Sovereignty
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Sovereignty is a journey. It’s something different to everyone, & it’s always changing. Ask yourself: is it sovereignty you’re after, or ego you’re protecting? Distinguish first between artistic and economic sovereignty. Sovereignty from cost of living and stress puts artists’ focus back on their art. Sovereignty means agency. So it may manifest as owning your space, practice, and outputs. But a grant is not sovereignty. A grant is a runway for you to have the space you need to take off. Sovereignty requires care. It takes hard work. And it isn’t free. And at the end of the day, sovereignty is only as valuable as what you do with it. Most important of all, sovereignty is to be shared.
IN CONTEXT: We’ve come a long way. Artists were once free to create, outside of markets and monarchies, then at some point a lot of western art went into service to capital. If it wasn’t in service to capital or made for markets, markets in which artists are often worth more dead than alive, then the artist had to embrace starvation in the name of sovereignty. Artists and freedom fighters, organizing around new definitions and understandings of sovereignty, have long said personal freedom was never the end all be all.. As Toni Morrison said, “if you are free, you need to free somebody else..” So the game has always been, sharing tools, time and energy in the pursuit of a collective freedom that can stand in the face of a system designed to counter it.
IN PRACTICE : Quiet counters this toxic relationship between artist and capital, practice and sovereignty in a number of ways. Amplifiers walk beside artists, teaching them how to fish, instead of just giving them free meals. Supporting through career guidance and sharing of tools. Quiet’s human centered agreements are made to be understood by all parties, not leveraged by who has the better attorney. It’s a practice not preached, but lived.
Sovereignty
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How does a community of artists shift culture?
To shift a culture dominated by financial, political, and social power inaccessible by many, we need a new medium of exchange that cannot be owned by individuals. A currency that expands by giving. We call it cultural currency. It is a currency that disrupts and transforms by elevating consciousness and building community.
Cultural currency allows us to find abundance where others see scarcity, to grow in the face of financial limitations. This is a creative antidote to the social, political, and humanitarian challenges of our time.
Throughout our learning journey, we found that there are five core cultural currencies that Quiet exchanges within our community and that continue to ripple outward:
Care
care
Care
CARE is an innate human quality. It must be more than theory, it must be practiced. It means something different to everyone, so care begins by asking questions and considering the needs of others. Care is making space for folks to heal. Care is giving more than taking. Care is how you direct your energy, thoughts, prayers. Care is how you show up.
Explorespirit
spirit
Spirit
Spirit and politics can have a seat at the table. By disrupting dogmas and form, spirit becomes a unifying space, synonymous with people’s values. Spirit is a force. A force for good. A force for protection.
ExploreSovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is a journey. It’s something different to everyone, & it’s always changing. Ask yourself: is it sovereignty you’re after, or ego you’re protecting?
ExploreCollaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration is at the center of a culture of abundance. Collaboration is the process that leads to everything. Quiet collaborates with care, through spirit, towards sovereignty.
ExploreCatalyst
Catalyst
Catylization
Catalyst is the flight that the runway facilitates. It is the ripple through art worlds and culture. It is the impact. Money is the catalyst we all know, creating the time and space required to catalyze works and careers.
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