While money is certainly a shifting force, it is only one dimension of sustainability — one way in which parties within art worlds can be tethered.

How do non-profit, art organisations in the Caribbean understand notions of sustainability and connectivity? The Tilting Axis two-day conference served as a platform for exposing lines of operation, around which several thoughts rotate. The sessions raised a number of concerns including a need to see art as that which exists beyond a gallery or museum — the linking of art with crucial social work; the reality of art as a practice often done on the periphery of a main, 9-to-5 job; the dangers of a top-heavy management structure and the significance of embracing a philosophy of operational renewal in order to remain relevant. The conversations elicited the following key terms:

TiltingAxisWordCloud

This image is useful because it invites consideration of the relationship between a lexicon for framing, thinking about and articulating creative landscapes within the Caribbean and the axes of functioning in the arts. How might this picture change if those axes are tilted? What terms will we retire? Which will still matter? What new issues will enter the frame? While money is certainly a shifting force, it is only one dimension of sustainability — one way in which parties within art worlds can be tethered. The meeting underscored social capital, that is, the relationships and networks that facilitate collective action, as having the potency of sustainability and the potential of positive developments. The challenge is to nurture and grow this capital — fighting a return to silos — beyond the start and end points of the conference.


Marsha Pearce, Senior Editor
ARC Magazine
Trinidad & Tobago

www.arcthemagazine.com

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