infrastructure and the digitization of our culture that was in
19:25
in place our place prior to this year there's an enormous amount of inquiry
19:34
and experimentation with joint ownership of digital resources as well and we're
19:40
experiencing and I'm sorry my historian brain always goes back to that rhythm of
19:44
the past but mutual ownership the Commons what a great moment to take
19:53
those ideas and really put them into into action [Doug] Linda [Linda] yeah I think just on
20:03
both of those points there's sort of this immediate action that can be taken
20:08
and I think this repurposing of spaces is is one of those but I
20:14
we have to look a little more long-term and we have an opportunity to imagine
20:18
some some longer-term kinds of structures I mean I think I don't think
20:25
anyone would argue maybe they would that that many of our organizations are by
20:30
design set up to maintain a certain status quo and we might want to think
20:36
about different kinds of organizational structures that are more responsive that
20:41
are more project oriented that have more Commons base to use Lucy's term funding
20:48
kinds of models I mean I think we really we're at a turning point here and yeah
20:54
I'll stop there Thanks [Bamuthi] yeah yeah I'd like to hop in and echo the the
21:05
Kickstarter the foundational principle of you know fuck the monoculture because
21:13
you know nature loves diversity and there is such a thing as cultural
21:19
biodiversity this this kind of diverse a diversification of of narrative and
21:25
access to to narrative and I think so much follows from that the the
21:30
relationship between the creative and the environmental the relationship
21:35
between the the narrative and you know the the physical asset of the planet and
21:42
systems that center or an economy that that really centers a kind
21:46
of sustainability and interdependence but I with some apologies to Sunil I
21:54
think that the I would like to see an additional federal agency
22:00
I guess not apology just adding on to I would like to see an additional
22:05
federal agency I'd like to see a National Endowment for some some kind of
22:12
federally supported or federally sanctioned Department of inspiration and
22:20
there was a case a few years ago these kids in Detroit at Detroit's worse
22:26
performing high schools sued the government of Michigan because they
22:31
claimed that their Fourteenth Amendment rights their Fourteenth Amendment rights
22:35
were being violated they charged that under the Fourteenth Amendment they had
22:40
a right to literacy and I found this so moving because you know coming from a
22:47
people whose literacy was illegal for the better part of the country's history
22:56
well I'm certainly pre its founding and through the majority of its history I I
23:03
thought that that was such a compelling and robust notion that in order to have
23:11
access to the franchise you also have actually have access to letters to
23:16
communication to so that to me opens up a whole a really beautiful and
23:23
provocative prompt for all of us do you also have the right to clean air do you
23:31
also have the right to water if we look at Flint not too far away from from
23:37
Detroit not just their human rights are are the constitutional rights of the the
23:44
residents of Flint Michigan are those being violated because of the lack of
23:50
access yes the right to health care all these things so now working at a quasi
23:57
federal organization is certainly one that receives a healthy amount of
24:04
government support as a living memorial to the 35th President John F Kennedy
24:09
I've kind of transposed that original prompt to think about inspiration for
24:17
all as a democratic small D ideal that we can build systems around so when
24:24
folks asked me well what is social impact within the context of an Art
24:29
Center that's often what I say that inspiration itself is a democratic right
24:36
and if we were to build systems not just in terms of them
24:39
manufacture of art but to secure for our country's citizens the right to
24:46
inspiration systemically I think we'd be a lot better off [Doug] yeah lets move over to Jon
24:57
[Jon] yeah I think from my vantage point speaking more practically about just the
25:02
going back to the platform cooperative type model that's something that we
25:08
certainly have been looking at and I think is kind of a moral imperative from
25:12
the digital space because there's really no good reason why
25:16
Spotify should be owned by a giant corporation shareholders when musicians
25:21
are living so tenuously and barely able to make a living like you that these are
25:26
the artists that are like hurting the most in the current crisis that have
25:29
obviously been the most vulnerable and we the Internet provides such a great
25:36
opportunity to reimagine the structures reorganize ourselves at scale and very
25:40
very efficient ways and we haven't really managed to create new like
25:47
vibrant large-scale kind of capitalist structures through the internet we just
25:53
took the old system of capital aggregation funneled it into this thing
25:57
and then blew up a bunch of companies right and so I think from our
26:02
perspective the hope is that we actually can lean into that possibility there's
26:07
there's nascent platforms like like Ampled which is a platform cooperative
26:13
that's trying to spin up kind of like a patreon type model but is a platform
26:16
cooperative where the creators on that platform own the platform unlike patreon
26:20
which is owned by venture capitalists Kickstarter we are a not owned by
26:25
venture capitalists we're a small private company we're a public benefit
26:28
corporation but this is something we've explored where small companies also
26:32
really hard to make this change you know this is very complicated but something
26:35
that we're interested in trying to figure out how to do but that should be
26:39
the future that we're we're building towards actually isn't the
26:42
infrastructure to build towards that future right so companies like Ampled
26:46
really struggle because it's you know it takes a lot of capital to hire engineers
26:49
to build a platform that your voice is so much smaller going
26:53
against a publicly traded company like Spotify or a company patreon has
27:01
hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital those there's no support
27:06
structure for companies like that we have to think about what is what is the
27:09
alternative financial capital structure that can create platforms like that and
27:16
make them successful kind of to deconstruct the existing model [Linda] if I can
27:23
just jump in for a second that's why I started where I did and to use continued
27:28
lucy's metaphor which I really love you know I spent a lot of time in the last
27:32
15 years teaching artists to kind of work within a system that doesn't work
27:37
for them and Kickstarter is kind of a mushroom that really helped help those
27:42
artists and and other and patreon and things like that but they're mushrooms
27:46
they're still mushrooms in this soil that needs to change so instead I'm just
27:52
wondering if there's a way instead of us teaching artists to behave differently
27:56
within a system that doesn't work for them to instead change the system so it
28:02
works for artists and all the other people so yeah
28:08
thumbs up [Doug] yeah I don't know if they get to see the thumbs up in live streaming
28:14
huh so actually I want to bounce it right back to you then Linda because you
28:18
know if someone who works with arts entrepreneurs for a long time I'm
28:22
curious to hear your perspectives on what some of the new challenges there's
28:26
obviously a mismatch working in a system that isn't working for them kind of
28:31
thing but that's not necessarily new what do you think are some of the new
28:34
challenges and opportunities facing arts entrepreneurs [Linda] yeah I've been thinking
28:40
about that and one of the things I'm writing about now on my own until it
28:46
sees the light of day is is how to help artists connect their work directly with
28:52
their communities without necessarily having to go through large
28:58
organizational structures to do that it's challenging but it is also an
29:02
opportunity I think the number one opportunity is to make work that speaks
29:06
to our current moment right I mean that's artists make work right and I
29:11
love I love my Bamuthi poem at the beginning of his of his talk it was so
29:17
well it was art right so we need to figure out a way to help artists make
29:23
art and yeah I mean that's the opportunity and that's the challenge and
29:28
we need to figure out a way to support artists who are making work and to
29:32
support you know the people bagging our groceries now and to support you know
29:37
the folks doing the food delivery and and we're not doing that yet
29:44
yeah I'm not sure I answer your question [Doug] no that was good but actually now that
29:51
you can you know evoked the Bamuthi presentation I want to I want to circle
29:54
back to that and give them a chance to expand a bit especially it's sort of
30:00
cold ask ourselves and especially as artists what are we doing in service of
30:04
social health and I want to give you a platform to go more with this because I
30:07
think it was bold and important [Bamuthi] thank you and I I really love the collegial
30:16
spirit of this this thank you for nurturing it Doug and yeah
30:23
I I really appreciate the the mutualism here
30:28
the the presentation for folks that haven't seen it or the or the core
30:34
concept is that artists should be deployed as in addition to the
30:41
manufacturer of films or poems or visual arts pieces that creative thinking that
30:47
artistic intelligence that creative intelligence should be more deeply
30:51
integrated into our systems building that we tend to that we tend to position
30:58
artists as weird and other I've spent my whole adult life in the San Francisco
31:04
Bay Area and before that I you know as I said I was born and raised in in New
31:09
York there's a real danger the you know again to use Jon's term the homogenous
31:18
asian of San Francisco is a global danger because somebody has to set the
31:27
edge somebody has to be weird somebody has to provoke a
31:35
of ethic sewn inside of the public imagination that that challenges us all
31:44
to see beyond the obvious right now so many of the gains so many of the
31:51
greatest minds I think that are in play in our collective economy are seeking to
31:58
maximize financial capital as opposed to you know I have a 18 year old son I have
32:05
a 14 year old daughter I notice in their generation that there's an urge there's
32:12
less of an urge to be great there's more of an urge to be seen it's a big
32:18
difference so artists and I think artistic thinking as part of our systems
32:28
engineering and our systems architecture is just
32:31
incredibly importance again somebody just has to push the margins of the public
32:37
imagination I think artists do that unfortunately I think the way that we've
32:42
characterized that work is as entertainment as kind of intellectually
32:52
marginal as off to you know to the side that artists just kind of like live up
33:00
on a hill somewhere or go to like artist Island and be weird there and then come
33:04
back you know some something that we might enjoy and ingest but again in the
33:10
background so this pertains this this kind of is is most salient to me in how
33:19
we think about the public health because I think what I say in the in the
33:26
presentation is that we are soon going to shift from thinking about health as a
33:32
virological reality to health as a mental and psychological reality and I
33:40
don't know who is stewarding for the country the reintegration of of intimacy
33:51
and close contact in public space as a public good I think that there are
33:59
incredible systems that we've devised to deport people I think that the prison
34:08
