Octavia Yearwood is an Americans for the Arts member and recipient of the 2016 American Express Emerging Leader Award. Find out more about the Americans for the Arts Annual Leadership Arts Awards.

Yes, jelly sandwiches are great and so are peanut butter sandwiches, but put those babies together! [Not to mention with a cup of milk] *no words *. Chocolate is amazing but sprinkles some nuts and/or salt in there and voila! Magic!  Just the simple fact that your parents collaborated to create the art that is YOU should be proof enough, but we forget sometimes!

It is always daunting to me when organizations, non-profit or otherwise, have this mission to save or enhance the lives of young people via arts mediums and shy away from coming together to reach more youth. They jump at the ground pushing and shoving like children, after someone cracked the piñata open! I get it though—we all want enough to bring back. We forget that if we take what we have and combine it with another, you both automatically have more!  More importantly, your capacity to positively affect more people grow exponentially! 

Art is meant to bridge gaps, not create them. Though I have watched artistic collaborations grow over the last few years, I don’t know if that is happening because it just makes life easy, but I am hoping that people are beginning to understand the benefits for our youth, humanity as a whole, and the sustainability of art culture. Art needs collaborations because all the ways to skin a cat matter, like air and black lives. When we concentrate on community and expanding it, we will really grow. Grants have been have helped a lot of arts initiatives to take off. I’d really love to see art spaces created in high risk communities that incorporate art and science—a collaboration between a public school, an arts programmer and local artist. There is so much to be gained from identifying with someone who is transforming your community and culture.

Art mediums have somehow been slipped into this "entertainment" box, ripped from schools and lost their credibility as an educational tool and a method to heal and soothe. It’s been placed on a plate only to be digested by intellectuals. Do you remember watching Michael Jackson's “JAM” video with Michael Jordan AND Bugs Bunny?! The artistry involved in art collaborations literally bend consciousness and shift everything you think you know about what is possible in the physical world. Art is far from being a “has been” but collaborations will serve as a way to reactivate understanding of its claim to fame. 

“Yes” is one of the most powerful three letter words you can exercise in your language. It is human nature to choose “stay in your lane”, until you realize you are a creator and can create as many lanes to get wherever you want! Artistic mediums, from inception, have pushed the boundaries; proving time after time that there aren’t any…simply by saying YES. It is probably more like, “Why Not?!” “Why not add these coffee grinds to this oil painting?! And actually, I’m going melt this crayon and add that too! YES!” Imagine if Harry Belafonte never reached out to Quincy Jones, Quincy to Lionel or Lionel to Michael—we might not have a point of reference reminding us that we are the world, and the children! They beautifully bonded activism and music and created a timeless piece that STILL, after 31 years, tugs at our heartstrings and inspires us to be great!

The Impact of collaborations both audience-wise and economic are astounding. The Steinway Commission is a great example of this. Steinway & Sons is a piano company that pairs visual artists with musicians to create collaborative pieces. The visual artist will use an S&S piano as a medium to create an original work and the musician will create an original score for the piece. They will continue this commission for the next three years, using three different pairs of artist. Each year the works will be auctioned off and the proceeds will support the Studio Museum in Harlem, The MOCA Los Angeles and the Walker Art Center! The first completed work was by visual artist, Mark Bradford and Grammy Award Winning Jazz Pianist, Robert Glasper—their collaborative piece recently sold at auction for an astounding $300K!

This project exemplifies how to support art in one fell swoop! It created opportunity for the artist, fostered creativity, inspired greatness, and is philanthropic! Magical! Growth is another major product of collaborations, luck won't be the lady tonight! Collaborations are a direct and clear example of intentions being executed by likeminded individuals and succeeded. It takes art from being a poor man's job to a transformational business.