Our Impact
Upstart Co-Lab wants to embody its name. That means turning things upside down. Breaking some rules. Causing a ruckus. If we succeed, the future will look very different:
Artists as Innovators
Rick Lowe, Sebastian Ruth, and other artist/community leaders are celebrated not only as MacArthur “geniuses,” but also as social entrepreneurs.
Sustainable Creative Lives
Following the example set by Minneapolis, every community with a farmers’ market opens a new kind of CSA where the A stands for Art instead of Agriculture, and neighbors realize there is even more to “buy local.”
Sustainable Creative Lives
Strong market cities with rising real estate prices make a commitment to affordable housing for artists, recognizing, as New York City has, that their futures depend on a creative economy in which artists are crucial.
Capital for Creativity
TONIIC investors who have committed to being 100% for impact align their arts collections with their values, leading a sea change among diverse stakeholders—philanthropists, investors, and art collectors—to support impact through art.
Capital for Creativity
UNESCO’s perspective on creativity is fully integrated into the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals. Fostering entrepreneurship and resilience; building capabilities and improving wellbeing; developing freedom of expression and dialogue; providing sustainable economic growth and jobs—these are only a few ways that creativity can inform local, national, and global standards of financial inclusiveness, social cohesion, and environmental stewardship.
Capital for Creativity
Companies don’t just say they value creativity, but demonstrate it. Sustainable companies actively reward Creative Intelligence within their corporate cultures.
Capital for Creativity
The Calvert Foundation offers a new theme, enabling Community Investment Notes investors to provide capital for creative placemaking. As a result, developers like Artspace can build and operate more affordable housing and workspace for artists, and community projects incubated with grants from ArtplaceAmerica can scale.
Sustainable Creative Lives
Entrepreneurship training for artists moves beyond self-help to offer a real Lean LaunchPad for new business ideas.
Artists as Innovators
Tech founders are increasingly recognized for their arts and design experience, like Perry Chen at Kickstarter, Brian Chesky at AirBnB, and Zachary Smith at Voxel.net.
Artists as Innovators
Artists are rightly recognized as experts. Like social media, finance, and assessment professionals, their positions are non-negotiable within all leading private, public, and social sector organizations.