industrial complex is an incredible system so if we can design these systems
34:14
I believe that we can also design freedom I think that we can also design
34:19
public good and public health and to not enlist artists and artistic intelligence
34:27
in that design would be a mistake and so that's the thing that I think I spent
34:33
the majority of the presentation advocating for is is the is assigning
34:39
and deploying artists the same way that we would think about bringing several
34:46
the plans to bear if they were a Manhattan Project if if we were if if we
34:51
thought of public health the same way that we thought of weapons building who
34:58
would we bring to the table and hopefully it wouldn't just be scientists
35:03
it would be humanitarians as well [Doug] it's great I love this idea of deploying
35:09
artists and moving them in more mainstream and less weird but also
35:15
keeping and celebrating that weird and and celebrating that fringe but I have
35:19
to stop talking because I need to pass this over to Sunil who wants to jump in
35:23
[Sunil] no I just I was very inspired by me yeah I thought that that was very really like
35:28
your presentation I think that's the core point that we all should think
35:31
about um I guess what I would it's more of a question just to ask if people if
35:36
you feel any sectors are particularly ripe for that kind of transition or you
35:41
know incorporation of artists and arts workers in that way I mean I think you
35:46
mentioned public health and there's been really some great I think in last few
35:50
years and very encouraging signs of you know of coming together among you know
35:55
public or public health departments arts cultural agencies doing work and artists
35:59
I can think of R&D and business communities where we clearly there's a
36:04
big role for innovation through the Arts and I know there's been some attempts to
36:08
have artists and residents and those kinds of programs or their particular
36:10
sectors you think they're going to listen more to this call than others any
36:15
of you it's curious [Linda] I'm biased Sunil but I would say public education
36:23
[Bamuthi] I would I would say this is why Linda's foundational call in response to
36:32
the first question is so important because what are the sectors trying to
36:37
do you know the the National Football League isn't a humanitarian organization
36:43
they're trying to you know its its bottom line is make its to make money
36:47
using the instrument that's available to it and to make money very specifically
36:53
for its 30-something owners which is why the Commissioner of the National
36:57
Football League comes out on Friday and says yeah black lives matter go ahead
37:00
protest right there's and it's why you're seeing all these corporate
37:05
statements because it's very difficult to avoid the zeitgeist in this moment so
37:10
so maybe a rephrasing of the question is that all sectors are are ripe for this
37:20
kind of integration and and kind of but they but they have to shift what they
37:25
perceive as their bottom line if the bottom line is only financial capital
37:30
then none of them are but if the bottom line is social capital political capital
37:35
if we think about equity if we think about them equity inside of the moral
37:41
economy the same way that we think of equity inside a financial economy then
37:45
though then it's wide open but we have to go there first [Lucy] I want to
37:51
it might have been because the I absolutely agree I'm very inspired by
37:57
this one of the things that I've often thought about is you know often and
38:02
there's a whole literature on how people come together in disasters and all kinds
38:08
of paradises get built and then they dissipate it seems to me one sector that
38:14
I struggle with mightily and my whole professional career has spent trying to
38:19
understand this is this thing called the nonprofit sector which is as
38:24
hierarchical and structured for capitalization purposes as as any other
38:32
industry and it's also I think
38:39
and I was gonna say fraying but I don't think that's the right verb but we'll
38:45
use it for now in ways that offer tremendous opportunity and and what you
38:51
see around it as we often also do in quote-unquote disasters are these
38:57
community movements social movements these unstructured informal ways of
39:05
being that are driven by values other than financial value which is also one
39:11
of these first principles we keep sort of circling around I often say to people
39:14
you know the number one I live in San Francisco number one financial value
39:18
around here is efficiency but if I were to list my top ten values for you it
39:23
doesn't come anywhere it's nowhere near the list you know what happened to truth
39:26
and beauty and justice and those kinds of things so it's long way of saying I'm
39:33
agreeing with whoever said it might be all sectors I think everything is under
39:37
such the the the foundations of almost everything every public system we've
39:44
built and this adjacent nonprofit sector and probably many corporations as well
39:53
are showing that they were built on quicksand and how do we capture what's
40:00
happening already and I think the arts if there's a sector that a sector
40:05
it's where artists live it's where people who pursue I don't think of
40:10
artists as weird so much as those who proudly pursue a set of other values
40:15
first and foremost and the one that our current society has privileged above all
40:20
others of efficiency it's not a it's a wishy-washy answer and that I don't know
40:26
how to make it more practical but I think that's that there's tremendous
40:33
possibility there and I think we have to I for one lead the charge and saying
40:40
let's reimagine this whole Civic space this whole civil society thing it's got
40:45
those many fractures and fissures and unuseful elements to it as
40:51
as the marketplace in the government as [Doug] well it's good thank you
40:56
well I want to take that as a chance to bounce it back over to Jon who I think
41:00
has lots to say both about sort of different organizational structures and
41:04
legal types I'm glad you broach the non-profit thing
41:07
because the NFL might be one of my favorite nonprofits out there as a way
41:11
of teaching us a lesson about what nonprofit really means but Jon's got a
41:15
different vantage on this and I also want you to get have a chance to comment
41:18
on how you might think about this generally about systems to support
41:21
creativity and what other insights yes it may be two different pieces that may
41:26
or may not be something you can weave together [Jon] yeah I don't know if I can weave together but this
41:31
is this is such a great conversation and I 100% agree with Bamuthi your point
41:37
of like what are we design a system for so I Doug and Sunil are aware of a
41:43
project I've been working on quite some find out for Kickstarter which is like
41:47
how do we evaluate our mission performance how do we you know we're a
41:50
public benefit corporation we are trying not to maximize try to create a
41:55
different bottom line than just having financial return be our primary value
42:00
we're not a nonprofit that we want to create a sustainable business that can
42:05
operate independently just with a different bottom line than revenue so we
42:10
have to evaluate well what is the value what if the creative value of the work
42:13
that we're supporting what is our value in that process and what is the
42:15
diversity what is the creative diversity of the ecosystems a whole in order for
42:19
it to be healthy those are very difficult questions to answer and as
42:22
I've gone through the process of trying to figure out how we can answer that
42:26
question what I found is in the u.s. the value is always money right all of the
42:33
creative any sort of creative value nonprofit space bottom line is well
42:39
what's the economic impact with that right and that's what we're designing
42:42
for which is I don't think that is the bottom line like so how we have to
42:48
reimagine what would it were to be designing the system for and abroad
42:51
they're they've you know in Europe in other countries they talk more about
42:59
trying to find another bottom line but nowhere has really done it well as far
43:04
as I've been able to find yet and you still have the nonprofit problem which
43:07
is the the frameworks and methodologies they've developed to try to form a
43:13
different bottom line are being created by people that are in organisations that
43:17
are just trying to justify their own existence and get funders right so it's
43:20
it's actually kind of the same bottom line but one step removed and we're in a
43:25
position where we're actually just doing this because we think it like you know
43:28
it doesn't change anything in terms of our capital we're just trying to create
43:31
a healthier ecosystem but no one that we've been with find who's actually
43:34
created methodology for this without money as the thing that they're
43:38
ultimately aiming at for I was like maybe far as I can find and what's
43:44
beautiful about the moment that we're currently seeing in terms of the
43:48
challenge to policing in the United States is that it is a discussion about
43:53
well wait what if we reimagine this entire thing worth the value what this
43:58
is the big part of debate right it's like reforms versus defund abolish the
44:03
police and everyone's kind of freaking out about abolish the police from the
44:07
police but but it's opening up this conversation of a really radical
44:10
reimagining of the underlying values of what this is and how we relate to each
44:15
other in community and that's a if we can all these systems are interconnected
44:21
actually at the end of the day and if we can start reimagining you know how what
44:27
we build our society for in one area I think we can start pulling it into into
44:32
the rest [Doug] Linda did you want to jump in [Linda] yeah I just I'm starting to form an idea so I'm and I'm speaking it
44:43
out loud to 250 people or over many are listening but I think you know we're
44:47
talking a lot about systems and I think I think the answers aren't going to be
44:51
at that macro level but really in communities
44:54
settings and as I was thinking that Lucy put something in the chat box about what
44:58
about healthy community food systems so when we look at at arts activity in
45:03
community settings in with for communities with community support those
45:11
have the potential to be healthier when we look and think about this notion of
45:18
policing if we invest in communities in education and Community Arts and
45:27
Community Services and bring police in as community members as part of a
45:33
community that month you know and then network these communities together so in
45:39
this utopian imaginary that's Lucy's word again she's good with the metaphors
45:45
Thank You Lucy is you know this this utopia of networked communities where
45:51
our communities are really working internally and then working across
45:55
communities with one another but the the the centralization of financial capital
46:01
and a few small corporations and to some extent a few a few nonprofit large
46:07
nonprofit organizations works against that idea and that's why you have people
46:12
like like like the artists I mentioned to you know is out of work there
46:17
needs to be a community level support for those folks
46:19
just the thought [Doug] thank you so I'm gonna interject briefly here to also remind
46:26
the audience that's out there to email in and tweet in questions we're getting
46:31
near an end time where we can start taking some I've heard it see there's a
46:34
bunch of there's a bunch of them they've been collected but we're collecting more
46:37
as we go and I'm gonna get fed some of these questions as we go but maybe I'll
46:42
give one last sort of question for me that I'm gonna pop over to Sunil
46:48
about what you see is some lessons learned here as we insofar as we react
