What is an Arts Ecosystem?

An Arts Ecosystem is a diverse community that sustainably holds space for the purpose of creating and revealing meaning.

In a time of cultural acceleration and collapsing meaning, healthy arts ecosystems are more essential than ever. We help with the challenges that arts ecosystems face so that they can flourish.

Every arts ecosystem is different and has different goals. We can help you with whatever dimensions you want to explore in yours.

• Increasing Diversity and Inclusion. Real success in art is limited to just a small fraction of the countless artists in the world. We provide programs that increase the success of artists who traditionally have been marginalized. We also help create more diverse arts communities by facilitating the conversation between artists and gallerists, curators, and others who dedicate themselves to the arts.
• Strong Community. We live in societies that emphasize individual merit and competition at the expense of working and succeeding with others. We provide workshops that foster stronger arts communities by sharing tools and approaches that lead to connection and collaboration and a sense of belonging.
• Sustainability – Making Money from Art. Most of the monetary value of art is tied to its scarcity, and art is often celebrated for its perceived lack of utility. We disagree. Art fulfills needs of the mind and spirit that are just as fundamental as the need for food, water, and air. When artists see their art as a source of innovation that solves problems, they unlock their potential to flip the script of the starving artist.
• Holding Space. A flourishing arts ecosystem regularly brings together stakeholders so that they can engage in dialog and advance one another’s interests. It’s not enough to just invite everyone to mingle and hope for the best – every event has to hold the potential for life-changing transformation. We help design and structure events that open the door to renewal, growth, commitment, and innovation.
• Creating Meaning. All meaning starts off as a secret agenda, sparked by personal insight. We believe that artists, every day, are looking within their secret inner selves to discover new possibilities in how the world is reflected there. We believe that by finding and revealing new meaning, artists provide us with new purposes, with new agendas, that we can gather around. We provide frameworks for helping artists bring their secret agendas into the light so that they can achieve greater impact.
• Revealing Meaning. Many people are living without the benefit of the art that they need. Because art deals with ideas and perspectives and messages that are challenging, art can be cryptic to the uninitiated. We help artists discover who their art is for and provide tools for getting the attention of that audience and transforming their relationship with that audience.