ABOUT US
Creating conditions for collective transformation
Research to Impact Lab is a project of the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI). CCI was founded in 2001 with a mission to support artists, culture bearers, and creative entrepreneurs to realize greater self-determination so as to unfetter their productivity, free expression, and social impact, which contributes to shaping our collective national identity in ways that reflect the diversity of society. CCI is an established arts and culture philanthropic intermediary that has championed the importance of supporting individuals in the arts since its founding. This legacy continues through the time-bound initiative, AmbitioUS, and Research to Impact Lab.
We deserve more than a life of survival. We believe that all individuals and their communities deserve the opportunity to make decisions that are right for their own life’s purpose and values regardless of their working status. We take a cultural lens to ensuring such self-determination, and we recognize that communities have provided a safety net for artists and culture bearers when public policy systems have excluded and failed them. We work in collaboration to design new systems that honor the interconnectedness of individuals and communities, and that further the cultural and creative expression of both.
We deserve more than a life of survival. We believe that all individuals and their communities deserve the opportunity to make decisions that are right for their own life’s purpose and values regardless of their working status. We take a cultural lens to ensuring such self-determination, and we recognize that communities have provided a safety net for artists and culture bearers when public policy systems have excluded and failed them. We work in collaboration to design new systems that honor the interconnectedness of individuals and communities, and that further the cultural and creative expression of both.
We exist to reimagine America’s social safety net to work for everyone, regardless of work status or wealth, so that diverse communities and individuals are free to be economically self-determining, and culturally and creatively expressive. We sow the seeds for this reimagined future by commissioning research, making direct investments, incubating experiments, and advocating for policy change.
We envision a diverse and inclusive cultural identity, essential for democracy and economic resilience.
We exist to reimagine America’s social safety net to work for everyone, regardless of work status or wealth, so that diverse communities and individuals are free to be economically self-determining, and culturally and creatively expressive. We sow the seeds for this reimagined future by commissioning research, making direct investments, incubating experiments, and advocating for policy change.
We envision a diverse and inclusive cultural identity, essential for democracy and economic resilience.
Our Approach
As a program of the Center for Cultural Innovation, we know that creativity is core and agility is key in how we do our work —new results will not come from conventional solutions. Learn more about the tools and approaches we are experimenting with to yield new possibilities for the world we are building.
Research to Impact Lab offers solutions to two shared problems. First, too many people and their communities are in survival mode — disempowered and unprotected. The fight for survival overrides people’s ability to pursue their dreams and fulfill their potential. This denies all of us a thriving democratic society both economically and culturally.
At the same time, America’s social safety net — hard-won benefits like paid family and sick leave; retirement savings; anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and wage theft protections — safeguards fewer people. From an increasingly ineffective social safety net compounded by more and more people fighting to survive in a changing workforce, the problems that Research to Impact Lab addresses are deeply layered and complex. No single approach could rectify the current system as we know it.
Now is a consequential moment to build alternative systems for large-scale shifts and possibilities. However, we must do so with a cultural lens. Through Research, Advocacy, Investment, and Incubation, CCI’s Research to Impact Lab builds alternative systems of knowledge, leaders, relationships, and structures to produce new cultural paradigms of mutualism, self-determination, and stewardship.
Photo courtesy of Brenda Gonzalez.Brenda Gonzalez, March 2023. Photographed at Arts at Blue Roof during the A Room of One's Own residency in South Los Angeles. Available for all uses.
As an organization with decades of experience supporting artists and their cultural communities, we know that approaches that isolate individuals for support while ignoring the needs of their communities will ultimately fail to achieve the self-determination and creative expression of both.
Our Approach
As a program of the Center for Cultural Innovation, we know that creativity is core and agility is key in how we do our work —new results will not come from conventional solutions. Learn more about the tools and approaches we are experimenting with to yield new possibilities for the world we are building.
Research to Impact Lab offers solutions to two shared problems. First, too many people and their communities are in survival mode — disempowered and unprotected. The fight for survival overrides people’s ability to pursue their dreams and fulfill their potential. This denies all of us a thriving democratic society both economically and culturally.