46:54
to the pandemic or other crises of the moment what do you think is some of the
47:00
lessons learned that across your desk [Sunil] you know I could just say I'll happen to
47:05
live in Maryland and I don't think I'll ever be quite nostalgic
47:08
about my commute morning commute two into the city but that said one one time
47:14
I remember way before all this happened like years ago I was commuting and you
47:19
know I was on my phone as often am checking work messages replying busily
47:23
somebody I knew who didn't work at the National Endowment for the Arts came up to me
47:26
and like who I knew knew anyway said to me you know what are you doing
47:30
you look so engaged because she goes um you know there are no emergencies in the
47:35
arts she basically told me because she knew I worked at the Arts now and now
47:38
ralick statement now is I guess not only emergencies for the arts but I think
47:43
nationally and how the arts are you know clearly part of the solution I think as
47:46
we're all saying in a systemic way I said that because you reminded me and I
47:51
think what I'm trying to get across here is a lot of what we've discussed so far
47:54
I think necessarily involves starting some things from scratch right but I
48:00
also want to shout out to the fact that there sis they're sort of you know
48:04
there's some bright spots right without being Pollyannish or some places where
48:08
these convergences have been happening and built and made stronger one
48:11
thing I'd like to point out which we didn't really discuss and maybe this is
48:14
a lesson learned is uh you know we have a couple of great colleagues Brian
48:17
lusher and Andy Mathis who frequently go to Puerto Rico and and the Virgin
48:24
Islands over well after the hurricane problems that happen you know assist
48:28
with recovery and ongoing not just fly in and leave but really stay and help
48:32
the communities there I think that kind of disaster relief consciousness or that
48:36
kind of mindset of emergency preparedness is something that I think
48:39
art the arts now has to kind of take in and sustain and we have to continue to
48:44
think about ourselves on the front lines of rebuilding in many of these cases I
48:50
just think it's a couple of quick things zanny boss some of you know and Jill
48:55
Robinson put a report out recently called the long haul in it for the long
48:59
haul talking largely about nonprofit arts
49:01
cultural organizations after the pandemic and one of the things she says
49:05
in it is local audiences local talent indeed the local supply chain will reign
49:10
supreme this is assuming that the travel industry is going to be hit very hard
49:13
and we're not going to have the ability to be as geographically mobile so I
49:17
think that again throws us back in on ourselves and our local communities and
49:20
finding solutions our communities and so I mean I don't
49:23
know how that's operationalize but I think that's a key lesson for me is that
49:26
the local supply chain really attending to the circles that are broadening out
49:32
in these larger concentric circles for the Arts and for people to participate
49:35
more fully I said enough but one quick thing I think virtual engagement is we
49:40
talked about that what that looks like in maintaining equity inclusion in these
49:45
platforms and ensuring that you know we don't move into a monolithic scenario
49:49
with arts on through the internet and online I think that we preserve these
49:54
different voices somehow it's going to be crucial as well [Doug] that's that's great
49:59
Sunil thank you you're continuing to set me up well on this and I'm going
50:03
to mention that one of the comments were getting bit from the AEI backstage room
50:08
is that you've been dropping a lot of statistics and numbers Sunil and people
50:12
want to know your sources they want to know where this research is coming from
50:15
and have you share it so maybe rather than having you listed all now we'll
50:19
find a way to get that info back to these people [Sunil] well they really want to know that
50:22
this is legit [Doug] I don't think they were questioning it, I thin they're curious [Sunil] I thought I just threw out big numbers [Doug] but actually the
50:31
last point that you mentioned in your remarks there is something that comes to
50:35
us a question wants to build off that that comes to us from Twitter from Bente
50:39
Bouthier I probably butchered that name and I apologize for
50:42
it but I'll read it and since while many many organizations have adapted to
50:47
digital models during the pandemic how could moving away from in-person
50:51
consumption of art an exchange of ideas impact the arts sector long term
51:04
[Bamuthi] I just have an emotional response and the emotional response comes from I'm
51:14
here in Washington DC I don't live too far away from 1600
51:20
blacklivesmatter Plaza and I rode my bike around this weekend and was moved
51:33
chilled and a little scared as I weaved in and out of protests probably 95% of
51:43
the people that were out had masks on but there were a few that didn't and I
51:53
the the dual crises of I guess one of the questions that was launched for me
52:01
is why are people out here risking literally risking their health and I
52:10
have to think that there's some understanding that we are only as safe
52:16
as the members of our community who are most at risk and so there's something
52:25
about this moment where the the risk was worth it for tens of thousands of people
52:38
across all 50 states and dozens of countries
52:41
so let's transpose that to arts experiences and creative experiences is
52:52
what's worth the risk of coming together in intimate space to engage in
53:00
collectively in creative practices and creative imagination what is the
53:06
calculus in terms of our self-concept our Civic constant
53:14
what degree what variable what weight does Public Engagement hold in our
53:23
self-concept and in our Civic concept there's this is lovely I love seeing you
53:31
guys in your boxes you guys are gorgeous I really appreciate it but but in terms
53:41
of my self-concept there's something missing here you know there's so I think
53:47
that what the arts sector has to consider what we're all wrestling with
53:54
is that the virtual experience delivers content but not humanity the the virtual
54:03
experience isn't why we got into this thing and it's not the function it does
54:09
not answer the question what does our country need from us right now our
54:13
country I believe needs for us to design systems that bring people back together
54:20
because everything then cascades over our economic well-being our you know our
54:28
sense of morality it cascades over into this thing of if if there is no public
54:35
good there's a difference I guess between something that happens in public
54:40
and a public moment you know I mean a public value and so I think that the
54:48
arts sector can't go the arts sector has to figure out a way to evolve forward I
54:55
you know it's the the equity and the democracy that's demonstrated in having
55:02
these virtual channels the the collective access that we have to sublime
55:09
art that we may not have had before is amazing and that's a fantastic content
55:14
strategy but it's not the actual mandate for the arts sector it's not what the
55:20
world needs right now
55:22
[Doug] interesting well I think we have time to sneak in one other question here at
55:27
least this one comes also from Twitter from the Alliance for the Arts and
55:31
research universities what are we doing to give our citizens and our students in
55:36
our current systems access and time to develop creative intelligence
55:46
you want to take that one off
55:52
[Linda] um I'll I guess being a Dean in a university and this might be directed at
55:58
me um we have to whether it's virtually or in real-time provides students while
56:08
they're in school and I would say this K through graduate school opportunities to
56:14
fail and to figure stuff out you know you don't you don't build creative
56:20
intelligence by doing something someone else told you to do over and over again
56:24
you build creative intelligence by by doing new things and putting them out in
56:29
the world and seeing if they fly I think I mix my metaphors but that's that you
56:34
know ultimately it comes down to that giving students opportunities to build
56:38
creativity to to develop their own voices and one of our strategic
56:43
priorities in the College of Arts and Letters at Cal State LA product
56:47
placement is to build voices for social justice that's a college priority right
56:53
we have to give students an opportunity to do that and to to fail at doing that
56:59
and be supported in that failure and get back up and dust off and do it again and
57:03
grow creatively
57:07
[Doug] other thoughts on this one
57:13
[Jon] I'll just jump in you know I think just a building on that
57:18
the most creative spaces that I've seen built before like people emerging
57:25
artists or ones that value the pursuit of new ideas rather than the actual
57:30
success of them right if all you do is and this is where actually digital
57:34
platforms are really come off me really bag as they value often success and I
57:39
are optimizing just for like getting there and winning the attention or
57:45
almost on the like war and all that stuff but when you have a space that is
57:49
just like well are you working on something and is it is it kind of weird
57:53
is it on the edge great a lot of that stuff's gonna be terrible but it doesn't
57:58
matter because that's where the best stuff emerges that and that's that I
58:02
think is I've seen very few spaces that actually build value systems where that
58:09
is like kind of the culture and that's what's valued rather than was it really
58:14
successful in the end
58:18
[Doug] good thanks so I've got a remark from and a question from Rachel Skaggs who's
58:24
at the Ohio State University and she's in our backstage room and zoom
58:28
apparently and here's what she writes I love the conversation on arts thinking
58:33
is key to systems building which is definitely linked to creative
58:36
placemaking and place keeping in social practice are are there recent examples
58:42
of arts interventions into society happening in your communities or how
58:47
does it rephrase they're examples of this that come to mind that you can
58:50
share and discuss it with [Bamuthi] yeah for me it's it's hard not to think about what
59:03
what well first with Theaster Gates has done in Chicago on
59:10
the south side of Chicago what Rick Lowe has done with project row houses in
59:17
Third Ward in Houston what Quran Davis has done on Crenshaw Avenue with
59:31
destination Crenshaw all these examples are examples of creative communities
59:40
hacking real estate and encouraging both inside and outside not only a reclaiming
59:51
a physical space but a but a claiming of psychological space again going back to
59:57
what we perceive as beautiful and valuable but those you know all those
60:07
examples I think are very instructive because they they do go back to the
60:13
Black Panther parties you know principles we want land right so where
60:21
the arts sector I think is most successful in terms of making these
60:26
kinds of incursions have everything to do with
60:31
a kind of reclamation of square blocks if not square miles in major cities now
60:40
this can happen in rural communities and in urban communities as well but these
60:46
artists have essentially formed these small oasis where creative enterprises
60:53
or creative thought or a different kind of value system might flourish they've
60:57
created micro economies but they needed land to do it not buildings but square
61:03
mileage right square footage is not going straight up so I think this too is
61:09
one of those places where virtual space is exciting and offers a prompt in terms
61:19
of and offers safe haven in terms of where ideas might flourish but without
61:28
