Eric Gottesman teaches, organizes, writes, and makes artworks with other people that address nationalism, migration, structural violence, history, and intimate relations. His work is always collaborative; he has never made an artwork alone. One of Eric’s creative superpowers is his ability to take his time and gently notice the delicacy and hard edges of his subjects, without judgment, before capturing their images. The resulting pictures are remarkably soulful and honest. He is a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, a Creative Capital Artist, a Fulbright Fellow and a co-founder of For Freedoms, an artist-led organization that centers art as a catalyst for creative civic engagement and was named the "largest creative collaboration in United States history" by TIME Magazine. He co-created the books Sudden Flowers (2014) and For Freedoms: Where Do We Go From Here? (2024). Gottesman is a mentor in the Arab Documentary Photography Program in Beirut, Lebanon, and the W.W. Corcoran Visiting Professor in Community Engagement at George Washington University.

TedX talk

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Robert Earl Sinclair is a Future Architect & Speculative World-Builder striving to make sense of our rapidly changing world and co-create bold futures. Born in "the hood" of Los Angeles and challenged with dyslexia, Robert became a successful international hip-hop recording artist in his teens and went on to graduate from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Now, this multicultural, classically trained artist, actor and writer uses storytelling to activate the idea that if something is broken, we can fantasize about what it looks like unbroken, and that exercise, in and of itself, can help us to find our way to a solution. This is speculative world-building. In this pursuit, Robert’s dyslexia has become an asset, because dyslexic people experience information as story and possess a much higher retention of facts which allows Robert, a voracious reader, to draw from a vast store of resources and disciplines. Dedicated to beauty, justice and inclusive imagination, Robert designs at the crossroads of art, culture and technology and has created original content and world-building workshops for: NYU, Google Creative Lab, Sundance Film Festival, The Guggenheim, the Rockefeller Foundation, Pop Culture Collaborative, The Doris Duke Foundation and For Freedoms, where he co-created For Freedoms News and its month-long residency at the Brooklyn Museum. Robert is an original member of the Guild of Future Architects' celebrated Futurist Writers Room, a diverse community of visionary artists, intellectuals, engineers and technologists. Working with Dot Connector Studio, Robert is working to shape alternative economic models of sustainability and thrivability for everyone. Most recently, Robert has lectured at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and the ASU Center for Science and the Imagination. He is currently teaching Emergent Expressions at the Harvard Divinity School.

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Income inequality and generational poverty have decimated the American Dream. How does one claw their way out of a deep hole if the walls are too steep and slippery to climb. David Garfunkel has dedicated his life to solving this systemic problem. As President & CEO of the non-profit LIFT JAX, David brings business and community leaders together to eradicate generational poverty in Jacksonville, FL. And it’s not just lofty talk and abstraction. LIFT JAX has created meaningful and measurable community revitalization initiatives in Jacksonville’s Eastside, located less than a mile from downtown. "OutEast" is widely considered to be one of Jacksonville’s most important historically African-American neighborhoods, home to many noteworthy sites in African-American culture dating back to the mid-1800s. LIFT JAX focuses on culturally rich, generationally inclusive, and economically diverse neighborhoods for children and families, where social connections across socioeconomic and racial demographics are commonplace. Legacy residents feel valued and are part of the fabric of the growing community with newer residents. The built environment and investments in physical infrastructure support the ability for the community to thrive. And, all residents feel welcomed, valued, and integral to the composition of their neighborhood. Using the Purpose Built Communities model, grounded in the foundational beliefs that race and place matter, makes it possible for residents to experience greater racial equity, improved health outcomes, and increased upward mobility in their neighborhoods. For example, LIFT JAX has reopened the beloved Debs Store as a community wellness anchor that provides easy access to healthy food. The store was a neighborhood staple for more than 90 years and left the Eastside a food desert after closing. In addition, they're working to activate parks and green spaces by improving the infrastructure to better support activities for families. These basic lifestyle improvements make a house a home and a neighborhood a village. His journey toward social justice began straight out of college, where he received a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. David joined the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic, where he served for three years in the area of community economic development. Following the 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti, he moved to Port-au-Prince, where he led a rural loan and education program for Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest microfinance institution.

Have a Swan Dive to share? Text us!

We are always looking for Swan Dive Stories to share so hit us up, send an e mail to Ron: Ron@artbikesjax.com or Stu: Stuart@stuartsheldon.com