Unhooking from Norms (EP.92)

About this episode

The episode discusses innovative organizational design through the lens of socially engaged artists and challenges traditional philanthropy practices.

What happens when the people an organization exists to serve are also the ones designing it? On this episode, host Tim Cynova is in conversation with Lu Zhang, Gregory Sale, and Diya Vij of A Blade of Grass to discuss what it looks like to approach your organization as a living experiment. A Blade of Grass supports socially engaged artists through a grants program, an in-fellowship cohort, and a digital publication called Landscapes. But their work goes well beyond their program design. They're actively questioning whether competition-based, project-focused philanthropy actually serves artists. They pay their board members. They use a randomized selection process for small grants. They talk openly about sunsetting the organization in the same breath they discuss 100-year plans. These are not things most organizations do. This conversation explores practitioner-led governance, the gap between what socially engaged artists need and what traditional arts infrastructure delivers, how to build for responsiveness and long-term strategy at the same time, and what it means to make an organization that doesn't require artists to check their creativity at the door. If you're a leader…

People in this episode

Host: Tim Cynova

Guests: Lu Zhang, Gregory Sale, Diya Vij

Topics covered

• organizational design
• socially engaged artists
• philanthropy
• practitioner-led governance
• creativity in organizations

Keywords

• organizational norms
• artist support
• grantmaking
• long-term strategy
• creativity

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: A Blade of Grass

Books & works: Landscapes

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