space to grow in the material world it's a little bit more difficult to attach
61:36
that to our current economic system to our to our current understanding of what
61:43
value is and what is valuable um it's also interesting to me that the examples
61:50
that I gave destination Crenshaw project row houses and and rebuild that these
61:57
are prompts from the visual arts sector and the economy in the visual arts
62:02
sector is different than the economy in my sector in the performing arts sector
62:06
because if I make a dance it has lots of value to me but not as much value as the
62:13
photograph behind me as a matter of fact this photograph can be sold but my dance
62:19
cannot right so there's a way that visual artists have used the financial
62:25
resources from the sale of their work to then support themselves on a higher
62:31
level but also to create land bases from which their creative ideas might might
62:36
flourish so those are three examples that that I would cite but they also
62:41
open up a whole new can of in terms of how we get the financial
62:47
resources to support these mini oasis of interdependence creative activity and
62:56
support for historically marginalized communities [Doug] great thank you all right so
63:04
I just got another great question from from an email that I think is gonna
63:09
touch on something we've already talked about a little bit for this distinction
63:13
between sort of blowing stuff up and more radical reforms or reimagining
63:19
versus more incremental things and I think generally attention we all feel or
63:24
see about trying to push to get back to the way things were that these systems
63:31
are designed often to be really resilient and to a fault in some obvious
63:35
examples today so here's the question from Priya Sircar have the panelists see
63:41
as the role of philanthropy in reimagining or dismantling the current
63:47
system
63:51
question but small answers are okay [Sunil] well I just thought that you know all of us
63:58
those of us who are arts in the arts funding organizations we know that
64:03
cross-sectoral funding cross-sectoral initiatives that's been a kind of
64:07
buzzword for the last several years among the philanthropists community and
64:11
I think now we're in a position that you know really look at which you know which
64:16
kinds of mashups of sectors are maybe most viable even in the short term and I
64:21
think again I can only say like I think I love examples just given about what we
64:26
might consider creative placemaking we had to label it but I think that's a
64:30
really strong vibrant sector within the arts alone I think a lot of the work
64:34
around arts and health arts in public health but also arts being used in in
64:39
clinics and clinic out clinic settings for a range of services that we might
64:43
consider social services and substance abuse to trauma recovery a whole bunch
64:48
of things I think there's already some embeddedness going on there now I don't
64:52
think that we're in a position to say it's an you know it's gotten to where we
64:55
all would like it where the arts and artists doing the work of this are
64:58
valued as you know instrumental to these systems but I think we're much further
65:04
along I think from our little corner of the world I think what we can do is try
65:07
to for example support research and build up evidence that will speak to
65:11
those communities which are using different vocabularies from all of us
65:14
right and really speak their language a little bit it does require maybe a
65:18
little discomfort because we want rapid change we want radical change in many
65:22
cases systemically that's warranted but I think at the same time doing it
65:27
incrementally is the only real I think viable short to medium term solution
65:31
being a relentless incrementalist you know about this and yet while doing
65:36
that not losing sight of the vision you know so I think I think you know I think
65:40
we've made some progress as funders together and collaborating with other
65:44
other kinds of funders whether it's you know collaborations with arts funders
65:48
and say the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation or you know looking at you
65:53
know certainly other organizations that are doing work and place-based
65:56
initiatives where the arts isn't necessarily central to their mission I
66:00
think that has to continue
66:03
[Lucy] I was just gonna say I think there's a really interesting possibility
66:12
here that's occurring to me from this whole conversation one of the things
66:15
that and I I mostly work with philanthropic foundations who are by law
66:20
required to fund institutions and then you've got something like a Kickstarter
66:24
and the re-visability not that they're not new they've been there
66:29
forever but a new visibility on mutual aid support networks right the arts is
66:34
an area is sort of in this siloed world we think of where the individual and a
66:41
collective of people is still really recognized as the power it's the
66:46
creative energy not the institution itself so how can we encourage the big
66:54
money that's locked up in these big foundations that by norm and law fund
67:00
organizations only and we can't get the money to the people and things like
67:05
Kickstarter bail funds mutual aid networks where there's been this reattention
67:12
to the end you know the fact that we had a presidential candidate who
67:17
socialized the phrase universal basic income didn't succeed in it but really
67:23
shift the attention I'm not anti institution but we're talking about
67:27
people here I mean Linda started us off talking about an individual artist so is
67:32
there a way to deliberately hybridize some of this keeping the power in the
67:38
distributed networks but the money is locked up in these big piles and
67:45
distributing it out through these networks where the the individual and
67:51
the collective is the center of energy and let those be
67:56
the I'm gonna now metaphor mash mushroom up some new institutional structures for
68:03
us I think we've got some and you know the rules that make philanthropy work
68:08
the way it works are utterly changeable they're human world we made them we
68:14
wrote them we can rewrite them but that recognition and there's a such
68:19
power in that because I'm having a hard time at thinking of any other sector of
68:24
philanthropy where we know the creative energy is not the institution as much as
68:32
the individuals I'm not coming up with ... we don't anyway so I think there's
68:37
a real moment there to reimagine some of these systems maybe we could stop
68:44
locking people up so we stopped needing bail and we can use bail funds as art
68:51
funds or something like that ties right back into the police defunding situation
68:56
all of that money redirecting it [Doug] Jon [Jon] yeah okay
69:02
I'll try to be quick about this because one I've been working on this problem at
69:05
Kickstarter for a while as well yeah we're trying to access those giant pools
69:11
capital and redistribute them at scale to a lot of individuals right like and
69:15
this is actually something I've been pitching foundations and philanthropy
69:20
institutions for a while in my spare time it's not my primary job I guess but
69:25
it's something that it makes total sense it's very hard to get those institutions
69:29
to change and we have to basically launder the money because it's not set
69:33
up for this so I have to take a foundation I've worked with the knight
69:36
foundation on this the knight foundation made a grant to American documentary at
69:40
an American documentary pledged in two campaigns right and in talking them
69:44
about this program my point is that I was like you know if we have five
69:49
hundred thousand dollars I would much rather have two
69:52
hundred thousand dollars going to a hundred artists in very small amounts
69:56
that we can leverage through our platform through community adding it to
70:00
community support to reply to a platform like Kickstarter then five grants of
70:06
$100,000 because those five grants or $100,000 tend to go to people that are
70:11
very privileged in cities with connections to large institutions and
70:15
they tend to look more like me and you know we want to be in very small towns
70:21
across everywhere with access to everyone and that small amount can
70:25
catalyze a huge change for those artists lives so that's one piece of this so
70:29
we're on this if people want to talk about
70:32
this please reach out to me but and the other thing I want to mention here
70:35
actually comes from a climate work idea because I'm also a head of
70:38
sustainability at kickstarter and I do a lot of climate change work and there's a
70:44
problem in climate change that it's being solved that I don't see being
70:47
solved in some of the problems that we're talking about which is the gap
70:50
between traditional philanthropy and venture capital right so climate change
70:55
you can have charities that just donate money to something that's doing you know
71:00
fighting climate change but it's in seeking return it tends to be a
71:04
non-profit or you have venture capital search trying to make it a 10x 20x
71:07
return and it leaves this massive gap of opportunity where you need a ton of
71:11
capital going into companies and solutions that may have a go may just
71:15
return the capital right it'll give them if things work out well it's 1 or 2 X
71:21
return to the granting institution and actually don't have things set up for
71:26
that mechanisms or capital frameworks to really do that kind of a capital
71:34
allocation that's something as we think about well what do we need to rebuild
71:39
the institutions the foundations of how arts are supported shared distributed
71:46
made in society we have this massive gap they were coming back they're a company
71:51
like ampled which you know I really want to succeed even if it hurts
71:55
Kickstarter there's no capital for them because they're not going to get
71:59
philanthropy money because they are a non-profit and they're not going to get
72:03
venture capital money because they're maximizing financial return but
72:06
ultimately that solution is if it can flourish and be self sustainable as far
72:12
more impactful and equitable than what most nonprofits are doing and certainly
72:16
for-profit companies are doing and so thinking about different ways to deploy
72:20
capital and ways that are sustainable that help grow a better soil develop a
72:25
better soil for us is something that I think needs to be considered [Bamuthi] if I can
72:32
just jump in here and unfortunately I just have to challenge the premise of
72:38
the question because you know what philanthropy the
72:43
the core of philanthropic giving is over generations an individual a family has
72:51
made zillions of dollars destroying the planet and then spends point zero zero
72:58
one percent of the zillions of dollars that they've made to you know and
73:02
there's a graphic going around right now where New York City is spending
73:08
something like six billion dollars on its police force and 750 million dollars
73:14
on youth and Community Development the question isn't for philanthropy
73:18
whose model is you know thanks to you know thanks to Jon and - you know and -
73:24
Lucy - Sunil really all for all four of you that are rethinking how funds are
73:32
distributed in terms of the public good but it's a trap - to ask what could
73:41
fillet have to be doing be doing better you know this goes back to you know Lucy
73:47
sighting of Andrew yang and a universal basic income it goes back to a kind of
73:55
pre Reagan you know 1950s 1960s tax structure quite honestly what are you
74:05
know this is back to a Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren reading of of the tax
74:11
code it's just a sigh I mean I love Elizabeth Warren's idea of a billionaire
74:16
tax which is like make your money man but after after a while how much right
74:22
