2020 laid bare the ways that our current systems have been failing artists for a long time. It has also shown us new forms of collective organizing and power-building in the arts and among creative communities. We saw the limitations of individualistic, atomized approaches to succeeding or surviving in the arts, as well as the fragility of formal institutions like museums, galleries, and nonprofits. We have been inspired by artists coming together collectively, pooling resources and sharing information to help support the broader creative community. If we are building a better, more equitable arts sector in the coming year(s), we need to nourish that community.
That’s why we are happy to announce the pilot launch of our new online community, the Creative Outpost. The Creative Outpost is a space for artists to share challenges, crowdsource solutions, and get that creative nudge toward the next project. It will help members find collaborators and kindred spirits, share inspiration and ideas, and hear how others have done what you want to do while learning new tips and tools.
Hosted on Mighty Networks, we intend the Creative Outpost to help artists find one another and find inspiration in a time that has been marked by isolation and loss for so many of us.
In tandem with the Creative Outpost, we’re piloting an Entrepreneur-in-Residence initiative. Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIRs) will be bringing their unique expertise and interests to the Creative Outpost community through programming such as class modules, workshops, conversations, or panels with Outpost members. The EIR will be able test products, services, and ideas with the Creative Outpost community before launching anything, in addition to some seed funding provided by Fractured Atlas.
We hope with our Entrepreneur-in-Residence initiative, we will be able to provide our Creative Outpost community with access to folks who are working on transformative, gutsy projects in the arts sector and who are willing to share their knowledge to inspire new work and new modes of thinking. We are thrilled to announce that our first Entrepreneurs-in-Residence are Caroline Woolard and Dan Taeyoung. Woolard is a sculptor, economic critic, social justice facilitator, and media maker. Taeyoung is a learner, teacher, spatial designer, technologist, and artist, creating design tools, architectural spaces, and social collectives.
Caroline Woolard
Dan Taeyoung
Since the financial crisis of 2007-8, Woolard has catalyzed barter communities, minted local currencies, founded an arts-policy think tank, and created sculptural interventions in office spaces. Woolard has inspired a generation of artists who wish to create self-organized, collaborative, online platforms alongside sculptural objects and installations. She is thinking boldly about new economic forms and new creative futures for the arts.
Taeyoung teaches at Columbia University GSAPP, is a founding member of Prime Produce, an intentional community for social good, Soft Surplus, a multidisciplinary space and collective, and the Cybernetics Library, an artist-run library focused on socio-technological systems. Taeyoung is interested in how environments and relations impact how we work together and how to create inclusive and just spaces, organizations, and working cultures.
We are thrilled to be working with both of them in this close capacity for the next few months.
Both the Creative Outpost and the Entrepreneur-in-Residence initiatives are in an invite-only beta-testing phase.
We’ve encouraged artists to think about what skills and resources you have to offer in this current moment. We’re doing the same on our end. Fractured Atlas works with thousands of artists across the country. We have the opportunity to help those artists forge connections with one another, to learn and grow together. We have been the hub of a wheel, and now we’re trying to connect the spokes.
We firmly believe that it is only by trying new things–by truly experimenting–that we’re able to create change. That being said, we don’t know exactly how the Creative Outpost or the Entrepreneur-in-Residence initiative will develop. They might go exactly the way that we have envisioned or they might go differently. We’re using this beta-testing phase to see what is resonating with our community and how we can best serve the arts sector with the skills and resources we have.
As the Creative Outpost and Entrepreneur-in-Residence pilot projects develop over the next couple of months, we’ll be sharing our findings and our next steps with our community.
.svg)