Create Change: A Capstone Recap
By
Christine Goins Karen Chen Jürgen Pölzl Tsai-Ti Chiang
When given free reign to create a cultural event from the ground up, my team approached the task as we would any other entrepreneurial opportunity; we began by determining our mission. We discussed not only what we wanted to achieve, but also why. The primary business objectives were necessarily set by the realities of our budget and timeline. We needed to complete the project before May, while spending only what we could reasonably hope to receive in donations and sponsorships within that timeframe. The motivation was more difficult to define, but once identified it steered the course of further decision making. We agreed that the idea of art’s unique ability to bring attention to social issues was something we wanted to explore in our program. In analyzing our key strengths and capabilities as international students we concluded that exploring the works of immigrant artists in Paris would leverage our personal experiences and at the same time be relevant to the prevailing artistic zeitgeist of Europe. As such, we sought to create an opportunity for people to connect through cultural experience and foster an atmosphere of open-mindedness and inclusion.
In order to achieve those goals, we needed an administrative framework for hosting our event and decided early on that we would pursue establishing a non-profit association. In order to do so we needed to develop our brand. After brainstorming ideas related to our mission, we landed on the name Eos, and the motto Create Change. Eos is a simple modern-sounding word, but in fact it has ancient roots. Eos is the Greek goddess of dawn, and we appreciated its connotations of illumination and new beginnings. We also valued its connection to classical antiquity where much of the philosophy of art originates. The inspiration for the Eos logo began with the Greek alphabet capital letter delta, Δ. This symbol is widely recognized as the symbol for change, and from there we learned that the glyph we use as our logo is often used to mean “create”. It was a natural fit. With our purpose and brand in mind we worked with a lawyer to write the statutes of our association with ourselves as officers and filed the necessary paperwork. After receiving our official recognition as an association it was then straightforward to open a bank account and purchase an insurance plan to carry out our program with the utmost professionalism.
With the confidence afforded us by completing our due diligence we could then focus on the artistic direction of our program. We selected the artists and performers through a series of studio visits and an open call for talent. In the end we decided to include five visual artists and five performers with origins from around the globe to display their singular talents and perspectives in an event which explored themes of transition and cultural identity. As immigrants in Paris, these individuals had been forced to reconsider their sense of place, tradition, and belonging. It was the variety of artistic responses and interpretations engendered by this unique set of circumstances which we presented in Cultural Drift: The Migration of Artistic Influence.
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