You can react to culture or act to create culture.
Standing at the foot of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, you can’t help but look in awe at the vision and dedication of generations in building Gaudi’s cathedral. The cameras emerge and you react to the amazing art in front of you.
Around the corner from the Sagrada Familia, there is a little children’s store. There a young Catalan women is designing and hand-sewing felt mobiles for children. Her felted owls still spin above my niece’s crib.
We are surrounded by literal and figurative cathedrals of culture. It is inspiring and thrilling to travel the world, or even our communities, to watch, photograph and stand among the creative endeavors of our peers. However, we do not simply consume culture. We create culture.
We are the .099%
The power of a small group of passionate individuals cannot be overstated.
In statistics it’s called the “power law distribution,” in social science “participation equality” and in the online world we could call it the Wikipedia rule.
According to Wikipedia, there are 31 million plus registered users but only 31,000 active editors. That means that only .001% of the users of Wikipedia actually create the information we all reference.
Why do they do it? It’s not for money or fame but most often for love. They love the work. They love creating the information. The number of contributors has started to decrease slightly over the past months and years, but the time active editors spend on the site has increased. They’re willing to spend more time creating the site they love.
Throughout open source technologies and crowdsourced sites we see the same trend, a small percentage of users are the power users that make everything work for the casual users. In our communities, most of us are “casual users.” We use the parks, occasionally walk on the sidewalks and do the bare minimum in return (pay sales tax).
There are, however, community champions in many communities. These are the people who not only love their cities, neighborhoods and craft but also work actively to nurture them. They are not casual users simply consuming the art, events and activities others host; they create activity because of their love and passion.
As Peter Kageyama argues in For the Love of Cities, it is the small increases or small losses of these engaged citizens that may ultimately determine whether a community thrives or wilts and dies.
Seeking Culture
Like many young people, I could not wait to leave home and travel the world. I was on the hunt for culture, experiences and the landmarks you see in postcards from a young age.
I had the opportunity to visit the most photographed cities of New York and Barcelona (according to Google), London (second according to Flickr after NYC), Los Angeles (third most popular on Instagram), and many places in between.
My favorite stops were always those with culture creators. Sure it was fun to see Big Ben or the Leaning Tower. Even better was a Couchsurfing meetup in Berlin, a local concert at an unmarked bar in Tallinn and a Chinese New Year parade in New York City. These memorable events were always with local creators.
Throughout my 20′s I wandered the world consuming culture and reacting to it. I didn’t put any effort to creating it myself. I was the typical casual consumer.
In our own communities, we can be more than a casual consumer. We can play the role of cultural creator or “power user”. Hosting events, creating art and building something new elicits reaction. People immediately have an opinion about what you have created and what could have been done differently. Then they will often feel the inspiration for their own creation. This snowballing effect is how hubs of creativity begin.
We can travel the world and feel inspired by the work of creators. We can be creators in our own communities.
Creating Love for Your Community
As Italian-born priest and poet Pier Giorgio Di Cicco noted: “Arts and culture are what make a city fall in love with itself.”
We stand in the shadow of greatness. The amazing cities around the world make our communities seems miniscule and unattractive in comparison. Within every shadow, however, there is a felted mobile children’s store. A small spark of activity that creates something new.
The small act of creation transforms a community. The more activity there is, the more a city falls in love with itself. The more citizens that love their city, the more they will work tirelessly to make it better.
The success of your community, whether it is a physical community or an online community, depends on this small number of community champions.
Find, develop and nurture these champions. Without intending to, you may create the next Sagrada Familia.
If you’re wondering what these community champions and their projects look like, I highly recommend you watch this TEDx talk about creation happening in Fargo.