so I just wanna I love all the innovations that are being made in the
74:27
realm of philanthropy but I just think that we have to challenge the the
74:30
premise of the question itself because the place is an undue burden the same
74:34
way that I think that we place sometimes an undue burden on the artists to come
74:39
in and do a poem for disadvantaged kids and then we're mad when
74:46
racism doesn't end at the end of the poem you know I mean it's it it doesn't
74:51
work like that in terms of the moral landscape and it doesn't work like that
74:55
in terms of the financial landscape we really have to think our tax rethink
74:59
our tax structure and what our priorities are in terms of the civic
75:04
good it can't just be on philanthropy to undo all these systemic pathologies [Doug] on that thank you
75:15
I'm really excited to be ending this in some ways with questioning the premise and the question in the
75:18
first place I take that as a huge sign of success for the conversation that
75:23
we've accomplished a lot there and I wish we could go on much longer actually
75:27
in part cuz I've got a a giant stack of questions that only seem to keep getting
75:32
better from the audience so there's a lot of demand and curiosity for what you
75:35
all have to say which just means I should be especially thankful to all of
75:40
my panelists all five of you for coming together joining us having this
75:43
conversation thank you very much does anybody have a last word or six
75:48
they want to throw in who run into the lunch hour I don't see any digital hands
75:53
going up so with that thank you all very much everyone else stay tuned you can
75:59
keep watching this we get a little information on about our Center but
76:03
otherwise we're going to be back at 1 o'clock for panel B
76:06
which should also be very exciting thank you all everybody [Bamuthi] really appreciate
76:11
y'all thank you [Linda] thank you Doug [Lucy] thank you [Sunil] thanks very much
Description of the video:
00:04
[Joanna] great we are all here so welcome everybody
00:10
it is 1:01 p.m. Eastern Standard Time I'm in Bloomington Indiana and my name is
00:17
Joanna Woronkowicz and I'm one of the co-directors of the Arts,
00:20
Entrepreneurship, and Innovation Lab here at the Center for Cultural Affairs we
00:25
have a really exciting panel at right now and I'm so happy to be the moderator
00:32
of it we're talking about community and engagement and before we get started how
00:38
about we go around the room and just briefly introduce ourselves I'm gonna
00:43
start with Amaka [Nwamaka] Hi everyone my name is Amaka Agbo and I'm with Nwamaka Agbo Consulting
00:50
based out of Oakland California and I used the pronoun she
00:55
and her thank you thanks for having me again
00:57
[Joanna] thanks so much for being here and Tally
01:09
[Tally] hi my name is Tally Katz-Gerro
01:16
I'm very happy to be here and to participate in this event so thank you
01:22
Joanna and Doug for inviting me I'm a sociologist based at the University of
01:28
Haifa in Israel in my work I'm interested in cultural consumption
01:33
cultural policy and comparing between countries right [Joanna] thanks for being here
01:39
Tally Alan [Alan] hi everyone I'm Alan brown I live
01:47
in the great city of Detroit Michigan and I'm a researcher and consultant in
01:54
the arts and culture sector delighted to be with you [Joanna] thanks Alan for being here
01:59
and how about Peter [Peter] hello everyone Thank You Joanna
02:04
I'm Peter Linett I'm calling in from Santa Fe which is the traditional
02:09
homeland of the ... Pueblo on the Thomas Pueblo my professional life is
02:14
based in Chicago at the firm Slover Linett audience research
02:18
we're social research practice we just want to say Joanna and Doug what a great
02:22
panel you put together in the first round earlier today was tremendous as
02:27
were some of the many of the pre-recorded talks so thank you for
02:32
including me yeah [Joanna] thanks Peter and finally Mark [Mark] I'm Mark Shapiro I'm
02:38
humbled to be among this group and definitely feel like the outlier both
02:42
intellectually and experienced wise just a sports guy 30 years live in Toronto
02:50
Canada and I'm the CEO and president of the Blue Jays [Joanna] great well thanks everybody for being
02:57
here today I just want to remind the attendees that we will be taking
03:01
questions near the end of the panel so you can either send in your questions
03:06
via twitter at our twitter handle @ccaoneill #AEI2020 or send in
03:13
those questions via email ccaoneill@iu.edu
03:19
we also have "Backstage @ AEI" a zoom room going on and you can get to our get
03:27
to that room by going to our website and clicking the link so we'll be taking
03:30
questions from all three of those places near the end of the panel so I'm just
03:35
going to go ahead and get started we have some amazing keynote presentations
03:40
that Mark and Amaka were part of that are already posted to our website and
03:48
our event page that really start to put forward some provocative ideas and
03:53
questions and I want to just start with responding having our panelists respond
03:58
to those keynotes so in Amaka keynote she talks about the structural
04:05
challenges to marginalized communities that the pandemic has really helped lay
04:09
bare especially in regard to where the concentration of power lies within a
04:15
capiTallystic climate and then we saw Marks keynote and he clearly outlines
04:20
the challenges that the sports industry is facing due to the pandemic with
04:25
regard to figuring out how to sustain a multi-billion dollar industry that
04:29
supports diverse and multi-layered system of
04:32
communities this includes staff athletes and fans so I'm gonna start with Tally
04:39
if that's okay with you and then how about we move on to Alan and then Peter
04:43
can you just talk about the challenges and hardships you're observing in your
04:49
work with regard to communities which you believe are attributable to how the
04:53
pandemic has changed our way of life [Tally] thank you for the question Joanna and
05:00
I'd like to start by thanking Amaka and Mark for the contributions which
05:06
were really interesting I would like to echo some of what they said and to
05:11
reiterate that society is probably going to change in radical ways and we have to
05:18
acknowledge that as the title of this event is it's not going to be back to
05:23
normal billions of people are in lockdown at
05:26
the same time in different parts of the world and this makes us feel that we are
05:32
part of the same problem and that we should address it all together and this
05:38
means that we need more solidarity and to move away from cultural prejudice and
05:44
this really resonates with the concept of restorative economics of course we
05:50
have to remember that vulnerable underprivileged groups such as women
05:55
communities of color immigrants low income groups children youth the elderly
06:02
the homeless all of them experienced the pandemic very differently Covid 19 is
06:10
exacerbating existing inequalities because these groups are being hit
06:14
harder as they have less access to health care and more difficulties self
06:20
isolating and these inequalities are also evident when thinking about
06:25
cultural participation and cultural engagement and I separate the two
06:31
deliberately for instance vulnerable groups tend to have less access to
06:36
public spaces and to green spaces public or private green spaces in lower-income
06:42
neighborhoods are often smaller under maintained less numerous
06:46
than those in wealthier neighborhoods public spaces are really important for
06:52
providing social interactions that mitigates isolation and loneliness and
06:57
these are places where some forms of cultural activities happen so the
07:04
epidemic accentuates the difference between what's important and what's not
07:09
and one thing that I would like to really emphasize is that we should
07:15
remember that the arts and cultural sector is an extremely important one
07:21
both because it represents the morals values and spirit of society but also
07:27
because it is a major economic Market and we have billions of people employed
07:32
and a lot of money contributed to the economy so access to art and culture and
07:40
the ability of different social groups to engage in them is really important
07:45
both for individuals and for communities and society in general because such
07:50
engagement is the backbone of solidarity of integration and of inclusion and
07:57
returning to business as usual will not deliver a sustained long term recovery
08:03
that also improves well-being and reduces inequality and maybe later on we
08:08
can talk more about the link between cultural engagement and various aspects
08:14
of well-being and maybe I'll stop here for now
08:24
[Joanna] we move on to Alan [Alan] thanks tally and thanks Joanna hi everyone the gosh is
08:35
so much so much to respond to let me just first begin by saying that um back
08:42
in early March when people were kind of panicking and managing you know doing
08:52
triage Mark you're not alone in doing triage it occurred to me that we really
09:03
need to hear from audiences when things turn around and when facilities are able
09:10
to reopen we need to hear from community members so I very quickly put together
09:19
what is now the Covid 19 audience outlook monitor study you can find out
09:25
more about that at audienceoutlookmonitor.com we're really still gearing
09:30
up we've deployed surveys in five or six cities we've got about 10 more to go
09:37
we're in Australia Canada Norway and potentially several other countries so
09:46
it's interesting because we're seeing results from countries where the
09:52
situation is way different than in ours and I guess you know communities like
09:59
Joanna the you know we're we're researching audience members actually
10:04
which is a really poor proxy for communities because we're not talking to
10:12
people who don't already patronize cultural institutions and I think you
10:19
know Peter maybe you can go into this a little bit because I know you are but
10:25
you know if anything like this is the missing link is you know initially our
10:32
site was just like are people gonna come back how can we get people back
10:36
and now with the racial justice movement that we're seeing I think there's a
10:41
whole new set of questions that that delve very deeply into moral imperatives
10:50
I think we're seeing a failure of cultural policy in not not having
11:02
mechanisms for communities to set collective priorities but rather
11:07
allowing the Wild West of institutions to dominate what is produced we're
11:16
seeing a failure of strategic planning in that our strategic planning for years
11:23
has never even tolerated multiple viewpoints on what the future should
11:27
look like so we've not allowed a plurality of voices to the table and
11:36
only now are we discovering what scenario planning is and that's
11:43
something we need to learn a lot about so Mark I was intrigued by your comment
11:51
about grappling with shorter attention spans and but believe us that's
12:00
something that we think about all the time in arts and culture it's a
12:05
difficult conversation whether to allow people with devices to you know to use
12:10
devices during cultural events and a deep belief system that our job is to
12:19
teach people how to pay attention so maybe we're training your next
12:24
generation of sports fans so there's so much to talk about the harm in our
12:31
communities is so great I've done a deep analysis of the sector here in
12:37
southeastern Michigan I'm not really authorized to talk about that yet except
12:41
maybe in broad generalities but there are large significant percentages of
12:48
organizations that are in sort of 50 state 50 flavors of
12:53
insolvency prepare you know running out of cash figuring out whether to
13:02
completely hibernate in order to live to see another day The effect of the
13:12
pandemic on the african-american community here in Detroit has been
