From a Co-Founder’s Perspective:

I grew up in the ‘in-between space’ of country and suburb in New Jersey. I often felt the void of community for much of my adolescent and early adult life without being able to quite articulate what was missing but sensing it acutely. The directive I mostly got from people growing up was ‘find a path that makes you a lot of money and you’ll be happy.’

After graduating from Muhlenberg College with a dual-BA in Media Communications & History in 2011, I found myself wanting to pursue this supposed path to happiness and quickly found work in the nascent digital video ad tech industry in New York City.

Much of my life at this time revolved around work and climbing the ladder. The work certainly wasn’t dull and ad tech offered a lot of opportunities to develop my business and technical acumen in an environment that demanded high adaptability. But I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that it is ultimately an industry attracting brilliant minds to do the wrong thing, namely, blast people with corporate advertising that reinforces our collective slide from “citizens” to “consumers.”

I kept on this trajectory until the cracks and contradictions circling the void within my heart became too much to bear and I finally made the difficult decision to leave this life.

I traveled around the country for a bit in order to seek perspective around the cultural, economic, and political divides of the nation. I also wanted to seek community in a country that felt increasingly atomized and commodified.

At the end of 2017, I ended up in Portland OR, a city both beautiful and complicated that has more people who ‘give a f&%k’ per capita than most.

It was here that I found my home, chosen family, artistic voice as musician, and drive to support and build community.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, it rattled the foundations of artistic communities across the city, many of which were still mitigating the damage already absorbed from the cost of living spikes of the 2010’s. I realized that I wanted to devote my time outside of work toward contributing to the tapestry of community and build an organism that could be used to create beautiful art, connect people, and use music as a means toward social good.

With this mission in mind, I formed the Wellspring Collective at the end of 2021, an organization committed to bringing people together as a work of art in it of itself. Over the years I have run and coordinated dozens of events, from large events with sponsors and grant funding, along with smaller, more intimate ones.

Community is a messy and beautiful thing. There are highs and lows. There is collaboration. There is conflict. It is a living organism that is most alive when given freedom through structure and leadership that gives people agency across clearly defined goals. Community and collaboration are the essence of what brings out the best in humans. To all of those who say art isn’t important (though I highly doubt you’re reading this if you believe that) I would say that art is one of the easiest ways for humans to learn how to collaborate and communicate with empathy. This empathy can be applied to any context and it empathy for which our society so dearly needs at this time. Art is also a vehicle for action that can be applied to anything - our numerous fundraisers for non-profits and charities across the city attest to this. Art is also the spice of life and makes it worth living. I could go on, but stop reading this and go make art!!

All the Best,

- John Carter