In an essay published by the National Endowment for the Arts, Eleanor Savage discussed how the pandemic “has highlighted and amplified technology’s central place in every aspect of our daily lives” and “the vital role of artists in the development and shaping of social and cultural tools and in world-building through technology.”
In this piece, the program director at Jerome Foundation and GIA board member, lifts up one of the discussions at the 2020 GIA Convening.
Many future-facing conversations in the philanthropic sector are centering on arts and technology. Grantmakers in the Arts’ 2020 virtual convening, Power, Practice, Resilience Remix’d, opened with a visionary keynote featuring Ruha Benjamin, Salome Asega, and Sage Crump, all of whom are creatively engaged with technology, sciences, and cultural work. The conversation, titled “Building the Future We Want,” highlighted the big questions that technology-centered artists such as Sasha Constanza-Chock and so many others are asking around the use of technology and who has input into its design and implementation. (…) What this keynote conversation also raised was the issue of insufficient financial support for arts and technology, even in this moment when these artists, networks, and communities are creating vibrant new ways to construct experience and change narratives.