32 - Art activism as a force for impact with Benjamin Von Wong

The Impact Investing Podcast

When we think about impact investing, art isn’t the first thing that comes to mind for most of us. Yet investors have used art to store and grow wealth for millennia. And few of us would deny the incredible power that art possesses to change hearts and minds and to motivate us into action. Who among us wasn’t touched deeply by Amanda Gorman’s spoken word poem, “The Hill We Climb” at Joe Biden’s inauguration earlier this year?

But few of us, artists included, consider carefully how we might use our artistic talents to create, or our capital to finance, art as a force for social and environmental impact. In this episode of the podcast, I sit down with art activist and changemaker Benjamin Von Wong.

Von Wong's work lies at the intersection of fantasy and photography and combines everyday objects with shocking statistics. His work has attracted the attention of corporations, like Starbucks, Dell, and Nike and has generated over 100 million views for causes like ocean plastics, electronic waste, and fashion pollution. Most recently, he was named one of Adweek's 11 content-branded masterminds. He is also the host of the Impact Everywhere Podcast.

During the episode, we discuss how Benjamin chooses causes to tackle, how he conceives of his installations, the logistics that goes into creating them, how he finances his projects, and how he thinks about impact measurement. And be sure to stay tuned to the very end where Benjamin touches on how he thinks about the new world of NFTs which are changing the economics for artists the world over.

Resources from this episode:

• You can reach Benjamin and view his amazing work at https://www.vonwong.com/ or inquire about commissioning him at https://unforgettablelabs.com/
• Von Wong’s art installations that we discuss during the episode:
  • Strawpocalypse
  • Truck Load of Plastic
  • Toxic Laundry
  • Fast Fashion
  • E-Waste
  • Walking on Air for Nike
  • 10,000 plastic bottles, a mermaid, and a single wish
  • Underwater Shipwreck in Bali
• Benjamin’s Podcast: Impact Everywhere
• Follow Benjamin Von Wong on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, and LinkedIn.