Episode
155: Why Are Humility & Failure Essential to Art and Social Change Success?
- Published
- Dec 10, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 1381
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Summary
This episode digs into one of the trickiest—and most revealing—corners of community-based arts work: the way humility and failure shape everything we do, from a 12-line role in Richard II to a city-wide public-art firestorm. Leni Sloan, Barbara Shaffer Bacon and Bill Cleveland tumble into stories that peel back the glossy surface of “successful” arts practice: the actor with decades of experience learning cadence from an 18-year-old, the choreographer who turned military restrictions into creative fuel, the prison poet who left a Broadway star speechless. And threaded through it all is this question: how do we stay porous enough—humble enough—to learn what the work is actually teaching us? Together they talk about the kind of failure that doesn’t end a project but opens it—cracks the thing apart so the next, truer version can breathe. And they remind us that in this art-and-community dance, no one is ever done learning, not even the masters. Listen in as we explore why humility is not soft, and failure is not fatal—they’re simply part of the craft. And stick around: the next episode asks the big follow-up question—what responsibility do we carry for sustaining access to creative resources once communities have experienced their transformative power? To donate to Spoon Jackson's Fund: Use this Venmo account @Cheryl-Cotterill or send a check to: Cheryl Cotterill Attorney at Law 1770 Post Street #207 San Francisco, CA 94115 NOTABLE MENTIONS People Leni Sloan Actor, director, community-arts practitioner, and co-conversationalist in this episode, reflecting on humility, failure, and learning within community-engaged art. Barbara Schaffer Bacon Co-director of Animating Democracy and long-time leader in arts-based community development; contributes insight into constrai…