Art & Tech Fundraising Innovator Interview: 15 Questions with Patton Hindle
As detailed in our latest article, alternative funding methods for artists and cultural initiatives are on the rise. For our second interview in our philanthropist interview series, we sit down with Arts Funders Forum event speaker and Senior Director of Arts at Kickstarter, Patton Hindle.
At Kickstarter, Hindle oversees the Arts and Performance Arts team, which works with visual and performing artists, arts organizations, museums and cultural institutions to help bring creative ideas to life. Previously the co-founder of Chinatown gallery yours mine & ours and the Director of Gallery and Institutional Partnerships at Artspace, Hindle is a co-author of the second edition of How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery.
Ahead of our December 3 inaugural event, meet Hindle and hear why she believes the arts are fundamental to society:
Patton Hindle. Photo Credit: Lauren Renner.
What do the arts mean to you?
For me, the arts encompass one of our most core human urges – one that is to be creative. This can come in a multitude of forms, be it literature, visual arts, performing arts, film, music and so on.
What inspired you to build a career in the art world?
I was fortunate to be raised by parents who appreciated art and culture. My father got a PhD in English Literature, so there could never be any judgment of my choice to get both an English and an Art History degree at university because it wasn’t “practical.” I landed firmly in the art world when I realized I couldn’t make my own art but wanted to support those who did. I felt that perhaps I brought a different skill set, one that would better empower creative people and support and nurture their work.
In your view, what impact do the arts have on society?
I actually think one of our core principles at Kickstarter best sums up my own personal views:
Art and creative expression are essential to a healthy and vibrant society. They challenge us and authority, help us face and escape the truths of our world, and bring beauty, humor, and joy into our lives. They are also under threat. Their value is intangible and not easily quantified, and the reasons we know we need them reside in our gut, not in the numbers. That’s why they—and the space in which they are made—require, and deserve, both our vigilance and our fierce protection.
Why do you support Arts Funders Forum? What do you hope it will achieve?
As I told Melissa Cowley Wolf [Director, Arts Funders Forum] when we met, I learned about AFF and knew immediately I would do whatever I could to support it. So much of their findings reiterate our experience at Kickstarter. And I think everyone involved believes firmly in the need to secure the arts for the next generation, but we first have to figure out how to make them see its import.
I cannot imagine that putting this group of people into one room won’t spark ideas and collaboration. Further, this isn’t over after the event on December 3rd. This is just the beginning of something we all need to be dedicated to for years to come.
What challenges do visual and performing artists, arts organizations, and cultural institutions face within the current philanthropic environment?
Well, I could write a whole dissertation on this… but I’ll stick with some core concepts that also happen to align with why I think the Arts Funders Forum is going to be so essential in the coming years.
Firstly, we’re having a hard time engaging a younger generation. The stoic white walls of a museum or gallery, the time commitment or ticket cost to see a performance, are all things that turn off a younger generation. I think there’s also a fear or feeling that this world is so insular it’s not worth cracking. If you add into this the past 15 years of turbulent economics – where younger people are having to hold more jobs to stay afloat amidst crippling student debt, healthcare costs, rising rents and so on – you have a perfect storm for disaffection.
Additionally, we’re living in tumultuous times where we’re finally examining where the money that funds cultural institutions comes from. With numerous major arts donors stepping out of board roles or being distanced by museums, we’re in a troubling place to think about where the next round of funding might come from.
Don’t get me wrong, the real answer to all of this is to have a government that cares for and funds arts and culture. But in lieu of that, we have to rethink how we engage in private and foundational philanthropy.
What makes Kickstarter Arts’ approach to fundraising stand out?
Kickstarter was founded 10 years ago with the simple (but admittedly massive) goal to help bring creative projects to life. Our founders’ feeling was, if you have an idea and you clearly present it, people will want to support you. They were right.
We’ve seen that if you meet people where their means are — $5, $50, $100, etc. — they will show up. And further, we’re finding that backers (supporters) are specifically excited to fund projects that have a social or political lilt to them.
This methodology of a high volume of people giving smaller amounts of money is something that could, in theory, eliminate some of these board seat issues and sponsorships from less desirable corporations. Kickstarter is a tool that doesn’t allow one voice to dominate; rather, it supports creative independence.
Given the current state of funding in the art world, do you see the role of crowd-funding expanding? If so, how?
I do. We’ve seen significant growth in the Arts category on Kickstarter in just the last two years. In fact, we’re having one of our strongest years to-date. As the arts have come around to the digital space and increased transparency, tools like Kickstarter help provide a platform for an artist or organization to share their message and project with a global audience.
We know anecdotally that the platform has also allowed many artists and cultural institutions to reach a new and younger donor base and, given the current state of private institutional funding, I expect that models like ours will continue to grow.
In truth, as an organization, we would want to so totally reshape the funding landscape that we eventually become unnecessary. For the interim, we’re the boost while everyone else re-evaluates and changes. And together, in this period, we all can work to change patronage and support for creative endeavors.
Can you provide us with a few examples of how Kickstarter has helped artists or arts organizations realize their ambitious ideas and fundraising goals?
For Freedoms – In November of 2017, co-founder of For Freedoms, Hank Willis Thomas came to Kickstarter and shared an idea with me. It seemed extraordinary — even unbelievable. He and his team at For Freedoms wanted to create one of the largest-ever creative collaborations in United States history: a call for cultural and civic action that would take place in every single state. Communities would choose their mode of participation — a billboard, town hall meeting or special exhibition — but their goal would be singular: to create art across the country that would spark honest dialogue and reflection about issues that affect them.
