CREATEArtists for Sustainability Hub
To create a hub for artists of all types located in LA County that create to further economic, social and environmental sustainability.
Please describe yourself.
Collaboration (partners are signed up and ready to hit the ground running!)
In one sentence, please describe your idea or project.
To create a hub for artists of all types located in LA County that create to further economic, social and environmental sustainability.
Which area(s) of LA does your project benefit?
Central LA
East LA
South LA
San Gabriel Valley
San Fernando Valley
South Bay
Westside
What is your idea/project in more detail?
Arts enhance information transfer and instrumental learning, educate holistically, can reach large audiences, provide a wide variety of avenues for self-expression and possibilities for inclusion in moving people "from image to action" for a sustainable future. Art is the great bridge between people across all demographics that interprets and involves them. Earth Protect will engage LA County artists who are creating for sustainability through a web hub. Being part of an ARTISTS4SUSTAINABILITY Earth Protect Hub will encourage
collaboration, increase creativity and funding and make it easier to find artists specializing in creations about a sustainable future. A4S builds on LA's established global leadership in film and sustainability.
What will you do to implement this idea/project?
earthprotect.com already has a hub web site focused on sustainability with almost 4,000 videos, 3,500 blogs, over 60 ngo and business partners and through its earthprotectproductions.com has engaged over 30 artists collaborating on sustainability creations. It has a film studio at 1320 Main right across from Silicon Beach that hosts art walk and special art events and is embedded in the artistic, sustainability and technology communities in LA. Our web developers will determine to best way to build upon our existing sites to create the ARTISTS4SUSTAINABILITY HUB. We will use our existing social media outreach and our existing artists community to plan and execute the outreach to enroll artists starting with the film industry and engaging leaders, nonprofits, higher education and creative businesses as the conduits to engage the artists. We will create incentive and reward programs to encourage participation and a ongoing communication program. Once we have a core number of artists we will create a launch event to announce the A4S Hub intended to gain interest, creative projects, funding and help to grow the participating artists creations and influence sustainable living. This will be done so LA gains additional recognition for its global leadership in arts and sustainability.
How will your idea/project help make LA the best place to CREATE today? In 2050?
LA is THE global leader in the film industry, has some of the most beautiful natural environment in the world and has taken a lead in moving to sustainable living. Artists of all types are drawn to the County and many use their art to advance causes including achieving a sustainable future. Maggie Q supports animal welfare and conservation, James Cameron produces the TV series The Years of Living Dangerously, G2Gallery offers wildlife art and donates all proceeds to animal causes, Connie Samaras has a retrospective at The Armory Center For the Arts. Her images capture the banal nightmares of manmade landscapes. In an article on May 10, 2013 Robby Herbst asked the question, Who Makes Art About Climate Change? He concludes with this hope and prediction re the future in LA with climate change, "We'll see it in our changed environments, in species decline and extinctions, and in the rise of global instability as many old ways of living are drowned or toasted. Perhaps in the future too, when somebody asks "who's making art about climate change in Los Angeles," the response won't be a head-scratch and a "geez, I dunno." KCET
With Earth Protect's ARTISTS4SUSTAINABILITY, LA and the world will have an answer not only for climate change but all aspects of sustainability across all art forms. We can anticipate that this will further distinguish LA and bring business, funding and global attention as its leadership in arts and sustainability are brought to light
through this hub and the outreach to bring it to world attention. It will create jobs for artists and help the economy and bring the message about the need for and how to live sustainability to a wide group of people both in LA and worldwide.
Whom will your project benefit?
LA artists creating for sustainability.
LA businesses related to the arts especially those with some focus on sustainability.
The general public will gain in education on sustainability through the arts.
The increased art projects will bring funding to support artists and businesses serving artists and their communities thus also bringing tax revenue.
Please identify any partners or collaborators who will work with you on this project.
Earth Protect has existing partnerships in LA and SO CAL including UCLA Center for Tropical Research, UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Heal the Bay, CA Wildlife Center, Tree Musketeers, BIOCOM Institute, Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education, Pacific Blue Foundation, Social Change Film Festival and Institute, Desert Tortoise Conservancy, Unity for Creativity, G2Gallery. We have over 60 organizations we partner and collaborate with.
Our values are specific about supporting collaboration. We deliberately created a partnership program that supported sustainability focused NGO's.
Further, our Advisory Council includes business, science, educators and sustainability leaders who foster our collaborations. Here is a partial list of organizations we collaborate with: UCLA, UCSD Scripps, NOAA, University of Denver Daniels School of Business, University of the Sunshine Coast AU. New collaborations include ConnectD, Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit and Expo, Oregon BEST FEST, Ideascape, Inc., Mayor's Office LA.
How will your project impact the LA2050 CREATE metrics?
Employment in creative industries
Arts establishments per capita
Federal research grant funding
Measures of cultural and global economic influence (“soft power”) (Dream Metric)
identifies artists that create for sustainability and creates access to them and stimulates their creative projects, connects them to each other for collaborations, production of more art to interpret and carry the message of sustainability
Please elaborate on how your project will impact the above metrics.
# of artists enrolled in creation for sustainability hub
metrics of outreach to artists
metrics of outreach to public
metrics of engagement of artists
# of art creations on sustainability produced
global hits on artists for sustainability hub
Federal grants obtained to support artists and projects
Please explain how you will evaluate your project.
# of artists engaged in the ART4SUSTAINABILITY HUB
# of hits on the A4S hub web site
# loyalty of users of the site
# artists report re contacts from site
# of new art projects generated through the site
# dollar amounts of projects
# new collaborations/partnerships generated
What two lessons have informed your solution or project?
Through our 7 years building several version of earthprotect.com and its film division, earthprotectproductions.com, we learned to persevere as its takes time to get the web site right and build users, we keep learning and improving. We also continue to seek to improve how we are helping people learn and then take action in their lives, communities and work. It one thing for people to learn there is a problem and another to learn what to do about it that leads to solutions. We think the A4S hub is one way to
help people find artists that create for sustainability, help the artists find our about each other and to stimulate art which helps move people "from image to action" for a sustainable future" the Earth Protect tag line
Explain how implementing your project within the next twelve months is an achievable goal.
As explained above, we have the web site base platform in earthprotect.com that we can build upon and we have the web design specialists in place to determine the best approach to creating the A4S hub. We also have 7 years of experience in identifying content on sustainability, engaging artists and in social media outreach and we have traditional media specialists in place also. We are operating in our home town LA and from within the art community with vast reach and connections. We have earned a high level of trust. We are also good project managers with over 30 years track record for our principal project leaders. We are expanding on our existing expertise and achievements and are confident we can achieve the establishment of the hub, the launch, enroll a core group of artists and advertise the Hub so it is well used and benefits the artists, Earth Protect and LA.
Please list at least two major barriers/challenges you anticipate. What is your strategy for ensuring a successful implementation?
While we have considerable internal expertise for this project, they are busy so we will either have to bring in new talent to carry out this project or new talent to do some of the current work our team is doing. We are experienced in planning for and engaging talent and managing work loads so we can confident we can overcome this challenge.
Creating the incentive package to encourage artists to participate is a challenge, many artists are not focused on marketing and work individually, so we will use our existing artists who have already chosen to collaborate with us to guide us in this. Related to this, we will no doubt need to be smart in creating
ongoing communication to build loyalty and in our outreach to create visibility among those who engage artists so new creation and support for artists is achieved. We do have experts to draw upon and will create
a group of founding artists that can help us get it right.
What resources does your project need?
Network/relationship support
Money (financial capital)
Volunteers/staff (human capital)
Publicity/awareness (social capital)
Community outreach