Art + Commerce = The New Convergence That Defines Our World
How do ideas gain currency? They need to be expressed
in the form of a story, one that will demonstrate how a product, cause
or insight will actually impact people’s lives and the world around
them.
That is why The Nantucket Project,
an event held on Nantucket, MA from September 26 to 28, is dedicated to
celebrating and recognizing the need for great storytelling.
While there is no secret sauce, the event provides a
conceptual framework for its speakers (an acclaimed group of visionaries
who represent a wide range of fields) to help the audience think
through the creative and practical choices involved in bringing ideas
into action.
The Nantucket Project calls this framework the convergence of art + commerce.
The Nantucket Project considers art broadly―as the
creative drive that finds its expression in fields like poetry and
graphic design, as well as in systems of thought such as theology.
Correspondingly, think of commerce as the rational domain that includes scientific and mathematical considerations.
We invite you to play along with us.
"The theme of a conference could be the color blue,"
jests Saul Wurman, the legendary founder of TED. "Every speaker could
incorporate blue into their presentations and then everyone could
congratulate themselves for being geniuses," he says.
And yet, some names stick, and become part of a
conversation with the greater culture. The name TED, after all, stands
for technology, entertainment and design. Wurman observed that these
three industries were converging into one thing when he founded the
renowned conference back in 1984.
Steve Jobs unveiled the Macintosh that
year at TED. Jobs's revolutionary product was the perfect illustration
of the convergence of technology, entertainment and design, so Wurman
really did look like a genius.
So conferences can indeed show us which way the world is heading. Wurman is now advising The Nantucket Project, and endorses art + commerce as "the new convergence" that defines our world today.
What's the Big Idea?
Art and commerce are forces that can be traced
throughout human history, and these forces often appear to be at odds
with one another.
Today, however, we are seeing a powerful convergence between the two. In fact, The Nantucket Project views art + commerce as the convergence that defines human ingenuity in our world today, both in business and in the life of the mind.
So why is art + commerce suddenly all the rage?
The simple answer is the Internet. The landscape of
commerce has changed. Every business and every individual today
participates in a world of virtual commerce. This precipitates the need
for great storytelling. The role of design and the arts is therefore greatly elevated in this environment.
"There has been a palpable recognition that
businesses need the arts more than ever," says Michael Spalter, the
Chairman of the Board of the Rhode Island School of Design. "The
challenge," Spalter says, "is for businesses to figure out how to
incorporate the creative fields into their ecosystems."
To help facilitate this marriage of art and commerce,
Spalter has launched the Creative Entrepreneurship Initiative at
Harvard Business School, the first HBS initiative of its kind in
decades.
Spalter sees creative entrepreneurship as an
opportunity for people to create value with limited resources. This is
an empowering idea for any entrepreneur, but it especially resonates in
the developing world, where certain groups of people like women and
girls are at risk like never before.
Spalter and the filmmaker, writer and artist Susan Dryfoos have contributed a white paper
to the Harvard initiative in which they directly challenge common
perceptions of creative people. On the one hand, there is the “old but
still often repeated and believed image of the starving artist,” Spalter
and Dryfoos note. However, "people can become successful (financially,
mentally, emotionally, spiritually ― all the things that contribute to
success) doing what they love to do," the authors argue.
Along with Saul Wurman and an artfully curated group
of thinkers in the creative and business fields, Spalter will be sharing
his vision at The Nantucket Project.
Ideas Into Action
In a novel partnership, The Nantucket Project and
Harbers Studios are inviting six members of the rising generation of
filmmakers to attend the event, and then go on to produce short films
inspired by ideas presented onstage. This represents a humble first step
toward illuminating the most significant ideas in the world today, which is the goal of a larger collaboration The Nantucket Project is launching with Time.
The Nantucket Project's founders see all of these
efforts as part of a larger conversation that needs to take place in our
culture. How do we ensure that the best ideas reach the surface?
"Content is the new data," says Tom Scott, who
founded The Nantucket Project with Kate Brosnan in 2011. Scott points
out that Americans watch 50 billion videos online every month. "We're
bombarded from every direction. So learning how to tell your story well
is a journey that every business and individual needs to take. We argue
that in order to be effective in this environment you really need to
achieve the right balance between art and commerce, and that's what our
event is about."
*Speakers at The Nantucket Project this year represent a colorful blend of art and commerce that includes Randy Komisar, Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Ken Lerer, former Chairman and Co-Founder of The Huffington Post and Chairman of Betaworks and Buzzfeed, Danielle Fong, Founder of LightSail Energy, Walt Mossberg, founder of AllThingsD and Re/code, Larry Summers, the former Secretary of the Treasury, Shiza Shahid, Co-Founder of the Malala Fund, Scott Minerd, Chairman of Investments and Global Chief Investment Officer at Guggenheim Partners, Billy Collins, former U.S. Poet Laureate, David Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Partner at The Carlyle Group, Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Julian Assange, who will be appearing in the form of a hologram, and many others.
