The Impact of Creativity
I absolutely LOVE (love, love, LOVE) it when art and creativity are used in service to social and environmental impact. Sometimes that's the only weapon available when fighting monolithic and moneyed forces.
Check out this outdoor mural – really a gigantic living billboard – in São Paulo, Brazil. It was designed by environmental activist and artist Alessandra Korap to put pressure to agribusiness giant Carghill to rid its supply chain of crops grown on recently deforested land.
As art, it's big and it's bold, oh – and beautiful, too – though what's really ingenious is how Korap, winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize, makes her point by making paints for the mural using degraded materials from Brazil's natural world: ash from burned rainforests, charcoal from scorched trees, mud from flood-stricken areas, and clay from river basins thirsting from drought. Now there's some symbolic storytelling!
And then there's the new animated movie, The Wild Robot, which I haven't yet seen – but definitely will, as I've been teased by how it weaves strong climate change messaging into its narrative without – and a key here – being preachy.
Lastly, a shout-out to the world's first Arts and Culture B Corp, Art Pharmacy, a placemaking consultancy in Australia. They make their living and their impact by demonstrating the power of art in public and corporate spaces. Now how fantastic is that? (Gotta love the name and a wicked website that dares to go beyond the cookie-cutter template.) Thanks to Andrew Boardman for pointing me in their direction.
What – or who – is inspiring your creativity today?
Godspeed, friends.
Russ
💬 Quote of the Week
"You can't use up creativity. The more you use the more you have.” Maya Angelou
💥 Quick Hits
• The 100-year itch – This makes me happy: After dams are removed, Chinook salmon are once again swimming upstream and returning to spawn in the Klamath River Basin for the first time in more than 100 years.
• Scream into the void – It's been a long election season, so go ahead and scream into the void.
• Caps and gowns and climate change – At the University of California, San Diego, it's now a requirement to take a course in climate change to graduate.
Find the Most Meaningful Work of Your Career
Our partner One Work has you covered with meaningful work that goes beyond a paycheck, a cubicle, or a weekly team Zoom call. You'll find purposeful jobs like those below, along with many more at the One Work job board.
• Homebase - If housing the unhoused is your thing, and you're looking for a new base of operations, here's an opportunity to contribute at an organization that's addressing homelessness at its root causes . Chief Operating Officer, San Francisco, CA or REMOTE.
• GiveWell - Keep a pulse on employee sentiment, develop team-building events and more at an organization striving to produce the world's top research on where to give. Manager, Employee Experience, REMOTE.
• Anthropic - Wrangle products at a public benefit corporation on the frontier of AI products and safety. Strategic Product Management, San Francisco, CA.
Need help in some way? Or have a story idea, question, or request? We're here to help! Just reply to this email with whatever you've got and we'll see you again on Thursday!