Unhooking from Norms (EP.92)

What happens when the people an organization exists to serve are also the ones designing it? On this episode, host Tim Cynova is in conversation with Lu Zhang, Gregory Sale, and Diya Vij of A Blade of Grass to discuss what it looks like to approach your organization as a living experiment. A Blade of Grass supports socially engaged artists through a grants program, an in-fellowship cohort, and a digital publication called Landscapes. But their work goes well beyond their program design. They're actively questioning whether competition-based, project-focused philanthropy actually serves artists. They pay their board members. They use a randomized selection process for small grants. They talk openly about sunsetting the organization in the same breath they discuss 100-year plans. These are not things most organizations do. This conversation explores practitioner-led governance, the gap between what socially engaged artists need and what traditional arts infrastructure delivers, how to build for responsiveness and long-term strategy at the same time, and what it means to make an organization that doesn't require artists to check their creativity at the door. If you're a leader questioning default organizational norms, a funder trying to align your grantmaking practices with what artists need, or anyone building infrastructure in a sector that keeps treating creativity as something that happens somewhere else, this one is worth your time. In this conversation: What "practitioner-led" really means when it extends from staff to board The case for randomized grant-making Why A Blade of Grass paused programming for a full year to do field research Building a paid, working board and what that changes about governance How socially engaged artists think about entering and exiting community work and what organizations can learn from that Holding grief, iteration, and ambition without getting precious about any of it Links & Resources A Blade of Grass — Website, Newsletter, Instagram, Facebook, Landscapes 2025 In Fellowship Cohort: Great Leap What Would an HIV Doula Do?Wild Path Collective Reflections on the first year of In Fellowship About the Guests Diya Vij was the Vice President of Curatorial and Arts Programs at Powerhouse Arts in Brooklyn, NY when this episode was recorded, and is committed to critically investigating the evolving role of art in politics and civic life. Most recently, she served as the Curator at Creative Time where she commissioned and stewarded large-scale public art work, launched the public programming space CTHQ, re-launched the Creative Time Summit, and initiated the R&D Fellowship for socially engaged artists. Over the past decade, she has held programming, curatorial, and communications positions at major New York City Institutions. As the Associate Curator of Public Programs at the High Line, she organized dozens of live events and performances with artists, activists, practitioners, and healers. At the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Vij launched and co-directed the Public Artists in Residence (PAIR) program. Additionally, she helped lead the Agency’s citywide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative, and played an active role in public monument efforts, as well as CreateNYC—New York City’s first strategic long-term plan for culture. She was a curatorial fellow and the communications manager at the Queens Museum from 2010–2014. She currently serves on the Boards of A Blade of Grass, the Laundromat Project and the Poetry Project and was co-curator of the Counterpublic Triennial 2023 in St. Louis, MO. [After this episode was recorded in 2026, Diya was appointed the Commissioner of NYC’s Department of Cultural Affairs.] Gregory Sale is an artist, curator, educator, and community organizer whose work uses creativity as a tool for transformation. His socially engaged practice is grounded in collective experience, relationship-building, and shared authorship to create large-scale, often l