13:15
devastating much much worse than the white community and I'm not yet seeing
13:23
efforts by leadership in the cultural community to make choices about who who
13:28
gets support I'm seeing little relief checks going out which do not even begin
13:36
to approach the systemic problems you know that we need so I'll close by just
13:44
saying that you know before we were just focusing on audiences and when they'll
13:50
come back and now we're focusing on why why are we restoring institutions that
13:58
were built around white privilege and how can we fundamentally alter our
14:06
course as as a field so that's uh my initial provocation [Joanna] thanks Alan, Peter
14:16
[Peter] yeah I agree Alan this is a time for research as listening I think you know
14:24
research and evaluation have traditionally been part of the problem
14:27
what was called in the last panel monoculture tried maintaining or
14:32
extending exactly that white privilege that European set of definitions and
14:37
that very narrow sort of value Laden but pretending toward universality set of
14:44
values I think it's really clear that the disease that Marked them with the
14:50
Joseph talks about is is one thing it is not just the virus over here and George
14:56
Floyd and black lives matter over here it's it's an integrated
15:02
pain and illness so the question is how can research help right and I feel like
15:08
Amaka your framing which is so beautiful and I found your talk really inspiring
15:15
you're asking at the macro level the question that I've been trying to ask at
15:19
the cultural sector level which is of course one subsystem in the broader
15:25
notion that you've been painting and I guess I'm curious about what you say
15:29
about cultural power which you in one of your slides described is the outer ring
15:34
the precondition for all the other kinds of power that need to be distributed and
15:38
shared and lived in a more equitable and co-creative way so I'm trying to figure
15:45
out the link is it just a linguistic accident that the field that Alan and I
15:50
and some of us work in is just is called culture is that a different definition
15:55
than the sense in which you're using the word I'd love to hear your thoughts
16:00
about that and I have a big sort of pressing question that flows from that
16:05
which is about reparations because you're talking about repair and I think
16:09
the moment that were in is potentially an accelerant of a reckoning that was
16:15
long overdue and that was just being you know sort of unpacked and talked about
16:19
across the world of museums and and arts and cultural organisations prior to all
16:25
of us so I'm trying to see some good in it eventually but I just want to thank
16:33
you for that and we can talk about what the reparations are apologies might
16:37
before I have some thoughts about them
16:42
[Nwamaka] should I jump in Joanna yeah well thanks Peter I I appreciate that and thank you
16:50
all for your comments like some of the speakers have alluded to I come from a
16:56
long-term social racial justice organizing background working on policy
17:00
electoral politics community organizing and the framework of restorative
17:05
economics is one that is intentionally rooted in a framework of reparations and
17:10
restorative justice so when you bring up this piece around culture Peter I
17:16
I try to be intentional about referring to it as cultural power because to the
17:22
point that Tally raised culture is about our norms and our values our
17:27
beliefs our faiths and how those get reproduced in society through different
17:32
systems over and over again and the power piece is important because it
17:37
calls us early question who gets to produce and who gets to own and so once
17:43
again what are the cultural norms that get validated in institutions through
17:49
museums through music through celebrations out in the community and
17:54
for me I think if we wanted to kind of talk about why this is important in the
18:00
framework of reparation was only within the few last few years that we got the
18:04
African American Smithsonian in Washington DC the Smithsonian being a
18:09
long-term institution that's had a ... documenting the history the experiences
18:13
the people from a number of different cultures and given the four hundred year
18:17
legacy that the United States has around enslavement around genocide of
18:22
indigenous communities and black communities only now actually having a
18:26
space that's dedicated to documenting not only the pain and suffering but also
18:32
looking at the ways that black people have figured out how to celebrate and
18:36
have joy in within all that pain and suffering and so reparations is
18:41
important because it calls it invites us into really fitting with the
18:45
acknowledgement of the harm that was done because we actually can't go to
18:48
something that is more more just more equitable without knowing what that
18:53
actually looks like and what we're trying to repair and that understand
18:57
reparations has to actually be supported by actions and so yes I think apologies
19:04
and acknowledgment are a good place to start but then it calls us in to have
19:08
specific choices around when and how we make interventions to ensure that we
19:12
don't repeat the same harm and to also ensure that we are providing those same
19:17
communities that have been disproportionately impacted the skills
19:21
the tools the resources that they need to be to be able to kind of engage in a
19:27
more dignified livelihood and I think for
19:29
as we start to think about the what this means and we think about arts and
19:33
culture in this moment what we even to think about sports in this moment I
19:37
continue to come back to what does it mean to have collective care what does
19:42
it mean to actually have a strong social safety net where artists the vendors
19:48
that you know I love to go to the Oakland A's game things I love to go to the Warriors
19:52
games when they were still in open and the fact that we could have those
19:57
individual was working a minimum wage right what's the minimum that you need
20:01
to survive rather than a living wage how do we ensure that you have access to
20:05
quality housing access to education access to the healthcare benefit so that
20:10
you as a cultural worker you as somebody won't disappoint the sports industry has
20:15
a baseline and from there right you can build up on it I think for me one of the
20:20
things that has been innovative and exciting in this moment has been
20:25
watching so many artists figure out how to actually take the work online and
20:31
really also figuring out how moving to online virtual spaces creates the level
20:37
of accessibility that we oftentimes haven't been called into or required of
20:41
us before and so I think that there's also a way for us to really lean into
20:47
how the moment is inviting us to be more intentional and thoughtful about what
20:52
all of us need in terms of collective care but then how we also use a lot of
20:56
the technologies and innovations that we've benefited from to help ensure that
21:00
cultural workers have a larger platform can reach bigger audiences and that
21:06
they're resourced appropriately for their work and that they also then get
21:11
to have power and say over how their work is reproduced and sustained and so
21:16
yeah I'll get off my soapbox but thank you Peter [Joanna] thank you Amaka
21:23
you know my next question was about commonalities across all of our fields
21:28
especially in regards to challenges and hardships we're seeing but I think you
21:32
just went right ahead and started talking about those Amaka's framework
21:37
honestly from your keynote really gives us a sense of commonality
21:42
to to reference to so the it's funny I I want to I want to hear a little bit from
21:49
Mark because you talk about the challenges that the sports industry is
21:55
facing and well from the creative sectors standpoint we tend to always put
22:01
sort of sports against arts arts are different than sports etc but to me it
22:06
seems like there are so many more commonalities than we would even notice
22:09
so one of the points for example that Tally made is this idea of these two
22:16
forms of engagement helping us socially engage so I guess I want to know from
22:23
Mark what are you thinking about when it comes to this when it comes to this word
22:29
community are you trying to interrogate that word moving forward now that our
22:35
world has changed so much are you thinking about your fans differently
22:40
like who were your communities before this happened to who were your
22:44
communities right now [Mark] well again I think it's a bit overwhelming and challenging
22:52
to kind of talk about sports and in light of Amakas comments and some of the
22:57
other comments being made it goes a little mundane and all embarrassing
23:00
frankly I will say just a preface that answer Joanna they listen I'm not the
23:09
baseball and sports world is one of routine you know twenty nine straight
23:13
years of kind of doing the same thing the universal and I mean that in the
23:18
most literal sense challenge that we're all facing is one that has massively
23:23
interrupted you know that world and then on top of that the racial and social
23:30
justice movement which is you know so necessary and and I will say this if you
23:36
could ever look through the lens of Canada I moved here five years ago and
23:40
if you could ever see what race looks like at least in the City of Toronto I
23:44
think without being able to undo history and systemic issues you know there is
23:51
hope currently my children have been raised second that their lives without
23:56
a framework or thought of race and color and ethnicity and international issues
24:01
that's what that exists here so there is hope I know I think it's hard to undo
24:07
history hard to undo injustice particularly the ultimate injustice of
24:12
bondage and that to Native Americans but I'm hopeful I'm being here it gives me
24:18
hope when I think about my job the first thing I think about is protecting the
24:24
five hundred and thirteen hundred people that work for us in a time of
24:28
uncertainty and anxiety that we all face and we're not when Alan reference triage
24:34
it's how do we just take care of our people first the ability to think about
24:41
the long term of our business which is exactly what you're talking about and
24:46
what Alan referenced as far as attention spans changing the game recognizing what
24:53
not just sports live entertainment the live entertainment industry is going to
24:59
be destroyed is disrupted and will be massively changed in the short term it
25:06
was already undergoing a massive long-term change because of attention
25:11
spans because of mobility because of Technology and a lot of those lines
25:15
between accessibility and how do you grow fan bases and how do you step
25:23
outside of tradition and how do you understand what it truly means to
25:28
embrace court and bring in new communities and new fans is a lot of
25:35
what we were thinking about Joanna when we're thinking about long term I will be
25:39
honest with you I'm not thinking long term right now I'm thinking survival
25:43
right now you know but all of my efforts within my industry cap on this the
25:49
competition committee - the strategic planning committee about the ownership
25:53
groups have been focused on answering those questions what does what does
25:57
entertainment and the sport look like inside of the stadium how do we think
26:01
about distribution you know of our entertainment outside of the stadium how
26:06
do we define community because that word is very different
26:09
we define family without putting traditional labels on those things and
26:13
how do we make our environment one that is not just interesting or welcoming but
26:20
compelling for people to come and I think baseball is the one professional
26:25
sport that does offer a sense of community within the stadium it's it's
