Arts & Culture in North America: the projects changemakers recommend

The selection

• Aaron SorkinLos Angeles, USA“Because he understood that the gap between democratic ideals and institutional reality is where drama lives, and because works like “The West Wing” and “The Newsroom” showed millions of people what genuine public-spirited argument could look like before they’d ever witnessed it in their actual institutions.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Aude OlivaCambridge, USARecommended by Katy Foraz
• BiofabricateNew York, USA“Suzanne Lee built the community that takes grown materials out of the lab and into actual products.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Centre Culturel des Afro-descendants de Montréal - CCAMMontreal, CanadaRecommended by JJ Hazoumé
• Donna HarawaySanta Cruz, USARecommended by Søren Hermansen
• Elle BarbaraMontreal, CanadaRecommended by JJ Hazoumé
• Hannah ArendtNew York City, USA“Because she insisted on understanding politics as the realm of human plurality and action rather than administration, and because she never stopped asking what makes democratic life possible beyond bureaucratic processes.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Heman BekeleAnnandale, USA“Coming up with the beginnings of a simple, accessible solution to prevent a global problem. What a gem!”Recommended by Coralie Custos Quatreville
• Judith ShklarCambridge, MA, USA“Because she built an entire political theory around “putting cruelty first” as the foundation of liberalism, and because she showed that defending ordinary citizens from arbitrary power - whether public or private - is the core democratic project, not some secondary concern after we’ve sorted out grand constitutional principles.”Recommended by Alberto Alemanno
• Mellon FoundationNew York, USA“They put the arts and the humanities first in what they fund. It takes some nerve, and I respect it.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• MIT Media LabBoston, MA, USA“Their belief that the best ideas live between disciplines. I come back to it often.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• New RoomMontreal, CanadaRecommended by JJ Hazoumé
• Senseable City Lab (MIT)Cambridge, USA“Carlo Ratti reads the city as a living organism. His work helps us see ourselves inside it.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Shorefast Foundation / Fogo Island InnFogo island, Canada“Zita Cobb came home. She turned hospitality into a way of keeping her island alive.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Wildlife Conservation Fund / Hélène GrimaudNew York, USA“A great pianist who gives her fame to wolves. Art and wildness together, and it moves me.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• Yellow Dot StudiosLos Angeles, USA“They use sharp humour to call out greenwashing. It keeps people awake, and I enjoy it.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume
• ÉcomarisMontréal, Canada“They make plankton visible. Half our oxygen comes from it and we never see it, so this helps us care.”Recommended by Florian Guillaume