Artist Innovators Disrupting Corporate and Civic America

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Sept. 11, 2015 - PRLog -- IDEAS xLab (http://www.ideasxlab.com/) is an artist-run organization devoted to expanding artists impact and opportunity in the 21st Century economy through workforce interventions inside some of America's best known corporations.

"We have over 30,000 hours of prototyping this new model for engaging and training artists as strategic human resources." said IDEAS xLab co-founder, Theo Edmonds. "It's showing incredible potential for becoming a catalytic force in areas ranging from population health to industrial manufacturing. The model could also prove disruptive to institutions engaged in the higher education of artists. There is potential for this approach to democratize institutional arts philanthropy and have more funding made directly available to innovative artists from corporations seeking their services."

IDEAS xLab meets the knowledge-based economic demand for real innovation and proposes and expands career pathways for artists to put their unique skill sets to work in non-traditional ways. Out of 2 million arts graduates nationally, only 10 percent currently make their primary earnings as working artists. (BFAMFAPhD)

The first major public presentation of the new model will be at Catalytic Forces: Artist as Social Sculptor (http://www.catalyticforces.com/) -  a 24-hour convening organized by IDEAS xLab in Louisville, KY on October 3, 2015 designed to inspire, educate and activate radical new thinking and collaborative problem-solving between artists, corporations and communities.

Joseph Beuys, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and a source of inspiration for IDEAS xLab's approach, advocated for "social sculpture" - an extension of the concept of what art is. The central idea of a "social sculptor" is an artist's potential to transform society and politics. Expanding upon this concept, IDEAS xLab has developed and prototyped new opportunities for artists with Fortune 100 companies, a global NGO, venture capital and a municipal government through initiatives supported by ArtPlace America, National Endowment for the Arts Our Town program, and the Educational Foundation of America.

“Most CEO’s and organization leaders will tell you that creativity is important to innovation,” said IDEAS xLab co-founder Theo Edmonds. “But, few will tell you that their organization is good at creativity. Business and organizational development cycles are mostly linear processes. Creativity is not. Creativity is disruptive.”

“By leveraging the creative thinking capacity of highly skilled artists as innovation consultants, new options become visible by unlocking potential within a client’s existing human-capital resource base,” explained Josh Miller, who co-founded IDEAS xLab with Edmonds in 2013.

“In this age, where art is reduced to commerce and a physical exchange, there is a deep need to find a meaningful manifestation of artistic innovation and to create a greater impact through art,” said Ayelet Aldouby of IDEAS xLab and Residency Unlimited. “This provides the framework to make the difference for the artists, the communities and the corporations.”

Using IDEAS xLab’s prototypes as a launching point for the day, Catalytic Forces will feature a corporate and civic innovation panel moderated by Colleen Keegan, featuring clients including General Electric’s FirstBuild and Humana, and an international artist panel including Polish artist architect Jakub Szczesny and Creative Capital artist Andy Kropa.

The afternoon includes an interactive exercise on the economics of creativity by the St. Louis Federal Reserve Louisville branch, and will culminate with the creation of work groups (industry leaders+artists) to identify top challenges in healthcare, advanced manufacturing, ecommerce and vocational education. The goal is to develop a working portfolio of projects for artist-industry collaboration.

For more information on Catalytic Forces visit www.catalyticforces.com.

Panel Participants:
Venkat Venkatakrishnan (GE FirstBuild)
Erik Eaker (Humana)
Bob Saunders (Venture Capitalist)
Jackie Willmot (XLerateHealth)
Lynn Rippy (YouthBuild Louisville)
Anthony Smith (Louisville Metro Government, Safe & Healthy Neighborhoods)
Ted Smith, PhD (Louisville Metro Government, Chief of Civic Innovation)

Quotes from IDEAS xLab clients:

"Our work with IDEAS has taught us new things about our own machines and processes.” 
GE Engineer

"IDEAS work was one of the most effective parts of our recent new (public health) initiative launch.”
Humana Executive

“Our work with IDEAS helped us to see new possibilities across our organization resulting in a doubling of our capacity in just 18 months.” 
YouthBuild Executive Director

More information on IDEAS xLab:
IDEAS xLab is a catalytic organization run by artists and art professionals working at the nexus of cultural production, social investigation and marketplace. Created to help corporations and NGOs make the leap into the future by accessing artists as a strategic human resource for building creative capacity in healthcare, manufacturing, ecommerce and vocational education.

More information on moderator Colleen Keegan:
Colleen Keegan is a corporate Strategic Planner and Arts Activist. She is a partner in Keegan Fowler Companies, an equity investment and consulting firm specialized in providing strategic planning and business affairs services to companies in the communications and entertainment industries. Previously, Keegan served as the president of Pacific Arts Video Production and Washington Video Services, She also worked as a producer for MTV Networks, WETA and Showtime. Keegan is the co-chair of the endowment committee for The Creative Capital Foundation and the Creator of the Creative Capital Strategic Planning Program for Artists and the Executor of the Theo Westenberger Estate and the administer of the Westenberger grants and fellowships for art and conservation. Keegan is the art business adviser for the TED Fellows program and the Co-Chair of the TED Fellows Arts Committee. She has served on numerous Boards of Directors and advisory boards including New York Live Arts, the American Refugee Committee, ARTHOME, Artists for Obama,  The Artist Book Foundation, The Center for Creative Arts Berlin, Emily/s list, I.D.E.A.S. 40203, One Million Bones, Moveopolis, The MS Foundation. The NOW legal Defense Fund, Show of Force, Picture Projects. The Texas Film Commissions. She lectures on art and new markets at California College of Art, Cal Arts, and the Wharton Business School among others.