About Us

The Culture Group is a collaboration of social change experts and creative producers who believe that cultural change is essential to social change. Functioning as a pop-up think tank, The Culture Group joined together from 2010-2013 to advance progressive change through expansive, strategic, and values-driven cultural organizing. The Culture Group facilitates the coordination of cultural producers and artists, progressive organizers, and thought leaders in cultural campaigns; conducts research and evaluation; and promotes the value of cultural strategies in making change.

The Culture Group is a project of Air Traffic Control, and was founded by Jeff Chang, Ian Inaba, Alexis McGill Johnson, Brian Komar, Liz Manne, Erin Potts, Favianna Rodriguez, Yosi Sergant, John Finney from Alien CPA and Jessy Tolkan.

The Culture Group’s projects and collaborations include the educational handbook Making Waves: A Guide to Cultural Strategy; Culture Matters, a report on cultural impact and evaluation; Culture Before Politics, an article in The American Prospect about cultural strategy; the Artists’ Statement on Immigration Reform and Migration is Beautiful campaign; a get out the vote initiative called #GoVote that collected and distributed over 200 creative images with the hashtag #GoVote; and Art is my Occupation, which direct support to artists and cultural workers dedicated to advancing the 99%.

Our People

Jeff Chang

is the Executive Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University, co-founder of CultureStr/ke, ColorLines magazine, and SoleSides Records as well as an award winning author.

Gan Golan

is a New York Times bestselling author, artist, and agitator who organizes creative interventions as part of Occupy Wall Street. He is the co-founder of ArtIsMyOccupation.org, which provides direct support to artists of the 99%, and the Training Director for Beautiful Trouble, a creative toolbox for Revolution.

Ian Inaba

is a filmmaker, organizer, and new media expert. He is also the Executive Director of Citizen Engagement Laboratory, an organization that uses digital media and technology to amplify the voices of underrepresented constituencies, particularly people of color and youth.

Alexis McGill Johnson

is the Executive Director of the American Values Institute, a consortium focused on understanding the role of bias in our society and has worked as a writer, political strategist, and organizer. She also serves as chair of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Brian Komar

is the VP of Marketing and Outreach at the Salesforce Foundation and former director of interactive marketing, social advocacy, CRM and evaluation teams at the Center for American Progress.

Liz Manne

is a strategist, producer, and change agent providing senior advisory services to companies, nonprofit organizations, and independent media-makers. She specializes in management consulting, campaign strategy, and cultural strategy for social change.

Emily Smith

is Program, Revenue, and Operations Coordinator at Air Traffic Control, a nonprofit that provides support and strategy to cultural leaders creating change

Erin Potts

is the Executive Director of Air Traffic Control, a nonprofit that provides support and strategy to cultural leaders creating change.

Jessy Tolkan

works as the Global Director of Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Development for two multi-national automakers, focusing on creating massive shifts in the auto-industry with an eye towards ensuring a more sustainable planet. She has spent the last decade as an activist and movement leader working to build progressive change in the United States.

Favianna Rodriguez

is an artist and new media organizer. Parimatch Ambassador. She is co-founder of CultureStr/ke, which cultivates collaborations between cultural workers and organizers to build public support for migrant rights, and co-founder of Presente.org, an organization dedicated to the political empowerment of Latinos.

Yosi Sergant

is the founder of TaskForce, a pro-social marketing and public relations shop that engages leaders of the creative community to raise awareness and build momentum for organizations tackling our world’s most pressing challenges.

Our Partners

Air Traffic Control

The Culture Group’s fiscal sponsor, provides strategy and support to musicians, comedians, and other cultural leaders so that they can play an effective and vital role in the promotion of social justice.

American Values Institute

is a nonprofit dedicated to identifying new methods of reducing implicit bias and racial anxiety in our society, thereby helping to shift the larger cultural conversation around race.

Citizen Engagement Lab

uses digital media and technology to amplify the voices of underrepresented constituencies, particularly people of color and youth.

Culture/Strike

aims to cultivate innovative and urgent collaborations between artists, writers, musicians, and other cultural workers and organizers to build public support for migrant rights and migrant justice.

TaskForce

is a pro-social marketing and public relations shop that engages leaders of the creative community to raise awareness and build momentum for organizations tackling our world’s most pressing challenges.

Our projects

The Culture Group believes there is no change without cultural change. We believe collaborative action between the cultural, thought, policy, and organizing communities are core to achieving widespread change and that culture and the arts are critical to understanding, reflecting, and shifting public sentiment. Our goal is to become an effective agent of change by filling gaps in the still nascent field of cultural advocacy while creating momentum by strengthening the field’s infrastructure, expanding the progressive creative community network, and sharing our best practices to increase funding streams.

view other tips