Cultural Disruption in the Modern Age

It’s no secret that Lyric Opera audiences have gotten smaller every year. No matter how many catchy phrases they display on the side of their building, the house never feels full enough, and yet, their competition grows every year. As high-brow entertainment continues to be labeled as niche content, many large cultural organizations are experiencing disruption within their industry because of the new advantages that are available for lean start-ups.

Digital technology is now affordable and accessible to anyone, allowing new businesses to pursue leaner business models and create higher quality products. Disruption is inevitable with the development of at-home production software, digital distribution channels, and a “long tail” of aggregated niche content. While large companies struggle to fill seats at the opera, ballet and theater, we are seeing a surge in the DIY art scene because smaller companies can now use services like YouTube, Hootsuite, Google Drive, and Slack to run their businesses remotely. According to the California Survey of Arts & Cultural Participation, “new technology, expectations and cultural norms mean [Californians] engage in art in new ways and places” (Novak-Leonard, 2015). The survey points out that people are moving away from going to concerts, performances and exhibits the way they traditionally did for nearly a century. Instead they are engaging with culture digitally and making creative content on their own based on their personal preferences.

In addition to the use of disruptive technology, the flexibility of smaller organizations has become a destabilizing force for larger arts organizations because of costly overhead. Anthony Freud, general director of Lyric Opera, has admitted that “[Lyric is] rather monolithic in arts organizational terms, in that it has a very large, inflexible overhead that plans four to six years in the future” (DeCastro, 2016). These slow-moving institutions are easily disrupted by nimble storefront organizations that can produce content in half the time at a fraction of the cost. This nimbleness makes it easier to pivot when mistakes are made. To their disadvantage, large institutions are unable to pivot quickly enough to avoid mistakes that “have additional zeros” (Blank & Dorf, 2012). By utilizing independent contractors, unconventional spaces and vast amounts of passionate underemployed independent artists, small arts organizations can use these digital technologies to surpass their competition with well targeted and engaging experiences outside of the opera house.

Unfortunately, many large institutions are currently failing to engage with most of the cultural landscape. In Chicago, we’re seeing most top cultural organizations operating solely in the most affluent areas of the city. By comparing block party permits to cultural festivals in Chicago, cultural participation is shifting away from institutions and towards DIY events (Figure 1 & 2, Novak-Leonard, 2013). This past year New York released their first cultural plan, which prioritizes funding for diverse arts organizations (Pogrebin, 2017). This new plan is likely to disrupt institutions like Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Guggenheim in the coming years. As the divide continues to grow between institutions and their nimble competitors, it is likely that the more passionate the large organizations are the less likely they are to follow the markets and notice this trend (Latterman, 2018).

(Figure 1 & 2)

As digital disruption continues to affect legacy institutions like Lyric Opera, our cultural landscape is likely to shift in the favor of the next generation artists and producers. Disruption is seen at nearly every level, from sold out concerts playing video game music at Chicago’s Symphony Center to Lindsey Stirling, a hip-hop violinist, building her career on YouTube (Smith, 2017). We are at a moment in history when large cultural institutions may no longer be able to sustain themselves into the future if adjustments are not made to extend their reach or improve their technology.

Sources:

Blank, S. G., & Dorf, B. (2012). The startup owners manual. the step-by-step guide for building            a great company. Pescadero, CA: K & S Ranch.

DeCastro, G. (2016, May 06). Panel Navigates the Economic Viability of Opera. Retrieved April           17, 2018, from https://www.chicagomaroon.com/article/2016/5/6/panel-navigates-the-            economic-viability-of-opera/

LaLonde, R., et al. (2006). Mapping Cultural Participation in Chicago

Latterman, G. (2018, April 13). PE Class Lecture.

Novak-Leonard, J. et al. (2015). The Cultural Lives of Californians: Insights from the California

Survey of Arts & Cultural Participation. Chicago: NORC.

