From Idea to Action: Building Sustainable Creative Projects

Explore how artists, founders, and creative leaders turn early ideas into projects that gain traction, funding, and real-world impact. This session focuses on the messy, generative stage when a concept is still forming, and offers concrete guidance on what makes a proposal compelling to collaborators, funders, and decision makers. Our guests cover multiple corners of the creative economy—including tech, composition, and education—and will share how they build projects, secure support, and grow sustainable ventures.

Co-hosted by Peabody LAUNCHPad and JHU's Pava Center for Entrepreneurship, this panel discussion will feature:

• Aspen Buckingham — co-founder and CEO of Overture Games, whose background in both classical piano and tech led to building game-based tools that help people rediscover music through play. Their work sits at the intersection of creativity, healing, and interactive design.
• Alexandra Gardner — composer, educator, and digital media specialist, who has led a range of creative and educational projects as well as founding her own private teaching studio and coaching business for artists and small organizations.
• Frances Pollock — composer and CEO of the Midnight Oil Collective, a venture studio investing in and incubating new art and entertainment. MOC has supported ten ventures and created work for hundreds of artists, offering a model for artist-led entrepreneurship and cultural investment.