Aspen Ideas to Go Creating Cultural Consciousness
Oct 29, 2025
In this engaging discussion, Anna Deavere Smith, an acclaimed actress and playwright, leads a powerhouse panel featuring Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian, Mariko Silver, CEO of Lincoln Center, and Yana Peel, arts executive at Chanel. They explore how arts institutions serve as cultural glue, fostering creativity and community. The group tackles the balance of risk and audience demand, addresses funding strategies for innovation, and considers new economic models for artist compensation, all while emphasizing the vital role of art in healing fractured communities.
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Culture As Society’s Reservoir
- Culture acts as social glue and a reservoir of possibility that institutions must protect and enable.
- Institutions should become platforms for artists, not mere repositories of art, to keep culture nimble.
Invest In Arts Leadership
- Empower and invest in arts leaders because they enable artists to go further than institutions alone can.
- Bolster leaders with training, ethical entrepreneurship, and resources to navigate many stakeholders.
Take Measured Programming Risks
- Talk to audiences and build trusting relationships with artists before taking big programming risks.
- Prepare audiences for messiness and accept that risk often yields extraordinary work.
