Tony Patrick
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We have a million ways to talk about and to articulate harm, but not enough words or phrases or sentences which can open the portal for restoration, renewal, and healing. Part of what I’m interested in currently is creating space for that.
I know how good it feels to be given agency, to be invited into continuums of imagination and creativity. And as we imagine together, we need to create a shared language for restoration. Where is the verbal bridge for clear, transparent communication that can facilitate healing and repair? Where is the structure for true dialogue and transformation and transcendence?
ShareLab is a proposed social innovation incubator and co-creation space that creates, prototypes, and launches the next generation of arts businesses, creative ventures, and technological cooperatives.
Locations: Online; New York, NY; Stockholm, Sweden
Date: 2022-ongoing
ShareLab’s proven strategy cultivates an impact network of professional artists, business experts, creative technologists, interdisciplinary activists, and community leaders that collectively build projects from a framework of shared values. It is positioned to re-envision collaboration as the greatest asset for positive social, emotional, and economic impact.
Why do this now? Take New York City’s $110B creative economy, employing 435,693 arts and cultural workers in 2020 alone—7.3% of the state’s economy. Yet when COVID-19 first impacted NYC’s artist communities, employment dropped by 13.17%, and wages plummeted by 28.15% in 2020.
In other words: It’s going to take years of dedicated resources to recoup these losses.
If we do not provide spaces like ShareLab for generative change-making, bold ideas, and co-creation, creative economies around the world will continue to suffer.
Today’s leaders need tomorrow’s heroes, and ShareLab offers the proximity and pedagogy to make it happen. An iteration of student-expert collaboration was proven effective at IMA Low Res’ ShareLab Studio, a Spring 2022 course between NYU Shanghai, 370J students, and the TenFold Gaming Initiative Alumni.
We collectively wrote a framework of shared values to enshrine all projects embed anti-racist practices, equitable shareholding, and resource sharing. After we set our values framework, we designed AR gardens, speculative fictions, restorative sonic offerings, and The Kindergarden Project, which went on to receive funding by the Tisch Creative Research Grant. Participants then met experts from the NYTimes, United Nations, and Swedish gaming companies at a sustainability-centered ShareLab convening in June 2022.