Novak-Leonard et al. (2013). Mapping Arts & Culture Across Chicago, Policy Brief. Chicago:            Cultural Policy Center.

Pogrebin, R. (2017, July 19). De Blasio, With 'Cultural Plan,' Proposes Linking Money to       Diversity. Retrieved April 17, 2018, from             https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/arts/design/new-york-cultural-plan-museums.html

SMITH, M. D. (2017). STREAMING, SHARING, STEALING: Big data and the future of          entertainment. S.l.: MIT PRESS.

The Great Chicago Fire Festival

The Great Chicago Fire Festival

Great Midwestern cities have rich histories full of grit, determination, innovation, and tragedy, all of which come from their diverse communities. According to Deborah Stone, “public policy is about communities trying to achieve something as communities” implying that in order to make changes in communities, it is necessary for the people to contribute in some way (Stone, 2012). Mayor Rahm Emmanuel had a similar realization when he constructed the Chicago Cultural Plan in 2012. In a city with thousands of community assets but a scarcity of civic pride, the goal of the Chicago Cultural Plan was to provide access to arts and culture by focusing on Chicago’s neighborhoods (Emmanuel, 2012). With a staggering inequality between the north, south and west sides of the city, it was necessary to create an event that could bring Chicago’s communities together and express pride in a shared cultural heritage. One recommendation was to link neighborhoods to each other and to downtown by means of a cultural festival on the Chicago River. Answering this call, Redmoon Theater created one of the boldest initiatives in Chicago’s history, the Great Chicago Fire Festival.

Ephemera are things that only exist for a short period of time and, like flames, ephemeral moments can change a place in an instant. Chicago’s history is branded by one of the largest and most damaging fires ever recorded, the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. This event launched the city into a new era of progress and entrepreneurship that has not been surpassed by other great cities. Following the tragic fire, Chicago rebuilt its infrastructure and created what was known as the “white city” for the Chicago World’s Fair. The Great Chicago Fire became a point of pride despite the immense tragedy.

According to Jim Lasko, co-artistic director of Redmoon Theater, ephemera can hold immense power and change the meaning of a place in an instant. Lasko defines this concept as “placemaking” or “meaning + space = place.” He commonly applies this simple equation to such locations as Ground Zero, Sandy Hook, or Hiroshima, explaining that signature events can shift public opinion of what a place means, whether it’s tragic or inspiring (Lasko, 2013). It was Lasko’s belief that cultural placemakers could bring meaning to spaces through altruistic means. Over the course of twenty-five years, Redmoon Theater proved that innovation, collaboration and public storytelling could attract audiences and connect neighborhoods through curated signature events. The company applied its ability to create urban spectacle in public spaces with a highly collaborative process to their work with the city’s Cultural Plan.

In 2013, a year after the Cultural Plan was implemented, Redmoon Theater proposed the Great Chicago Fire Festival. This festival would celebrate each neighborhood and serve as a reminder of the city’s grit and determination, ending with a signature event on the Chicago River. It was meant to bring the city together in a similar way that Mardi Gras does for New Orleans or the “Running of the Bulls” does in Spain. It would be a new tradition that could inspire the city to remain strong together and live like the men and women who came before them.

ArtPlace America embraced this idea and, alongside several foundations and corporate sponsors, awarded Redmoon Theater a project grant for creative placemaking. In collaboration with the City of Chicago: Department of Culture and Special Events (DCASE) and the Chicago Park District, Redmoon began to plan and implement the project (Lasko, 2016). The process began with a collaboration at Chicago’s Night out in the Parks initiative. The program facilitated free performances in each neighborhood. This collaboration allowed Redmoon Theater to begin working with the city and to collect valuable information to determine which initiatives would make the festival, scheduled for October 2014, a success.

