OUR APPROACH
Centering culture and creativity to drive systems change
Our Approach
As a program of the Center for Cultural Innovation, we know that creativity is core and agility is key in how we do our work —new results will not come from conventional solutions. Learn more about the tools and approaches we are experimenting with to yield new possibilities for the world we are building.
Research to Impact Lab offers solutions to two shared problems. First, too many people and their communities are in survival mode — disempowered and unprotected. The fight for survival overrides people’s ability to pursue their dreams and fulfill their potential. This denies all of us a thriving democratic society both economically and culturally.
At the same time, America’s social safety net — hard-won benefits like paid family and sick leave; retirement savings; anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and wage theft protections — safeguards fewer people. From an increasingly ineffective social safety net compounded by more and more people fighting to survive in a changing workforce, the problems that Research to Impact Lab addresses are deeply layered and complex. No single approach could rectify the current system as we know it.
Now is a consequential moment to build alternative systems for large-scale shifts and possibilities. However, we must do so with a cultural lens. Through Research, Advocacy, Investment, and Incubation, CCI’s Research to Impact Lab builds alternative systems of knowledge, leaders, relationships, and structures to produce new cultural paradigms of mutualism, self-determination, and stewardship.
Photo courtesy of Brenda Gonzalez.Brenda Gonzalez, March 2023. Photographed at Arts at Blue Roof during the A Room of One's Own residency in South Los Angeles. Available for all uses.
As an organization with decades of experience supporting artists and their cultural communities, we know that approaches that isolate individuals for support while ignoring the needs of their communities will ultimately fail to achieve the self-determination and creative expression of both.
As a program of the Center for Cultural Innovation, we know that creativity is core and agility is key in how we do our work —new results will not come from conventional solutions. Learn more about the tools and approaches we are experimenting with to yield new possibilities for the world we are building.
Research to Impact Lab offers solutions to two shared problems. First, too many people and their communities are in survival mode — disempowered and unprotected. The fight for survival overrides people’s ability to pursue their dreams and fulfill their potential. This denies all of us a thriving democratic society both economically and culturally.
At the same time, America’s social safety net — hard-won benefits like paid family and sick leave; retirement savings; anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and wage theft protections — safeguards fewer people. From an increasingly ineffective social safety net compounded by more and more people fighting to survive in a changing workforce, the problems that Research to Impact Lab addresses are deeply layered and complex. No single approach could rectify the current system as we know it.
As an organization with decades of experience supporting artists and their cultural communities, we know that approaches that isolate individuals for support while ignoring the needs of their communities will ultimately fail to achieve the self-determination and creative expression of both.
Now is a consequential moment to build alternative systems for large-scale shifts and possibilities. However, we must do so with a cultural lens. Through Research, Advocacy, Investment, and Incubation, CCI’s Research to Impact Lab builds alternative systems of knowledge, leaders, relationships, and structures to produce new cultural paradigms of mutualism, self-determination, and stewardship.
Photo courtesy of Brenda Gonzalez.Brenda Gonzalez, March 2023. Photographed at Arts at Blue Roof during the A Room of One's Own residency in South Los Angeles. Available for all uses.
HOW WE WORK
For too long, values of late-stage capitalism such as individualism, competition, and profit-maximization have determined norms in the domains of economy, culture, and governance. R2i Lab’s work is to build the alternative: new systems rooted in mutualism, self-determination and stewardship.
Research
As our name implies, research is foundational to all of the approaches in our work. We commission research that can help influence and socialize imaginative and unconventional solutions for changing the status quo. Our research includes academic primary research and phenomenological deep listening of community stakeholders.
Advocacy
We approach our advocacy through direct action — collectivizing, educating, training, and activating campaigns. While this area of work is new, our strategy is to approach advocacy by activating networks of artists and gig working intermediaries.
Investment
We support and advance burgeoning alternative systems that further individual self-determination and community self-determination. We recognize that solutions created by individuals with their communities are often the most promising. We intentionally invest in cultural anchors and world builders developing new systems and solutions that support individual and community self-determination.
Incubation
We approach incubation as an opportunity to learn, influence, and socialize new solutions. Incubation as a tool in our approaches allows us to experiment, iterate, and invite inspiring researchers and entrepreneurs to our table to help us build alternative systems of support that manifest empowerment and mutualism.
STRATEGICGOALS
We envision a future where individuals and the communities they come from have the conditions they need to live life to their full potential and agency. This vision is the foundation for our strategic goals and how we prioritize our resources and energy.
Research to Impact Lab’s Strategic Goals:
Individual Self-Determination
Ensuring benefits and protections for all, regardless of work or income status.
Community Self-Determination
Empowering communities to build wealth and own their resources and systems.
RESOURCES &PUBLICATIONS
Research to Impact Lab commissions resources and publications that activate and inspire others to join us in building the path to a social safety net that truly works for all people, regardless of wealth or employment status. Check out the resources and publications we’ve produced and supported, as well as those from the field that inspire our work.