At the same time, America’s social safety net — hard-won benefits like paid family and sick leave; retirement savings; anti-discrimination, anti-harassment, and wage theft protections — safeguards fewer people. From an increasingly ineffective social safety net compounded by more and more people fighting to survive in a changing workforce, the problems that Research to Impact Lab addresses are deeply layered and complex. No single approach could rectify the current system as we know it.
As an organization with decades of experience supporting artists and their cultural communities, we know that approaches that isolate individuals for support while ignoring the needs of their communities will ultimately fail to achieve the self-determination and creative expression of both.
Now is a consequential moment to build alternative systems for large-scale shifts and possibilities. However, we must do so with a cultural lens. Through Research, Advocacy, Investment, and Incubation, CCI’s Research to Impact Lab builds alternative systems of knowledge, leaders, relationships, and structures to produce new cultural paradigms of mutualism, self-determination, and stewardship.
Photo courtesy of Brenda Gonzalez.Brenda Gonzalez, March 2023. Photographed at Arts at Blue Roof during the A Room of One's Own residency in South Los Angeles. Available for all uses.
As our name implies, research is foundational to all of the approaches in our work. We commission research that can help influence and socialize imaginative and unconventional solutions for changing the status quo. Our research includes academic primary research and phenomenological deep listening of community stakeholders.
We approach our advocacy through direct action — collectivizing, educating, training, and activating campaigns. While this area of work is new, our strategy is to approach advocacy by activating networks of artists and gig working intermediaries.
We support and advance burgeoning alternative systems that further individual self-determination and community self-determination. We recognize that solutions created by individuals with their communities are often the most promising. We intentionally invest in cultural anchors and world builders developing new systems and solutions that support individual and community self-determination.
We approach incubation as an opportunity to learn, influence, and socialize new solutions. Incubation as a tool in our approaches allows us to experiment, iterate, and invite inspiring researchers and entrepreneurs to our table to help us build alternative systems of support that manifest empowerment and mutualism.
Photo courtesy of Leigh Purtill.
Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet. Choreographed by Leigh Purtill. Photographed by Matt Dinan in La Cañada Flintridge, CA.
As our name implies, research is foundational to all of the approaches in our work. We commission research that can help influence and socialize imaginative and unconventional solutions for changing the status quo. Our research includes academic primary research and phenomenological deep listening of community stakeholders.
We approach our advocacy through direct action — collectivizing, educating, training, and activating campaigns. While this area of work is new, our strategy is to approach advocacy by activating networks of artists and gig working intermediaries.
We support and advance burgeoning alternative systems that further individual self-determination and community self-determination. We recognize that solutions created by individuals with their communities are often the most promising. We intentionally invest in cultural anchors and world builders developing new systems and solutions that support individual and community self-determination.
We approach incubation as an opportunity to learn, influence, and socialize new solutions. Incubation as a tool in our approaches allows us to experiment, iterate, and invite inspiring researchers and entrepreneurs to our table to help us build alternative systems of support that manifest empowerment and mutualism.
Photo courtesy of Leigh Purtill.
Sweet Sorrow, A Zombie Ballet. Choreographed by Leigh Purtill. Photographed by Matt Dinan in La Cañada Flintridge, CA.
Strategic Goals
Individual Self-DeterminationEnsuring benefits and protections for all, regardless of work or income status.
Individual Self-DeterminationEnsuring benefits and protections for all, regardless of work or income status.
Strategic Goals
Individual Self-DeterminationEnsuring benefits and protections for all, regardless of work or income status.
Individual Self-DeterminationEnsuring benefits and protections for all, regardless of work or income status.
Our Team
Meet the Research to Impact Lab program team, and learn more about all the staff who supports this work on the CCI website.
Angie Kim
President & CEO
Angie Kim leads the Center for Cultural Innovation and founded AmbitioUS, supporting alternative economies for artist self-determination. With 20+ years in arts and philanthropy, she’s a policy scholar, lecturer, and advisor who previously held roles at the Getty and Flintridge foundations and teaches philanthropy and impact evaluation.