26:31
diverse here for the game which is not very diverse in a fan base
26:36
but it's also one that plays out slowly without a lot of loud noise and allows
26:41
for interaction and kind of fosters conversation in between around the key
26:46
so I know I rambled and I know I didn't kind of directly address your point but
26:51
it's so hard to address your point with the realities of the backdrop of the
26:55
world right now and those are the things I'm kind of hierarchy you know I'm
27:00
working through a hierarchy of protect mental health protect our people their
27:04
well-being their ability to protect you know to feed their families and kind of
27:08
continue at every level of our organization protect and ensure our
27:14
business has any level of sustainability and weight of this you know massive
27:19
reality and then with what little time is left I can get back to thinking about
27:24
the long-term viability and which I can talk about because it's all we were
27:28
thinking about prior to this disruption does that make sense [Joanna] absolutely and I
27:33
think you speak to a lot of what we're hearing from our attendees today which
27:36
is how do I focus long-term when I just need to focus on staying alive at this
27:41
point Tally I want to recognize your hand
27:45
your digital hand [Tally] yes thank you I'd like to follow up on that and and
27:51
say that I think that we should think of culture and tourism in the creative
27:58
industries and design and sports together because all of them create
28:04
spillover of culture onto productivity and education and forms of human social
28:12
and cultural capital and this is what's being disrupted now and this is why we
28:17
have a change to think about as Peter said restore
28:23
institutions in a different way and Amaka talked about community
28:28
stewardship community governance but we have to be aware of the significant
28:36
institutional barriers and those are really really difficult to overcome and
28:43
these barriers create inequalities in the way individuals are able to
28:49
translate or convert their cultural competencies to educational occupational
28:54
social benefits especially in times of crisis and this is the the danger of the
29:00
reproduction of privilege so we have to really concentrate on the crisis as an
29:07
opportunity to change these institutions and the way they work another point I
29:14
wanted to raise maybe to inject some optimism I think it is perhaps too early
29:22
to say that but I'm going to speculate and bear with me on that I think that
29:30
the the new situation we are in calls for rethinking some of the dichotomies
29:35
or binary formulations we've been working with the dichotomies between
29:41
consumers and producers because all of a sudden we see consumers of culture
29:48
turning into producers of culture in their homes that they caught to me
29:54
between urban and rural is being blurred between culture that is done online and
30:02
offline and even the dichotomy between high-brow culture and low-brow culture
30:08
all these are being blurred and perhaps the bright side is that formalized forms
30:16
of cultural participation now make way to more home base and family based forms
30:23
so if we think of culture in the broadest sense playing sports playing
30:30
cards board games online cultural consumptions of plays and operas and
30:36
children taking drawing lessons via zoom arts and crafts creating meals
30:45
writing blogs all of these are all of a sudden received a much more important
30:51
position in people's eyes and maybe this is a way to for us to start rethinking
30:59
the way we bring communities together around joint cultural products projects
31:06
and trying to think of ways to change some of these institutions and systems
31:11
[Peter] totally I agree but wasn't that all happening for the last couple decades I
31:17
mean you may be right that as I said earlier it's sort of an accelerant right
31:20
now but that those blurring and that disintermediation of culture such that
31:26
the institution plays not always a central role anymore it has been a long
31:32
along upwelling [Tally] well it really depends on the context
31:38
and in some countries it's really not very significant because these
31:43
situations are extremely strong extremely conservative and extremely
31:47
stable [Peter] hmm [Tally] but also there's the point of acceleration and thinks processes that
31:54
have been happening for the the past decade or five years all of a sudden are
31:59
bursting and yeah maybe this is something we can you elaborate on later
32:03
[Joanna] Alan [Alan] Joanna I'm maybe I'm moving forward too quickly here but I um you
32:14
know we we have known for so long that we need new models you know it's been
32:22
widely acknowledged yet we don't have them and you know the the cultural norms
32:33
Tally is talking about they're so hard to change you know who was it who
32:39
famously said there's nothing worse than you know wasting a crisis and you know
32:48
there will be people who say you know can we just solve one crisis at a time
32:51
can we get back to kind of not you know normal and frankly at the beginning of
32:56
this I was very skeptical about all the people running around like chicken
33:00
little saying oh it's all gonna be completely different now I thought
33:03
really because actually a lot of consumers just want to get back to
33:09
consuming what they used to consume before the pandemic hit because now the
33:14
normals you know returning to normalcy is such a prized thing but over the the
33:22
the past sort of month and a half it's really really become apparent to me that
33:27
actually you know now is the time for paradigmatic change and and and you know
33:37
the the conditions in which paradigmatic change are possible are so rare right
33:42
Adrienne Ellis calls it the Overton Window you know why do you know people
33:47
are able to have conversations they were able to have previously but we've you
33:54
know we've been having these conversations so you know I just want to
33:57
put like a couple of issues on the table like facilities like Mark you got
34:03
facilities right they are fixed boy are they fixed you know they change every 50
34:11
years maybe and we got facilities our facilities were designed with a certain
34:18
kind of experience for a certain kind of people in line and they're not suiting
34:24
us very well many of them you know and I think now you know now would be the time
34:32
for us to challenge the community of architects and designers and
34:40
acousticians and theater consults that actually reimagine cultural facilities
34:45
with equity in mind so that we don't have for another thirty years you know
34:56
two thousand seat auditorium is designed for white art you know how do we break
35:03
that chain so you know I want to get that on the table and then you know this
35:09
is this need for new models like deconstructing I mean I've been
35:12
listening to webinars which you know by different fields and you know it's very
35:22
clear that now is the time actually for us to be experimenting with new new
35:27
models that address what Amaka says is you know collective ownership new
35:36
models of collective ownership like what does that look like like what does what
35:41
does a music producing organization look like based on collective ownership you
35:47
know is it an orchestra is it an opera you know what does a community like
35:53
Detroit need from an opera company you know it's
35:59
so I would call on on Philanthropy to create greenhouse sites where where we
36:07
can experiment with new models wipe it out remove the risk of failure and try
36:14
something new and do it in multiple locations and stop making one site
36:21
one-off experiments grant funded experiments you know so sorry I don't
36:27
mean to indict philanthropy here they're doing so much to help but I really think
36:33
we have to get practical here about entering a space where we can experiment
36:39
with institutional models and facilities you know that will propel us forward as
36:45
a field [Peter] and Alan I just want to add I agree with what you're putting on the
36:52
table and it's really important I think that the new models of governance of
36:56
sort of service need to precede the buildings by a long way meaning it's
37:02
premature to be talking to the architects at the moment you're teeing
37:07
up the whole sequence of briefings and I just want to acknowledge that idea I've
37:12
been learning over the last couple months that restarting is not the main
37:17
goal here right it can't be because then we missed the entire sort of impulse
37:22
that that the black lives matter unrest and and tragedies have forced to deform
37:28
but which we're there to begin with meaning if we're not going to transform
37:32
now we're never going to transform and the arts the cultural sector has this I
37:36
guess what I'm grappling with as a researcher is that you know when we do
37:41
these studies and we see how white the lists the networks the participating
37:47
communities if you will of cultural organisations across this country rural
37:51
urban large small they're incredibly whiter than the population now of course
37:57
there are exceptions but the general theme that we've discovered to our you
38:04
know horror in this national study that we're in the midst of is is the question
38:10
because if if the problems right now or a cultural
38:13
racism is clearly a cultural problem justice is gonna be a cultural
38:17
discussion so so then what does the cultural sector need to do and right now
38:24
it's starting from a position of historical lack of standing because of
38:28
this disproportionate why is it's not serving all communities equitably it
38:33
never has so I mean I want to I want to get back to baseball to for a second but
38:41
Alan any any thoughts about that or Joanna [Joanna] I'll let Alan take it then I want to move it to Amaka she's had
38:50
[Alan] I yield to Amaka [Joanna] okay Amaka
38:58
[Nwamaka] thank you I am I think what is coming up for me because we were kind of dancing
39:04
around it but I think we just need to talk about it pointedly it's the
39:08
question of our culture our cultural craves profit right so many of the
39:15
different spaces and we talk about culture sitting within institutions but
39:20
who is profiting and where's that money being made and then who who is
39:24
ultimately accumulating level of wealth and power off of that culture I would
39:28
say that you know this piece around what happens to cultural preservation when
39:33
were all kind of sheltering in place for me you know as someone who was raised
39:38
Nigerian American I always experienced my cultures and my traditions within my
39:42
home with my family or directly with my community was never something I'm that I
39:47
expected to walk out into the street and to see replicated or celebrated and kind
39:52
of a majority white society and so all this to say is I think the opportunity
39:59
to actually look to those cultural producers or those spaces in which
40:03
undocumented immigrant communities black communities that have been heavily
40:07
policed all those places where communities have been alienated and
40:12
dislocated from the rest of society to understand well how have they maintained
40:16
culture and traditions in ways of being together in spite of the ways on that
40:21
unfortunately they have not been able to necessarily profit off of their culture
40:25
and so you know for me an example of this is you know I grew up other than
40:30
the hip hop the hip hop culture of graffiti and breakdancing and an MC
40:38
rapping and those are all things that were heavily policed and criminalized in
40:42
so then says see I'm the mayor of DC doing a placemaking project where they
40:47
kind of paint on black lives matters and yellow words you know pointing down to
40:52
the White House to kind of see a graffiti something that has been
40:56
criminalized right also now being a place where we're using it to make a
