Throughout the decades, one word has lasted to describe the unadulterated creative capacity of humanity: awesome. In a world increasingly overrun by the mundane, ordinary, and co-opted, who will defend the legacy of this essential quality?
The Awesome Foundation for Arts and Sciences awards a monthly $1,000 grant to projects "that support the interest of creating Awesome in the universe." It’s a community organization, funded completely privately by micro-trustees around the country; payment comes in the form of cash, check, or gold doubloons.
The creators saw people with amazing ideas twisting and contorting them to conform to a grant system that devours creativity (and spirits) along the way. To combat this, the Foundation’s application takes ten minutes, and the only criterion is -- you guessed it -- awesomeness. Their approach offers much-needed support to small-but-genius projects. It’s also an expanding experiment in democratizing philanthropy: micro-trustees have now sprung up in London, San Francisco, New York City, Providence, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Austin.
But what IS awesome? From the Foundation: “Awesome creations are novel and non-obvious, evoking surprise and delight. Invariably, something about them perfectly reflects the essence of the medium, moment, or method of creation. Awesomeness challenges and inspires.” |