We worked with these communities and the loyal For Freedoms team to develop 52 concurrent Kickstarter campaigns, one for every state, plus Puerto Rico and Washington D.C., to put artist-designed billboards in all 52 places in advance of the 2018 midterm elections. This was the largest arts undertaking in Kickstarter history and we willingly bent our rules to let For Freedoms run all 52 campaigns at once. They pulled together a groundswell of support with 2,221 backers so that all projects are successfully funded.
Pope.L and What Pipeline – In August 2017, the Chicago-based artist Pope.L teamed up with the gallery What Pipeline and 164 backers on Kickstarter to create an installation, performance and artistic intervention in Detroit that called attention to the ongoing effects of the Flint, Michigan water crisis. Funds were used to purchase actual tap water from the homes of Flint residents, bottle it and sell it at What Pipeline, which served as an informal information center and performance venue. Proceeds were donated to the United Way of Genessee County and Hydrate Detroit to help mitigate the crisis and advocate for affordable water laws in both cities.
Creative Time and Risa Puno – Risa Puno’s The Privilege of Escape was the first project out of Creative Time’s Open Call as well as the arts nonprofit’s second Kickstarter campaign. It taught viewers subtle lessons about white privilege, gamification and collective success. Funds raised on Kickstarter were used to extend the installation’s free public viewing days. Visitors were divided into two identical escape rooms where they each had 45 minutes to complete various tasks. There was one big difference between the rooms: one room was lit with full-spectrum light, while the other was lit with red light. Color-coordinating tasks in the red room became difficult, if not impossible, because players’ eyes couldn’t recognize the difference between colors like brown and blue or orange and yellow.
Nearly all groups finished in the white-light room; in contrast, only 15 percent of groups in the red-light room finished. Both groups were brought together at the end to learn about their advantages and disadvantages.
Ultimately, Creative Time and Puno posited that “The Privilege of Escape is not a solution to a problem. It is a challenge. We are each forced to contend with the personal question, ‘Having described privilege, what will I do to lessen or end it?’’
Prior to Kickstarter, you were a gallery co-founder and director of partnerships. Could you tell us about the different fundraising methods you utilized while in the gallery world?
Call it double dipping, but my gallery actually did a Kickstarter for Martin Roth’s last New York solo exhibition, In November of 2017 I collected a plant from the garden of a mass shooter. Roth had an exceptional and eerie idea to create an installation around a single plant he excavated from the garden of the 2017 Vegas shooter. He wanted to partner with a local youth group to discuss gun violence in America. And the plant, a desert holly, was in the gallery and growing every day – this served as a suggested antidote to our current gun affliction. Roth knew this idea was absurd but, if our own government cannot seem to find an answer to the issue of gun violence, is it actually that wild to suggest that a plant could?
Your book How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery provides a guide for operating a successful art gallery in today’s economy. What inspired you to write this with co-author Edward Winkleman?
Ed was a mentor to me really early on in my career. I had actually read the first edition of this book when I was in my very first gallery job. He was “the authority.” I was flattered when he approached me to co-author the second edition nine years after its original publication. Much had changed since the first edition and I had recently opened my own gallery when he asked, while he had not opened a space in nearly 20 years. We added much needed resources about the changing art fair landscape and the move towards the digital world in the arts, an area I had expertise in.
What does your 2019 Catherine Hannah Behrend fellowship at 92Y Women inPower entail?
This fellowship is for a cohort of 28 rising female leaders. The program is designed for women who are senior level but not executives yet, as this is where we’re seeing the greatest drop-off in women rising to the top. I am one of two fellows chosen from the arts as part of the Behrend fellowship, which requires the completion of a project and additional meetings. It also offers us specific mentors for our industry; I’ve been very lucky and grateful to have Nancy Spector, Artistic Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator of the Guggenheim Museum, as my mentor this year. The program overall is geared towards professional development. I’ve found that much of what we encounter in our various industries is similar, but it’s our language and professional vocabularies that differs.
Are there any specific arts and cultural causes are you most passionate about?
I’ve personally supported a lot of community arts organizations over the years. One of my favorites is The Laundromat Project in New York. They work in underserved arts communities across New York’s five boroughs, expanding their reach to folks who may not normally have seen arts as a part of their lives.
I’m still waiting for more artist-led organizations to start working on climate change. I have been a fan and supporter of Olafur Eliasson’s The Little Sun for years but think this is a topic more artists could speak vehemently to.
What do you believe the role of private giving is in the 21st century?
I’m happy to see that private giving has taken a more diverse and inclusive turn in the last 10 years, though we still have a long way to go. And while I think private giving is essential, especially as many European countries are being told to look to the US philanthropic model, it’s important that we also turn to our government and use our power to lobby for the funding of the National Endowment for the Arts. Every dollar the government gives to the arts is followed by $16 of private funding. That’s enormous and we cannot turn a blind eye to thinking we can privately reshape philanthropy in the US without including the government.
How can we engage the next generation of young donors?
Similar to much of what AFF uncovered, we’re seeing that younger donors are increasingly interested in artist’s practices that align with a social or political issue. That doesn’t mean that traditional works aren't being funded but, perhaps, this is the gateway to tap into the next generation.
Do you have any advice for donors who are just starting to support the arts?
Don’t be intimidated! It’s okay to give within your means, even if that is $15! I’ve seen artists and institutions both say that it’s clear when someone is giving what they can because they care about the idea, person or organization and, in many ways, that means so much more. I think it gives institutions hope that their idea or mission is relevant. I also like to think about what my regular expenses are – a cup of coffee daily or eating lunch out — and how I could save superfluous money being spent there and give it back to an organization that has likely given me a ton culturally.