Following the summer of 2013, Redmoon held a series of retreats with civic and cultural partners. Throughout the process, Redmoon showed considerable ambition and began promising to deliver a variety of services and initiatives. “Sidewalk Senates” were a series of public events and community arts activities designed to discover and to tell the story of each neighborhood. These were combined with “Pop-Up Tours” (interactive tours led by a local resident, telling stories from a specific ward) and “Chalk Talks” (collaborative public art making and artistic disruption within local neighborhoods).

In early 2014, DCASE requested a second retreat with Redmoon to create a concrete plan for the summer, at which point they decided to combine initiatives into “Summer Celebrations.” These celebrations were made up of “Community Feasts,” two neighborhood barbeques (one at the beginning of the summer and one again at the end) and “Canopy Workshops” (activities helping local artists decorate their own banner and visually representing their ward at the festival). The workshops would feature “Fire Flowers” (pinwheels in the shape of lotus flowers that assemble into a community art piece at the end of the summer) and the construction of the “Cyclone Grill” (a rotating stage that served food alongside disc jockeys).

These initiatives were to be spread across fifteen neighborhoods including, Bronzeville, South Shore, Pilsen, Albany Park, Uptown, Old Town, Roseland, South Chicago, Englewood, Little Village, Avondale, Humboldt Park, Woodlawn, Austin, and North Lawndale. In addition to providing programs in these neighborhoods, Redmoon partnered with DIGITAS, a local marketing firm, and WTTW to help them expand their reach. All these resources eventually went towards the creation of a “Mobile Photo Factory” (a mobile photography station that documents neighborhood stories), a “Neighborhood Bazaar” (a marketplace that represented local artists and businesses) and the “Grand Spectacle” (the lighting of the fire on the Chicago River).

Unfortunately, Redmoon Theater failed to present the “Pop-Up Tours,” “Sidewalk Senates,” “Chalk Talks,” and “Fire Flowers” initiatives, which created a great deal of frustration for local residents and caused a considerable amount of friction within the neighborhood partners. As a result, Redmoon was forced to issue an apology for making promises they could not deliver. The “Canopy Workshops,” “Community Feasts,” and “Mobile Photo Factory” initiatives were realized but were found to be far too mechanical. Many staff members noticed that people went in and out with very little interaction or critical reflection.

This lack of engagement in the neighborhoods may have been a repercussion of Redmoon’s ambitious amount of programming slated for its season. In addition to the Great Chicago Fire Festival the company was producing a full season at their new facility in Pilsen, along with fundraisers and holiday parties at Navy Pier. This overabundance of programming forced the company to consolidate their resources and continually cut back on their community programs. After their second retreat Redmoon focused the remainder of its resources on the “Grand Spectacle” itself. They brought in After School Matters and an army of interns to help build the centerpiece sculptures for the final product, which resembled pre-1871 architecture.

At last October 4th, 2014, the day of the festival had arrived. Redmoon had coordinated choral performances on boats along with several percussionists playing large gongs. There were three large blue buildings, ready to ignite for the “Grand Spectacle,” that floated into position on the river between Navy Pier and Wolfe Point. As the performance moved forward there was a parade of artists engaging with nearly 40,000 people on the riverfront at the “Neighborhood Bazaar.” Everything seemed to be exactly as recommended by Mayor Emmanuel’s Cultural Plan. However, on this cold and damp evening, even with a variety of pyrotechnicians and designers on hand, the buildings did not ignite. The spectacle was only saved by the “Neighborhood Bazaar” selling vast amounts of their wares, the sounds of beautiful music, the visual representation of neighborhood stories on several floating projection screens, and by an expensive firework display.

