This is the final of four posts. Each tackles a piece of the elephant that is the recent Fractured Atlas move to a four-person “Chiefs Executive.”

Fractured Atlas cordially invites you to our first Ignite the Arts Livestream - an online telethon to raise money for some of the artists and arts organizations with whom we work. Please join us on Tuesday, July 21st from 5pm-7:30pm Eastern Time to celebrate the creative contributions of these individuals and companies, and to support artists when they need it most. RSVP on Facebook here!

We’re in a moment where workplaces are having more serious conversations about how to become more equitable, less racist, less oppressive. If you aren’t in management, HR, or operations, it can feel like you’re waiting around for the decision-makers at your organization to implement change, however long-overdue.

From time to time, we feature a fiscally sponsored project who has been successful at using our program to advance their art, cause, or career. We want to use our platform to give our artist community a boost in visibility. We hope that by sharing how some of our members are using Fractured Atlas programs, other artists – whether or not they work with us already – can find some useful inspiration to support their own creative projects.

Innovation is essential for supporting artists and arts organizations. If we aren’t able to adapt to changing times, to find new and better ways of working, we aren’t able to serve our community to our fullest extent.

Every month, Fractured Atlas provides a list of upcoming grant opportunities for artists and arts-based projects so that you can discover more opportunities to get financial support for your work. As a fiscal sponsor of 4000+ artistic projects, we provide access to grants for artists in every discipline.

Since 2002, jazz vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Allan Harris and his wife Pat Harris have been telling the story of Black cowboys in the American West through a musical called "Cross That River.” Harlem-based Allan and Pat Harris wrote the book for the musical, and Allan provided the music and lyrics. "Cross That River" follows Blue, a man who escaped slavery and finds a new life as a cowboy. The Harrises hope to “bring attention to the history of these people of color who helped to settle the West and whose achievements have been deliberately omitted from our history books.”

Fractured Atlas tries to be transparent about How We Work. Especially when it comes to the transition we made to becoming a fully distributed team. Over three years, we slowly wound down the number of people coming into our Manhattan office, and in late 2019, we fully flipped the switch. Here’s what it looked like for us to transition to a virtual team.

At Fractured Atlas, it’s an understatement to say that we deal with grants a lot.

Huge numbers of artists and creatives are out of work as a result of COVID-19. And while we recognize that grants, fundraisers, and government aid are crucial right now, we know that they aren’t sufficient for us to rebuild our sector. We need systemic change to the ways that we work together, and in the ways that we work with clients and employers. One possible structure to build systemic change is cooperatives, or co-ops. Cooperatives are formed when groups of people pool resources and share in decision-making to share in risk and reward. In co-ops, workers are the owners.