Before anything else, we want to say thank you.
Vision Train founder Amanda Sage has a message for everyone who contributed, participated, shared, witnessed and helped us Gather Momentum over these past six weeks—coming to you from the sunflowers dancing in the wind. And drenched in sunshine, I smiled to notice her body become a canvas for their shadows, dancing too, across her.
We crossed the finish line together.
This is my eighth Gathering Momentum newsletter.
We started planning “a fundraiser” sometime in May. Gathering Momentum itself began to emerge toward the end of June. We launched with our first Momentum Report on July 17, and six weeks of programming later, on August 28, we gathered for a full-day finale celebration and harvest.
That day, Marina and I spent more than twelve hours together hosting, coordinating, managing the stream and helping one trip flow into the next. But what filled those twelve hours were the artists, friends and collaborators, each arriving with something of their own to share. There were multilingual conversations, collaborative presentations and offerings, performances, and at least three different art jams. People came and went and came back again.
By the time the official programming ended, it was 2am where I live.
Over the next day or two, messages started arriving from people telling me what the experience had meant to them. I was so completely spent that mostly all I could manage in response was an emoji.
For six weeks, Gathering Momentum gave us good reasons to show up—to make art, share what we know, listen, learn, dance, experiment and spend time together. During this eclipse season, when so many of us have been navigating uncertainty, sudden change and shifting tides, a new shared theme each week gave us somewhere to meet each other inside of it all.
Sometimes it feels especially good to have places and reasons to show up when showing up is hard.
And by the end of our finale, together we had crossed our $11,111 milestone.
Of that, $4,720 was contributed directly through Gathering Momentum donations, with another $6,441 moving through Vision Train via memberships, workshops, Critical Mass tickets, the Vision Train Shop and other revenue, including $2,198 in proceeds Amanda contributed from her Tunnel Vision auction.
We are deeply grateful to everyone who got us this far.
There is something clarifying about reaching a deadline.
For weeks, the goal exists somewhere out ahead of you. Then the date arrives and reality dawns. A clearer picture begins to develop:
Here is what actually happened.
Money came in through donations, memberships, workshops, tickets and art. People contributed time, attention, knowledge and labor. New relationships formed. People showed up for one another and made things together.
These aren't separate stories. This is how we begin to tell the story of a living system—by noticing the relationships between them.
And, as you can see, we didn't reach the financial goal we set.
So we're giving the experiment ten more days.
Gathering Momentum will remain open through September 13.
The graphic above makes part of that system visible—and leaves us with a question we'll be carrying forward:
What does it actually mean to invest in the Train?
Vision Train has real operational costs. People are doing real work. Artists and facilitators deserve to be paid. The infrastructure that holds this strange, sprawling ecosystem together has to be sustained.
At the same time, we want to keep asking how exchange within a community can become not merely non-extractive, but regenerative.
How do we keep meaningful experiences accessible while valuing the labor that makes them possible? What is membership worth? What responsibility do we each have for sustaining the spaces we want to exist? When is generosity expressed by giving something away—and when is it expressed by paying what something actually costs?
Sometimes, we're learning, regeneration might even mean charging more.
Figuring out what something costs, what it's worth, and what each of us can give is tricky business.
Our Engineers are already reimagining Vision Train membership and looking closely at what Gathering Momentum taught us about fundraising, programming, sponsorship, collaboration and our own capacity.
Those questions will continue long after this fundraiser closes.
For now, we're asking you, shamelessly, to keep participating in the exchange.
If you've been meaning to contribute to Gathering Momentum, now is a very good time. If you've already given, consider sharing it with someone who might understand why this remarkable and timely social experiment matters.
If money isn't what you have to give right now, we trust you know what is.
I'm curious: what can happen in ten days?
So let's fix our minds on the miraculous and respond as we will.
LEARN MORE ABOUT GATHERING MOMENTUM
Next stop: September Critical Mass
Speaking of experiments—
One of the questions at the heart of the original Critical Mass was wonderfully simple:
What would happen if we got 222 visionary artists on the same Zoom call?
We're still trying to find out.
This month we're delighted to welcome Simon Haiduk, a multidisciplinary audiovisual artist exploring our relationship with nature, spirituality and the unity of life through painting, animation, music and immersive experience.
His work feels especially at home as we look ahead to October's Spirit Plant Medicine Conference, bringing together conversations around plant medicine, Indigenous wisdom, visionary art, music, regenerative culture and right relationship.
We haven't gathered 222 visionary artists in one Zoom room yet.
Let's try again.
Invite someone whose work makes you think differently about being alive. Someone exploring creativity, consciousness, nature, healing, or our relationship with this living world.
Let's see how many people we can gather in one place, inspired by one another and Critical Mass.
|
|
|
|