The public reaction to the Great Chicago Fire Festival was profoundly negative. Nearly every major Chicago newspaper detailed its ineffectiveness and, when the buildings did not ignite, the firefighters on the scene only responded with snarky comments, interspersed with suggestions for the pyrotechnicians (Pratt, 2015). The concept proved to be inequitable and largely inefficient: the audience was disapproving, the work of the fifteen neighborhoods was not represented, the equity of the process was not celebrated, and the fortune of city funding (nearly $350,000) was spent on a failed venture. The focus was diverted away from each neighborhoods’ stories to the eventual closure of Redmoon Theater. After twenty-five years of producing theater in the city, the Great Chicago Fire Festival financially ruined the company. This lack of sustainability proved to be their downfall as the company closed an impossibly expensive season and shut down their enormous warehouse in Pilsen. In their farewell letter to Chicago, they sadly stated that their innovations haven’t been able to keep up with their civic goals (Lulay, 2015). Redmoon managed to repeat the festival one last time on Northerly Island in 2015, but it was without funding from the City of Chicago (Byrne, 2015). Meanwhile, the city began to endorse co-working spaces, such as incubators and accelerators, to stimulate the creative economy.

Was Redmoon Theater’s Great Chicago Fire Festival a true failure? Was its inability to ignite the only memory people will have when regarding this signature event? These questions are imperative when analyzing ephemeral events at large. If Redmoon’s focus was to cultivate civic pride and to represent the underrepresented, this festival was a failure. By not distributing resources equally to each neighborhood, spending most of the year throwing holiday parties and reassessing programming through strategic planning retreats, Redmoon did not act as an agent of representation.

But, while Redmoon did not succeed with this aspect of the Cultural Plan, they did stumble upon something greater in the process – they created a sense of membership. The festival allowed the city to celebrate grit and determination, the cornerstones of Chicago’s civic identity, by convincing neighborhood residents to join the rest of the city at one large spectacle. Everyone had an opportunity to participate and connect with other residents in new ways. Although there are no impacts that are measurable at this point, the model has been created and can be reproduced.           

When examining the city’s actions after the failed Great Chicago Fire Festival, it is important to note that the city focused more on lucrative and corporate co-working spaces and less on non-profit community engagement. Accelerators, such as 1871 (named after the Great Chicago Fire), are proving that venture capitalists, creatives and entrepreneurs can create significant impact in communities through technology. Mayor Emmanuel has endorsed several co-working centers, claiming that they are crucial to establishing Chicago as a national leader. This proclamation, much like his endorsement of the Great Chicago Fire Festival, continues to inspire business owners to build more incubators and accelerators across the city and to serve as “Neighborhood Connectors,” or entities that establish partnerships and collaborations across private, public and non-profit sectors (Emmanuel, 2012). As represented in the map below, these co-working spaces tend to remain in the most affluent sections of Chicago, with a few exceptions.

(Creative Co-Working Spaces – Chicago 2018)

Meanwhile, on Chicago’s south side, a variety of incubators and placemaking initiatives established by the University of Chicago, have also been funded by ArtPlace America. These creative initiatives engage with and stimulate the economy in low-income neighborhoods. Placemaking has always been a hard term to define because its meaning often changes in relation to the individual placemaker’s mission and focus. In organizations like the Sweetwater Foundation, Rebuild Foundation and Peterson Garden Project, the focus has been to restore communities physically and economically through long-term investments and asset-based community development. Since the Great Chicago Fire Festival, this term has evolved and can be linked to a variety of ephemeral events and grassroots initiatives. This concept can be better understood as a metaphor between fire and water. By creating fires, the community planner can centralize activity around a specific location and instill meaning through a cathartic event, like the Great Chicago Fire Festival on the Chicago River. By watering the soil, the community initiative can grow overtime and inspire local leadership to buy in on a new meaning for the place, like the Perry Ave Commons created by Sweetwater Foundation (Pratt, 2017). Both types of placemaking can create change but the timeline is an important factor to consider. Fire is immediate and difficult to control, while water is gradual and in need of long-term care, but more stable. 

There is a correlation between ArtPlace America’s placemaking initiatives and the activities being pursued by government agencies downtown. It was this decentralized reality that Redmoon inadvertently centralized with its Great Chicago Fire Festival, or in the words of the Chicago Cultural Plan, they successfully bridged the divide in the city’s creative economy by “linking neighborhoods to each other and to downtown” (Emmanuel, 2012).