40:59
political statement I think is is interesting to once again figure out
41:04
where are those places where we've seen art and culturally engaged in deciding
41:08
these particular ways and unfortunately they may have not been
41:11
profitable they've helped to kind of push and create shift so when we once
41:16
again I I think it was Peter who that raised the question of how do we start
41:21
to really rethink the facilities and the spaces I think that there's learning I'm
41:26
that we can look to and so so much of the ways oftentimes we can be trained is
41:31
to kind of create something new but actually I think we get to reclaim what
41:36
we call the Sankofa the going back and learning from and so I think for me the
41:41
other piece that's coming up and Mark I would say I definitely empathize with
41:46
the sports industry as someone who you know I ran track and field in college
41:51
I couldn't imagine running a race with an empty stadium like it just doesn't
41:55
have the same push you're not gonna PR set a personal record in that
41:59
environment and all that to say so much of where arts or sports has existed has
42:05
been in the private sector and so what does it look like to also kind of engage
42:11
people who have disproportionately accumulated wealth throughout the
42:15
vertical of that industry what does it look like to also kind of engage it in
42:19
more of a public sector realm when we think about who now owns the stadium who
42:24
carries the debt on these stadiums many of them being cities that cannot be used
42:28
or are being repurposed for public health spaces and they should be but I
42:32
think the opportunity once again to hopefully engage the community the
42:38
broader community the public there and also rethinking the use of
42:42
these facilities how to support the seasonal workers that help to sustain
42:45
those facilities and then then how to engage the specific athletes themself is
42:51
an opportunity to to think about the sports industry not just being
42:56
individual wealth of building right but also kind of continuing to deepen
43:00
culture and deepen the engagement of community more broadly [Joanna] thanks to Amaka
43:05
Tally I want to push it over to you because you have something to say I see
43:10
[Tally] thank you I think that the question whether things will go back to normal is
43:18
you know the question that all of us are obsessed about these days and
43:23
policymakers are dying to know what will happen whether people will just go back
43:31
to participating in full force in consumer culture and doing whatever they
43:35
were doing before the pandemic but a general potential consequence
43:44
consequence of of covid 19 is for example generalized aversion to large
43:51
crowds like we have in concert hall in cultural events sporting events
43:58
ceremonies Markets political protests all these brings many people together in
44:04
public places and in the immediate future these gatherings will be
44:09
restricted and what will happen long term will people develop permanent
44:15
aversion to large public gatherings and this is important because it means that
44:21
we might have to change how cities are designed and some of you have already
44:26
alluded to so the special organization of cultural activities within a country
44:31
within a region is highly likely to change for example also because of
44:37
domestic demand because we can't travel abroad as we used to the balance between
44:45
rural and urban areas could shift as regions outside big cities have been
44:51
suffering from drain of human and financial resources but
44:55
perhaps now can become an important places for social experiments so I agree
45:03
that it's really a wonderful opportunity for us to I would say like I would use
45:12
the title of an OECD document that was published three days ago the title is
45:19
building back better so we want to build back we want to rebuild what we have to
45:27
put our minds together around how to do that better for example by using big
45:35
data engineering of data redistributing funds and subsidies and strengths of
45:44
different regions in the country and I think that what is going to change
45:49
perhaps permanent permanently is that people are going to require two things
45:55
safety and Trust trust will be very important the demand for safety will be
46:03
very important and I think this will have significant consequence for the way
46:08
we rebuild those cultural institutions [Joanna] thanks Tally I just want to remind the
46:16
audience the attendees that you can send in questions via Twitter or email I'm
46:21
starting to get some now so I do want to turn over to some of those but I wanted
46:26
to ask you about new models new structures new systems because that's
46:30
what a lot of the questions that are actually coming from our attendees are
46:33
asking about you've talked all about a lot of them you've talked about
46:37
Amaka you talked about this isn't new but it's something that the cultural the
46:42
cultural sector is not as familiar with the idea that we practice our culture
46:47
and our traditions in our homes right I think this relates very much to what we
46:51
have been hearing from the sports industry about the idea of no fans in
46:55
the stadiums right we Alan you talked you used the word audience but you used
47:02
yet a kind of a general kind of version to that term so maybe we start using a
47:06
new term philanthropic experiments Alan you also
47:10
mentioned so I want to just ask the panel and this is related to a question
47:15
we got from Bente Bouthier with WFIU sorry for that name pronunciation but what do
47:22
you suggest that different venues organizations consider as they adapt and
47:28
look for new models to reach people to reach their communities and what unique
47:32
problems do these types of organizations and venues face and anybody can feel
47:38
free to jump in here [Peter] well this is sort of meta but I would say that the framing
47:43
of the question is that the organization slash venue makes the decisions and
47:48
that's exactly what I think is at stake in what comes next
47:51
it's certainly what you pointed us to Amaka and it's what Bamuthi
47:55
earlier this morning talks about there's got to be a
48:00
sense of collectivism in the decision-making around what constitutes
48:05
relevance what constitutes service and and all of that is culture [Joanna] Amaka you have
48:11
something to say [Nwamaka] yeah I wanted to jump in and Mark would love for your for your
48:17
thoughts on this because I from me I think the pieces who gets to decide and
48:21
how are we deciding together and so early on when it was clear we weren't
48:27
going to have the rest of the NBA season there was a back-and-forth between even
48:31
Stephan curry and also LeBron James kind of sharing the reflections on like would
48:36
we play with no state with no fans in a stadium or would we not and and then you
48:40
know overall the NBA coming down and saying like we will make that decision
48:44
right and so part of me really fits with who gets to make the decision what does
48:49
it look like to engage the athletes around this piece of safety and Trust
48:52
that Tally has lifted up when will they feel safe enough when will they actually
48:56
engage in a collective trust that we actually won't um play if we're not
49:00
feeling well enough to actually be with our with our teammates what does it look
49:05
like to have workers or vendors that support those facilities also engage in
49:10
that same level of safety and trust and understanding once again that if they
49:15
can't come into those spaces um that they will still be cared for right
49:19
because so much of this is about so the
49:21
about the loss of income because unfortunately we don't have that social
49:24
safety net and so my five is actually kind of curious around are there
49:29
conversations happening in the sports industry about how do we engage athletes
49:34
how do we engage the workers and making the collective decisions for the
49:37
industry of the post to get the owners [Mark]yeah I mean it's a very that's actually
49:44
an easy question to answer it does get a little bit back to Tally
49:48
and saying you know Trust is such an important part it's part of what you
49:53
know keeps me up at night about the future of Major League Baseball is that
49:57
there is such a lack of trust between the players in the and the league I'm
50:00
not an owner by the way I'm an operator not an owner but I think that's probably
50:06
the pervasive issue and there is this systemic and historical root to that
50:11
lack of trust as well Amaka but there's a 67 page health protocol
50:16
document that Major League Baseball came up with and literally you know walks
50:20
through and then that was handed over to the Players Association or the unions
50:24
and say how do you feel about this that was handed to every public health
50:29
organization in all 30 communities and said how do you feel about this that's
50:33
big replies and so yeah there's a collaborative working document that
50:37
talks about not even thinking about fans yet just players when we think about
50:43
practice reimagining our practice facilities reimagining travel protocol
50:48
reimagining on-field protocol from everything from not high-fiving not
50:54
spitting you know to the way we travel and I don't want to get granular and
51:01
boring but yes that's been a collaborative effort I think there are a
51:05
host of other problems that exist I've got other feelings on the building
51:10
conversation you're having but those are all again they pre-exists
51:14
a lot of the challenges that you know Peter referred to and Alan has referred
51:18
to but a Amaka directly related to that I think one it gets back to its how he
51:23
said like any successful you effort you know it has to be renewed and respect
51:28
and trust between the athletes who are you know the drivers of the business and
51:35
and the league or the ownership that are operating you know many many of them by
51:41
the way very socially conscious and and focused you know in their communities as
51:47
well community is one of the reasons a lot of owners buy a team is to help
51:51
positively impact the community not just turn a profit
51:54
not all but a lot that I've come in contact with but that takes you know
52:01
trust that takes alignment usually in the world that we live in in North
52:06
America that takes aligning incentive as well right there has to be an alignment
52:10
of incentive that it benefits everyone because trust me no matter how
52:14
incredible those people are you know they're still also thinking about how
52:18
does it affect me and and the things and things that that are at stake for me and
52:24
my but thank you for asking [Tally] may I [Joanna] go ahead [Tally] if we think of possible solutions or systemic
52:38
reforms I would say that one thing is to bring Wireless or broadband connectivity
52:46
everywhere this is really important and we see it now the other thing is that as
52:57
Mark said we see that the culture of the creative industries are in need of
53:02
rescuing and they are in survival mode but they are also a part of the solution
53:10
and they are also a tool for creating and contributing to the solution and I
53:17
will use a phrase suggested by Tony Itard who's a cultural policy analyst
53:23
from Malta he said artists are the front liners of the soul and they have to be
53:32
part of the solution we have to work together with artists and with the
53:38
stakeholders in all these industries to build the solutions and this for example
53:44
means linking in went in culture and the arts to broader
53:49
social outcomes related to cohesion to inclusion to equality and if we want to
53:59
to ask what this means it could mean for example making sure there's artistic
54:05
freedom to create an express making sure that all parts of the country in all
54:10
urban neighborhoods have equal access to the full range of cultural facilities