Image via Pinterest
Game Changers: ARTs East New York
We're inspired by ARTs East New York's art-based approach to fostering community growth and development.
Image via the ARTs East New York website
Game Changers: The Great Discontent
We're inspired by The Great Discontent, a triannual publication focused on creators and the many phases of creativity.
Image via The Great Discontent website
Game Changers: The Drake Devonshire Hotel
We're inspired by the idea of the hotel as a hotbed for culture, as conceived by Toronto's Drake Hotel. Its satellite, the Drake Devonshire , is "proudly creating our own version of a rural getaway where travelers, culture seekers and neighbours all happily intersect to enjoy the thoughtful contradictions of new and old, rural and urban and sweet and savoury."
Image via the Drake Devonshire website
STEAM Links Tuesday: Van Aken's Trees of 40 Fruit
"How an artist developed an unbelievable tree that grows 40 varieties of fruit."
Via Upworthy
Image via Sam Van Aken's website
Game Changers: The School of Narrative Dance
We're inspired by a roving storytelling studio that uses dance and choreography to unite us.
Image via The School of Narrative Dance website.
Game Changers: Sum of Us
We're inspired by an inclusive movement of workers, shareholders and consumers, working to tip the corporate balance in favor of people over profit.
Image via the Sum of Us Facebook page
"Creative" Doesn't Cut It
Artists and culture bearers, I think it’s time to revise the lexicon; “creative” just doesn’t cut it anymore. The language of creative economies advanced by Richard Florida, and widely adopted by the tech sector, runs roughshod over the relevance of artists and culture bearers and suppresses their influence.
These “new” creative industries are thriving financially, while the traditional creative industries are witnessing the devaluation of artistic skills and the disappearance of professional opportunities. There is an inverse relationship between the declining viability of careers in the arts and culture in major U.S. cities and the increase in artistic references (often without attribution or context) in the marketplace.
We must find the means to articulate the necessity of the artist and the culture bearer in the marketplace, our communities and our individual lives. We must innovate broadly to create opportunities for these highly-skilled professionals. We must develop language to elevate issues relevant to artists and culture bearers, so they don’t get lost in the shuffle of the creative economies.
WÆRK uses the term “artisanal creative” to refer to artists and culture bearers, but we’d love to hear your suggestions. Please share them in the comments.
Photo by WÆRK
Game Changers: Writing on it All
Image via the Writing On It All website
We're inspired by a public participatory art project that puts the power of the pen in all of our hands.