Which of these methods is the best for the people? One key issue to consider is the individual’s self-interest. The individual needs to “buy in” to an initiative in order for that initiative to be a success. The majority of people in Chicago are from low-income households and, while accessibility proves to be a challenge for this demographic, the cultural planning is tailored to that individual’s specific interests, thus capturing his or her support. By engaging with each neighborhood and cultivating civic pride surrounding shared community assets, these citywide initiatives require altruism on the behalf of the cultural organizations involved. These efforts require funding from corporate and civic partners in order to encourage community engagement while developing neighborhood relationships. Without residents accepting an initiative that is in their own self-interest these initiatives can be a form of “drive-by art” projects. Without this “buy in” it may be impossible to engage with this portion of the polis.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Great Chicago Fire Festival is the intersection between the market and the polis in a singular urban ritual. Sustainability is foolproof at a festival that includes a literal marketplace (such as the “Neighborhood Bazaar”) that both serves the self-interest of the vendors and satisfies the public. The festival demonstrated membership of the Chicago people collectively supporting the passion and altruism of a community arts organization. Ultimately, it showcased the people’s acceptance within their city, a tribe celebrating a ritual by fire. However, in the case of the Great Chicago Fire Festival, the “Grand Spectacle,” a small part of the overall event, failed and the polis withdrew its acceptance of the ritual, thus removing its investment and overshadowing the marketplace. The judgement from the polis was all it took to eliminate Redmoon from the public opinion. The “Grand Spectacle” became a scapegoat for the neighborhood’s disappointment. With no rite there was no ritual, regardless of the market forces.

In hindsight, Jim Lasko was a visionary for creating the Great Chicago Fire Festival. He took the concept of a ritual and connected it to a city’s communal history through creativity, risk and innovation. Lasko often states that the Greek theater plays a central role in his work. Often the complexity of a tragedy is what attracts audiences and communities throughout the world. In the words of Aristotle, “stories are some simple, others complex; for such are the real experiences, of which they are the imaginary counterpart, known to be.” In the case of the Great Chicago Fire Festival, the story of the tragedy was simple: the fire did not ignite. However, Redmoon’s complex story behind the festival may one day inspire another altruistic community leader to attempt this ritual once again.

References:

Aristotle. (1911). The poetics of Aristotle. London, Toronto [etc.: Hodder and Stoughton.

Byrne, J. (2015, October 05). City ends Great Chicago Fire Festival funding. Retrieved March      20, 2018, from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-chicago-              fire-festival-city-funding-met-1006-20151005-story.html

Emmanuel, R. (2012, February 1). Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Retrieved March 20,               2018, from https://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/cultural_plan.html/

Lasko, J. (2013, June 12). Jim Lasko on place making and ephemeral events. Retrieved March         20, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KcORj3N4vo

Lasko, J. (2016, May 03). Great Chicago Fire Festival. Retrieved March 01, 2018, from               https://www.artplaceamerica.org/funded-projects/great-chicago-fire-   festival/blog/great-chicago-fire-festival-1

Lulay, S. (2015, December 21). Redmoon Theater Permanently Closing After Fire Fest            Debacle, Financial Woes. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from         https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20151221/pilsen/redmoon-theater-            permanently-closing-after-fire-fest-debacle-financial-woes

Mansilla, W., & Perkis, A. (2016). Technology & Art in Stimulating Creative Placemaking in        Public-Use Spaces. Proceedings of the 2016 ACM on Multimedia Conference, 1473-             1474.

