A world without art would be a world without communication or justice. Art documents our history, challenges our present and informs our future. By supporting local arts and creativity, we infuse our city with culture, empathy and personal connection. Investment in a vibrant Bay Area today unlocks the creative potential for all.
Kurt Vonnegut said it best: “To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow.”
As of 2012, the largest source of revenue for the arts was individual giving at $13 billion a year in the U.S. Private funding has gone up significantly since 1995, the same year Congress slashed the National Endowment for the Arts budget by 50 percent. But the majority of private contributions have gone to the two percent of arts organizations with budgets over $5 million. This means that many less established, up-and-coming or alternative programs are missing the chance for funding and exposure. It also means that audiences today are experiencing only a narrow slice of the art happening in communities everywhere, and the artists behind it.
@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz
Battery Powered has a big opportunity to ensure that art in all forms continues to fuel and expand creative expression. We know that creativity is truly a product of the people, places and materials that will influence the world’s next big, bold ideas. Our fall theme explores how:
- Art builds thriving communities and supports individual connection.
- Far-reaching and diverse forms of expression can be created with new mediums.
- Arts research & the creative process supports wellness and personal transformation.
Our Focus
The Bay Area is our gallery. Throughout this theme we will facilitate surprising events and artistic celebrations beyond The Battery doors.
We will be searching to fund the most inspiring and collaborative projects where two or more artists or organizations committed to a common purpose come together to create something impactful. We will even play matchmaker to ensure new connections and foster innovations.
Dive into each focus area below to learn more about how investments in Thriving Communities, New Mediums and Research & The Creative Process will make a lasting change throughout the Bay Area and beyond.
Community-based projects create opportunities for diversity and participation in the arts. Vital communities enjoy a variety of benefits from cultural participation, including economic revitalization, improvements in public health and stronger civic engagement.
Emerging mediums and technologies open dialogues, democratize the experience of art and engage people in new ways of relating to themselves and others. Projects that explore new solutions through mediums can radically transform the design and delivery of art.
Research shows that creativity is good for you—mind, body and soul. We’re learning how art and the creative process can help people foster self-awareness, expand wellness and provide opportunities for personal transformation.
“You can’t stop creativity. The more you use it, the more you have.”
Maya Angelou
Our Approach
The rich artistic history of the Bay Area has brought us to a new era of creative potential, worthy of our attention. Together we can invest in programs that support empathy, diversity and discovery through the arts.
Read next topic:
Thriving Communities →
RESOURCES
R. Keith Sawyer. Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation.
Tom Kelley & David Kelley. Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within us all.
Richard N. Foster. Yale School of Management. “Yale Insights: What Is Creativity?”
Photo credits:
BrollyFlock! by FLUX Foundation (Maker Faire, 2013)
Intrude by Amanda Parer (San Francisco City Hall, 2016)
Lumière II by Robert Henke (Gray Area for the Arts, 2015)