Collective CT - The Capitalization of Culture
Collective CT – The Capitalization of Culture
📍 Yale Ventures, 101 College Street, New Haven
🗓️ Monday, September 22, 2025 | 7:00–9:00 PM
What does it mean to capitalize culture? To raise the money that sustains it—or to give it the capital letter that signals significance, depth, and permanence—two sides of the same coin in how we mark, measure, and assign value to Culture versus everyday culture. Crucially, both forms of capitalization shape how practices become cultural products, processes, and ventures that carry value, making clear that questions of meaning, money, and infrastructure are always intertwined. The title of this session plays with this distinction, known in linguistics as orthographic marking: the way a single letter (uppercase or lowercase) can change not just form, but meaning.
Lowercase c “culture” refers to our daily practices, tastes, and shared habits—the raw material that, when developed, becomes the products, processes, and assets of cultural life. Capital C “Culture,” by contrast, points to the works and practices that institutions choose to preserve, elevate, and revere. That small orthographic shift marks a big difference in value, power, and possibility—and, ultimately, shows how the capitalization of Culture shapes what we consider important while also reframing how we capitalize culture: how we raise money, build value, and transform our creative practices into cultural products that both reflect and redefine Culture.
In this first gathering, Frances Pollock, Director of the Cultural Innovation Lab at Yale, will guide us through a lively tour of the Collective CT program: how it works, why it matters, and what it means to treat cultural production as infrastructure with as much value, infrastructure, and seriousness as science and technology. Expect an evening that is equal parts substance and subversion—full of light, laughter, and intentional whimsy designed to challenge assumptions about C/cultural ownership, equity, and possibility.
Snacks and drinks will be provided.
Outline of Collective CT Programming (2025–26)
Over the course of eight months, Collective CT participants will explore the building blocks of sustainable cultural ventures through alternating in-person sessions and asynchronous sprints. The program is designed as a kind of mini MBA for artists—rooted in connecting values to value—and built on our three core pillars: innovators’ mental health, financial health, and purpose in relation to their work. These pillars are supported directly by our providers: Dr. Amber Childs (mental health), Arthur Thomas-Integrity Solutions Group (financial health), and Dr. Matthew Croasmun-Life Worth Living (purpose and leadership).
Along the way, participants will engage in standout sessions such as:
Purpose & Leadership (Life Worth Living) — clarifying vision and grounding in purpose.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves (Dr. Amber Childs) — mental health and narrative frameworks.
A Radical Case for Capitalism (Arthur Thomas, Integrity Solutions Group) — rethinking finance for artists.
The Lemonade Stand (James Rhee) — love, capital, and resilience.
What is a Transmedia Franchise? (Emily Roller, Midnight Oil Collective) — scaling stories across platforms.
Values Meets Value (Caroline Tanbee Smith) — aligning ethics with economic practice.
Every Artist Should Run an LLC (Frances Pollock) — legal and structural scaffolding for creative work.
The program culminates with case studies, pitching preparation, and a final public showcase at the Yale Innovation Summit (May 27–28, 2026).
Throughout, artists will receive mentorship, business scaffolding, and the peer support needed to turn their ideas into durable ventures—without sacrificing integrity or imagination.