20 min readOct 21, 2018--We’ve all been there: finding ourselves lost past midnight reading a new book, tearing up, watching an Oscar-winning movie & indulging in the ecstasy of a new melodic hook. The arts are important to all of us. Exploring how we can fund & create new markets in the arts will not just allow humanity to experience more of the meaningful moments attached to it, but also be an imperative for where we are headed as a society.Press enter or click to view image in full sizeBig Jay McNeely providing ecstasy. RIP.Thanks to the decrease of the barriers to create, we’ve all inadvertently become contributors to our collective cultural commons: we tweet together, we edit wikipedia together, we share photos on Instagram together, we write on Medium together. When we look at the future, a post-automation world, we see that the creative knowledge economy eventually just becomes: the creative economy. Solving the problems of the creators is solving the problems of society.Exploring new markets of the arts isn’t just about supporting artists, but also finding new ways to connect. In recent years, we found meaning in new forms of art funding: from subscription patronage to crowdfunding works together. My local Cape Town swing dancing community recently crowdfunded funds to find and transcribe old South African jazz records that were lost due to apartheid oppression.In the last few days it wasn’t sure whether the project would receive its funding: the whole community did their best to share and find those who wanted to support us in this endeavour. It brought us together in new ways. I can’t wait to dance to this music that we lost! The ability to have crowdfunded this work has created new connections. New markets brings in new ways to connect.Radical MarketsAuthors Eric Posner & Glen Weyl recently wrote a book called Radical Markets that explores the ways in which our current systems are inept at producing outcomes for collective good. In the chapters they argue