art is essential

The public money has dried up, in other words, but so has a whole lot of the private money. You might not have noticed the ramifications quite yet, but you will. It’s in the increasingly ardent pleas from your local NPR station, of course, but it’s also just absence: the film festival or day camp or curated exhibition or concert series that just... See more

Creative Infrastructure Is the New Public Good

We build roads, bridges, and broadband — but who’s funding museums, media, and meaning?

Cultural infrastructure is what keeps society inspired, informed, and humane. It’s not charity. It’s civilization.

Founders, investors, and artists who understand this are designing the blueprint for the next economy —... See more

Research shows that for each dollar spent at a local movie theater, an additional $1.50 is spent in surrounding businesses—restaurants, bars, transportation. Theaters are not just retail outlets. They are, as Cinema United’s Michael O’Leary put it, “cultural and economic anchors of communities of all sizes.”

When those anchors disappear, communities... See more

We need temples. We need holidays. We need moments that are offering us a chance to step out of the daily pressures. And the reality that life has a lot of pain and a lot of stress along with its many joys. So being able to have a space where we can truly sort of experience the freedom to be our full human self outside of those immediate daily... See more

That idea stuck with me. If art shapes how we perceive, connect, and innovate—why isn’t it considered essential in the same way food, clothing, and shelter are?

When we shifted the conversation from, “How do you make money?” to “How do you create resources for resilience?” most people seriously engaged with this question. By the end, a lot of our builders would say things like, “I would feel better if I was paid for this work. It would make me feel like I’m valued.” It's not, “If we have resources, our... See more

Terrence McNally says it best, via Tateh, “Without art, what is our existence but chaos?”