Giving Back is Dead

Chelsea Spengemann joins Scott Stover on Giving Back is Dead to discuss Soft Network, the nonprofit she co-founded and now leads as Executive Director. The organization collaborates with artist estates and archives to develop sustainable legacy models for historically significant artists who lack the commercial gallery representation needed to preserve and promote their work. Their goal is to ensure that these artists' contributions endure despite not achieving the commercial success required for broader recognition. 

Chelsea has also created an email chain/group called Artist’s Foundation & Estate Leaders’ List or “AFELL” concerning best practices for people who are actively managing artist’s estates. AFELL currently has +300 members. 

GBID is particularly interested in models which are not motivated by the market.

What is Giving Back is Dead?

GIVING BACK IS DEAD addresses the need to engage the next generation differently than the previous generation. Stover believes that arts institutions and initiatives will lose their funding if arts leaders do not recognize what motivates the next generation. The previous generation has structured arts funding based on participation in an elite and exclusionary social club related to the donor’s wealth. Media focus on the art market and its atmospheric sales prices reinforce that the art world and its initiatives are out of touch with society’s injustices.

GIVING BACK IS DEAD offers a series of inspiring paths to engage NextGen’s to assure the arts continue to be funded and are relevant to our lives.