How do you quantify the value of culture? What benefit does it offer to our communities? Cities dedicate big money, sometimes in the billions of dollars, to incentivize economic growth if it can be paid for with future tax revenues. How can artists tap into that?
Adam Bateman breaks down the economic impact individual artists have in their communities and using examples from Brooklyn, Detroit, and Austin, he makes a case for direct-to-artist grants.
This presentation was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with only a limited live audience of cast and crew members. While applause has been added to the beginning and end of the video, all other aspects have intentionally remained as filmed to honor the struggle and loss experienced globally during 2020. Adam Bateman was raised in Ephraim, Utah. He received a BA in English with a Spanish Minor at BYU. He received an MFA from Pratt Institute with recognition for special achievement in Sculpture. He was the Executive Director of CUAC, an award winning, and internationally publicized non-profit art venue located in Salt Lake City that featured Utah artists paired with artists from around the world, and has curated exhibitions all around the United States. As an artist, he has exhibited his work all across the country, including numerous museum exhibitions—UMFA, UMOCA, BYU’s MOA, Schnieder Art Museum, Boulder Museum of Contemporary art, Akurari Art Museum, Disjecta, Barrick Museum, to name a few, and in Spain, Germany, Japan, and Iceland. He is a recipient of the Utah Artist Fellowship and of the Joan Mitchell Fellowship. He is also a UX Strategist and he just launched a disruptive art initiative in Salt Lake City called The Flat File. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at
https://www.ted.com/tedx