Momentum 2 presented by Vanguard Culture

 Summary Notes by Patricia Frischer

Gil Sotu

Please note: You can view the full zoom presentation for Momentum 1 and 2 at this link on Vanguard Culture: A Creative Industry Symposium.

Co-host with Vanguard Culture Susanna Pereda Swap
James Halliday– Arts: A Reason to Survive. The arts are always going to be on the forefront of re-building and re-imagining our communities.  

Sean Cassidy – Cassidy International Business Growth Strategist & Futurist. It is important to know how you get access to people especially if you want to make a living in the arts. Now we have infinite opportunities and access to powerful people. Ecommerce is changing the way we live. Space X is putting up satellites to connect us all. The pandemic has accelerated our tech communications by 10 years. Ecommerce in the arts has lagged and to fix that we need collaboration to invent new strategies.  Strategically aligning ourselves means giving up ego. Digital currency is coming worldwide. Live entertainment will use that currency. We can bring ourselves into spaces all over the world. Integrated connections will make that happen. We need to share resources across all industries.

Jodi Cilley – Passionate Filmmaker, Storytelling about community. Young people are drawn to this area and will commit and solidify relationships to make community. Film making is a team sport. The bigger the project the bigger the circle of community that is needed. The audience needs to feel something and be changed. Film immerses the audience. Films shows you in a deep and vital way, how others are living. Watch 150 films they released during the pandemic. Quarantine Film challenge.

Performance by Gill Sotu, who inspires through poetry with Lee Culture. “This is not the time to look away.”

Allison Andrews, Founder of Fashion Week San Diego and APA Business Consulting. History of fashion has led us from fashion mags to social media fashion blogs and influencers, from couture to prêt-à-porter, from dresses to pants for women, from thin only to body acceptability. We are now challenging the norms of the fashion industry. New trends include: Smart Fashion that helps to keep you alive with embedded healthy technology; socially responsible fashion for example upcycling and encouraging anti-child labor laws; and a wide range of alternative materials. Active leisure is now acceptable to wear out of your house. As brick and mortar is dying, online sales are thriving. The fashion industry is always looking for innovation and agents of change.

Ted Washington Publisher Puna Press and performing with Pruitt Igoe. All of his projects are about the people and the community and creating collaborations for communication. Music and poetry combinations for and with all ages and in all locations. Alternate venues are especially essential. Art can be a prompt for poetry. La Bodega has a new space in Barrio Logan but had to stop because of Covid. The pandemic and zoom opened poetry up to a much wider audience like Virtual Palabra. The word will not be silenced. The word lives on. The word travels fast. We are infinitely adaptive.

Performance: Jamie Shadowlight who is an electric violinist collaborating with sounds and sand artist

Matt Carney, he is an Executive Director of the San Diego Ballet. President of San Diego Regional Coalition for Arts and Culture. Dance means fun and funky and being part of something bigger and spectacular. Dance is an expression of being alive. Dance is for everybody and comes from the people. Dance is a body of work. There are social implications and advocacy issues within this medium. We can re-evaluate and think outside of the commercial aspect of selling tickets for example, Disco Riot has a message to vote.

Sarah Austin Jenness, storyteller. Executive Producer of The Moth podcast. In the beginning of The Moth were storytellers who called themselves The Moths as they gathered around a lamp on an outside porch sharing real personal stories told by people in the know. It started as small, curated event, but it grew and grew and became a collective effort. Because of the pandemic it is all virtual now in 30 cities and working with student stories as well as Community and Global workshops in prisons.  Before Covid they were already making podcasts and broadcasting by radio. They realized they are no longer just art, but a worldwide way to connect and deal with social problems. It is artfully presented but practices advocacy on social justice issues. Now it is not just story telling but an exercise in listening. Sarah urges us to hold space for stories and make the world a better place by sharing a story and listening with empathy.

Clement So, Director of Artistic Planning at the San Diego Symphony has a mission of changing lives with music. Listen//Hear is a Covid project to allow people to pay attention to listening. Musical combination from different cultures can bring us together. The music itself actually tells a story and not just with lyrics.  There is the possibility that listening can change lives. Ode to Spring has a message that all men shall become brothers. Music helps us remember the dream. His new directions and collaborations include pivoting to online presentations, more talk to educate the audience and showcasing more lesser known musicians and creating cross medium events in outside spaces.

Performance; Young Artists in Harmony - ARTS in partnership with Art of Elan  Kate Hatmaker mentors this group of young artists. Grateful for the empowerment of the community.