MAYOR EMANUEL AND REDMOON ANNOUNCE THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE FESTIVAL.     (2013, March 29). States News Service. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.turing.library.northwestern.edu/apps/doc/A324120038              /AONE?u=northwestern&sid=AONE&xid=d018cbed

Pratt, E. (2017, November 13). Our Practice. Retrieved February 05, 2018, from

              https://www.sweetwaterfoundation.com/our-practice/

Pratt, G. (2015, April 09). Some feel burned by Great Chicago Fire Festival. Retrieved March     20, 2018, from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-great-chicago-fire-              festival-1005-20141005-11-story.html

Reid, Kerry. (2014). Redmoon sets a city aflame: The Great Chicago Fire Festival sets its   sights on uncharted theatrical waters. American Theatre, 31(8), 110.

Stone, D. (2012). Policy paradox : The art of political decision making (3rd ed.). New York:              W.W. Norton &.

The Great Chicago Fire Festival goes up in flames. (2014, November 11). UWIRE Text, p.    1.

Wilson, M. (2015). Creative Placemaking-A Cautionary Tale. Race, Poverty & the Environment, 20(1), 101-105.

Creative Answers to Creative Questions

You know those questions you see on applications that are there to test your creativity? We all have seen them at one point in time. Recently I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to answer provide a creative answer to a creative question. The question is here below . . . How would you answer this? Feel free to comment below:

Question:

You walk into a room. No one is present. You see a parakeet in a cage, a cello, and a clock. What took place in that room in the moments before you entered? [Feel free to answer this question in any vein (e.g., complete seriousness, flight of fancy, etc.) and in any format/style you wish]

Answer:

Time stood still and so did the parakeet as she held her breath and tiptoed near the edge of the cello’s sounding board. After a moment, the tiny bird released the air in her tinier lungs by means of a shrill vibration and highly pitched song that much resembled Musetta’s Waltz. In that same moment, the keet leaped high into the air and aimed herself at the opening near the center of the cello’s body. Singing her aria loudly and truly, she aimed her beak directly between the middle strings of the elegant instrument.

(An aside. Since the keet had lived alone her entire life with nothing but an ever-abundant amount of food within her cage, she had forgotten that she had put on a substantial amount of weight. This once sleek and slender bird had only experienced the delights of gluttony for her countless lonely days within the chateau these objects shared.)

Building momentum, the keet’s decent towards the instrument accelerated while the cello held perfect stillness. Unaware of the conflict he was about to experience, the cello remained as it always had; classic and eternally statuesque. With a crescendo the keet approached the apex of her colorful coloratura, and in that moment the dream of reaching the innards of the instrument seemed as real as the coming sunrise. To her surprise a low vibration interrupted her melody with a complementary lower frequency in the form of a duet. Before she realized where she was spatially, the room roared with a glorious perfect fifth. Even though, by traditional standards, the strings were tuned well below A440, the noble cello sang back perfectly balanced harmony in a response to her sweet Italian melody. As the soprano awoke midflight, she felt herself moving toward the room’s exterior window.

(An aside. The keet had no hope of redirecting her course midair; not because of her wings or feathers. Truthfully, although she would never admit it, the songstress has been unable to fly more than a short distance at a time and lacked the musculature to redirect at such a moment.)

Patiently, the clock watched. Not always the most observant, Clocky, our robotic alarm clock, sat still on the side table. Patiently the white clock sat supported by two wheels and a large red button underneath the display screen. Clockly was not a fan of music and deactivated its microphone. Had it not been for the functional design of Clocky’s torso, the keet would have never made it to her cage. Rocketing towards Clocky, she ricocheted off the red button activating the alarm as well as its motorized wheels. Accelerating forward Clocky pushed the overweight bird into her cage. Launching off the side table beeping incessantly, Clocky inadvertently interrupted the duet in the form of a trio. Motionless, the keet found herself in a pile of bird seed and happily unconscious. I ended up rushing in to turn off the alarm, forgetting why I had set it in the first place.

My Calling

People have always looked to the skies for answers. Walt Disney believed "all our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them" and created a place for people to transport themselves into worlds full of fantasy and exploration. The Greeks drew constellations, Leonardo Da Vinci built flying machines and Hayao Miyazaki drew floating islands. These dreams of entering the air have always been in our collective consciousness and now we are approaching a point in time when engineering and imagination may be able to send buildings into the air. I believe that it is my calling to redefine the future of entertainment and build the most inspiring performance venue ever created, an opera house in the sky.

