Yale Innovation Summit 2023: "What is ROI in the Arts?"
Hosted an arts panel titled "What is ROI in the Arts?," led by John Kao, wherein panelists Dr. Angie Kim, Richie Siegel, Kent Nicholson, Roche Schulfer and Calida Jones discuss the return of investment in…
At the Table For All
By Norrell Thompson, Ambitio US Program Associate
At the end of April, the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI), AmbitioUS staff, a few Ambitio US grantees, and organizational friends all rolled into Austin, Texas, for Consensus 2023, the world’s largest and longest-running crypto convening.
As a crypto conference newbie, I often found myself swimming around in a pool of coded language that was largely inaccessible and just plain hard to understand. “Blockchain,” “the metaverse,” “Web3,” “NFTs,” the “AI revolution,” — all new words to me and also all words that belong to a system that is coming at us like a freight train. Through our work at Ambitio US, we have a front-row seat to the speed and potential consequences . Things are shifting in the way that capital, power, and ownership are manifested worldwide. We can either jump in or step away and watch it turn into just another extractive system that works for the few instead of for all. Well, we have jumped in. That’s why we show up at these conferences, in community with friends and allies, with an ear to the ground and our hands at the ready. The rules are being written in real-time, and we want to be there.
This was the overall feeling expressed at the dinner table as Ambitio US hosted its first convening of 2023 in a beautiful restaurant in downtown Austin called WuChow. We gathered our friends, multimedia visual artist, composer, and musician, Paul Rucker , writer, editor, and content creator for Next City , Kelsey Thomas , and cultural producer, strategist, and Co-Artistic Director for One Nation/One Project : a national arts and wellness initiative, Clyde Valentin . We were delighted to introduce them to Sian Morson , Web3 leader, community builder, and CCI co-conspirator in PB&J: Reimaging Protections, Benefits, and Joy for all , and to two Ambitio US grantees whom we’ve followed onto the blockchain: Marquis Harmon , CEO of Gracepoint Neighborhood and Iris Nevins , CEO of Umba Daima . A true community was made among this diverse group of thinkers, movers, and shakers.
As we ate delicious dumplings and the best dry-fried local green beans I have EVER eaten, we grappled with the concepts and the experience of being in a space that talks about inclusivity and “community” in terms of profit. We each reflected on our experiences and shared our main takeaways.
Rucker reflected on the importance of attending conferences like these in community in order to “infiltrate, influence, and make small differences.” Morson wished for more diverse voices to be leading the conversations. She and CCI President and CEO Angie Kim discussed the exciting and evolving vision we are developing for a cooperative structure for aggregated benefits on the blockchain. We all agreed that the best panels, the ones hosted by artists, LGBTQ and BIPOC led organizations, were all hosted in a space called The Gallery, a small building located outside of the gigantic conference center. These sessions reflected the most diverse, inclusive, and artistic space, not to mention the most inviting of the entire convening.
We all left Austin recommitted to shifting power, capital, and ownership to historically underrepresented communities. If we want to ensure that these decentralized systems don’t exclude or perpetuate the same extractive practices that the communities we care most about have contended with for hundreds of years, then we need to be at the table, in the rooms, and in the virtual spaces where these issues are being discussed. The long-term value of our presence is worth the momentary discomfort.
This article was originally published on Medium. Read it on Medium →