Lauren Bailey
Managing Director
Lauren Bailey has been with CCI since 2002 and brings over three decades of nonprofit management experience. She specializes in administration, database systems, and membership programs. A volunteer with Make-A-Wish Foundation and consultant to nonprofits, she holds a business degree from Worcester State College and serves on various arts panels.
Laura Poppiti
Deputy Director
Laura Poppiti supports artists, culture bearers, and creative entrepreneurs through her leadership at CCI. With a background in fundraising and programming at arts nonprofits, she also serves on arts grant panels and advisory boards. She holds degrees in History and Exhibition & Museum Studies from Catholic University and SFAI.
Jessica Mele
Program Director
Jessica Mele is a grant maker, educator, performer, and writer working at the intersection of creativity, labor, and philanthropy. Formerly a program officer at the Hewlett Foundation, she’s also a sketch comedian and solo playwright. She holds degrees from Smith College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Jennelyn Tumalad Bailon
Program Officer, Research to Impact Lab
Jennelyn Bailon is a curator and program officer focused on socially engaged art and community empowerment. She’s worked at major museums and led nonprofit capacity-building programs. A Filipinx community advocate, Jennelyn holds degrees from the University of Washington and Pratt Institute, where she studied art history and design intersections.
Melba Martinez
Program Specialist
Melba Martinez is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and cultural organizer from Pacoima, CA. Their work explores liberation through performance, fiber arts, and film. A community leader and teaching artist, Melba recently won first place in the CBS Leadership Pipeline Challenge and uplifts historically excluded voices in the arts.
Val Elefante
Enterprise Development Consultant
Val Elefante is a researcher and facilitator specializing in equitable technology design. With a background in feminist political theory, they’ve worked on decentralized tech for social impact. Val currently leads the co-design of a blockchain-based savings tool for artists and gig workers at CCI, building community-led digital infrastructure.
Our Team
Meet the Research to Impact Lab program team, and learn more about all the staff who supports this work on the CCI website.
Angie Kim
President & CEO
Angie Kim leads the Center for Cultural Innovation and founded AmbitioUS, supporting alternative economies for artist self-determination. With 20+ years in arts and philanthropy, she’s a policy scholar, lecturer, and advisor who previously held roles at the Getty and Flintridge foundations and teaches philanthropy and impact evaluation.
Lauren Bailey
Managing Director
Lauren Bailey has been with CCI since 2002 and brings over three decades of nonprofit management experience. She specializes in administration, database systems, and membership programs. A volunteer with Make-A-Wish Foundation and consultant to nonprofits, she holds a business degree from Worcester State College and serves on various arts panels.
Laura Poppiti
Deputy Director
Laura Poppiti supports artists, culture bearers, and creative entrepreneurs through her leadership at CCI. With a background in fundraising and programming at arts nonprofits, she also serves on arts grant panels and advisory boards. She holds degrees in History and Exhibition & Museum Studies from Catholic University and SFAI.
Jessica Mele
Program Director
Jessica Mele is a grant maker, educator, performer, and writer working at the intersection of creativity, labor, and philanthropy. Formerly a program officer at the Hewlett Foundation, she’s also a sketch comedian and solo playwright. She holds degrees from Smith College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Jennelyn Tumalad Bailon
Program Officer, Research to Impact Lab
Jennelyn Bailon is a curator and program officer focused on socially engaged art and community empowerment. She’s worked at major museums and led nonprofit capacity-building programs. A Filipinx community advocate, Jennelyn holds degrees from the University of Washington and Pratt Institute, where she studied art history and design intersections.
Melba Martinez
Program Specialist
Melba Martinez is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and cultural organizer from Pacoima, CA. Their work explores liberation through performance, fiber arts, and film. A community leader and teaching artist, Melba recently won first place in the CBS Leadership Pipeline Challenge and uplifts historically excluded voices in the arts.
Val Elefante
Enterprise Development Consultant
Val Elefante is a researcher and facilitator specializing in equitable technology design. With a background in feminist political theory, they’ve worked on decentralized tech for social impact. Val currently leads the co-design of a blockchain-based savings tool for artists and gig workers at CCI, building community-led digital infrastructure.