I want to save the opera industry through innovation. Opera is the interdisciplinary intersection of all artforms. Unfortunately, in my opinion, opera has traditionally misrepresented itself for nearly 50 years as digital disruption has taken over the music industry. From player-pianos to record players, and jukeboxes all the way to mp3s, music has evolved, and these new technologies should be used in every opera house and not just left at the door. Through closed-minded leadership and an inability to adapt, opera has spoiled humanity’s greatest art form and deprived people of complete and complex artistic experiences. Opera needs to pivot. It needs to embrace the best aspects of the operatic form and truly become the center of interdisciplinary art. Opera needs to get out of the building more often and find new curious audiences (Blank, 2018). According to Mike Tyson, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” I want to be that punch for the opera industry and shift the public perception 400 kilometers north from Bayreuth to the Bregenz (Christiansen, 2011). I want to show the world how opera can be redefined through ephemeral events. Stripping away the tuxedos, jewelry and six course dinners of the Metropolitan Opera era, opera is a perfect form for all artists to participate if guided by the right leadership.

            It is my goal to be a cultural placemaker and build the most effective, efficient, and equitable cultural institution ever created. As jobs continue to transition from agricultural areas to cities, it will be necessary to develop creative spaces outside of urban environments to foster economic growth (Noonan, 2013). Here in Chicago, Jim Lasko, co-artistic director of Redmoon Theater defines placemaking as “meaning + space = place” and went on to state that cultural placemakers could bring meaning to spaces through altruistic means. By curating large ephemeral events nationally, we could inspire generations people to look to the skies and connect rural and urban communities through placemaking. Lasko commonly applies his equation to such locations as Ground Zero, Sandy Hook, or Hiroshima, explaining that signature events can shift public opinion of what a place means, whether it’s tragic or inspiring (Lasko, 2013). By increasing access to creative places, innovation is likely to follow. As a cultural placemaker, I want to build a company that can function as an engine to stimulate local economies by providing unforgettable services and spectacles.

It is my calling to build the most inspiring performance venue ever created. I believe that my work will be necessary in a future where technology divides rural and urban areas through polarizing politics and ideologies. I know I am passionate enough and have started in this direction nearly 10 years ago when I began designing site specific opera at the University of Miami. This will be my life’s work and I have enough determination and grit to be a successful social entrepreneur (Latterman, 2016). Without risk there is no reward and I have spent the past four years of my life risking everything to make my dream a reality. It started as a small start-up in 2014 with the Floating Opera Project and now has become a calling worth pursuing. I will be the man that sends opera into the air as an interdisciplinary “circus of the skies” and unapologetically provide hope for people in blighted areas across the planet.

References:

Blank, S., & Harvard Business Review. (2018, February 09). Why the Lean Start-Up Changes          Everything. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-the-lean-start-up-changes-       everything

Christiansen, R. (2011, August 05). Bregenz Festival: The world's splashiest opera? Retrieved    from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/8681827/Bregenz-Festival-the-    worlds-splashiest-opera.html

Disney, W. (2013, February 09). Walt Disney - 93 quotes. Retrieved from http://www.great-          quotes.com/quotes/author/Walt/Disney

Latterman, G. (2016, November 08). Find Your Calling In Life - Be An Entrepreneur. Retrieved          from https://thegarage.northwestern.edu/find-calling-life-entrepreneur/

Lasko, J. (2013, June 12). Jim Lasko on place making and ephemeral events. Retrieved March         20, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KcORj3N4vo

Noonan, D. S., & Breznitz, S. M. (2013). Arts districts, universities, and the rise of media arts. In Creative Communities: Art Works in Economic Development (pp. 118-143). Brookings         Institution Press Washington, DC.