Working on something meaningful is a common desire – but how? We started asking folks to share the story of how they ended up working on a project they felt was meaningful because we wanted inspiration but also because we wondered if hearing from people from across a range of industries would help us identify patterns making it more likely for anyone to be able to find and work on projects that they would find meaningful.
Ledicia Sola
The most meaningful project of my career was deciding to write my own show. I wrote a one woman show called “Divina” where I deconstructed the actress I had been constructing for 20 years. I always wanted to write and tell my own stories but I was completely focused on my acting career and I had no time for a personal and creative process. I moved from Madrid to Santiago de Compostela (a smaller town) in order to have a less intense social live, shut down the noise and be more free to decide where to put my energy. I did so, and that changed my life completely. After “Divina” I wrote another two shows with two colleagues and the script for my first feature film thah now I´m about to start filming. So, writing my own show was a life and career changing decision. Read more>>
Abby London
When I put out my music video for my song Hysteria I had a calling to send everyone who commented on it an mp3 of the song via Facebook messenger. It led to me striking up a conversation with someone in Ohio named Forest. He said he had heard about my music via his little sister Emily, I think it was less than a week later that he posted his little sister had died. I watched the news story and it broke my heart. She had died in a fire when she went back inside to rescue her dog Bennie. I couldn’t stop thinking about her and I had to do something for her family. Read more>>
Juan
Warren? was my first English-language short, and it came out of a script contest. When I finished the script, I liked it so much that I felt compelled to make it. It also marked my first time working with my current producing partner, Judy Febles. The film ended up winning several awards, which was incredibly meaningful, especially because I almost didn’t go through with it. I was convinced no one would connect with it, but it turned out a lot of people did. Read more>>
Alaycia Sandifer
Oh my, where do I start? The most meaningful I would say was Faze Fest 2022. It started out as an idea (like most projects do of course) because of the lack of showcasing events of the ever so talented DJs that we have in our city (and there’s a BUNCH). I have travelled far and wide and have attended many different events that showcased the “DJ Artists”. I was selected to compete in New Orleans with the Yellow Brick Road Tour- Dancefestopia to prove to a festival promoter that I “have what it takes”, I did end up winning that competition that year and I came back to Shreveport and was like…okay, well that was easy-ish..the world needs to know what we have in NWLA. Read more>>
Marcela Castano
One of the most meaningful projects I’ve worked on grew out of a personal realization, not just about my love for textile art, but about how deeply I care for my community. I began to see textile work not only as a creative channel but as a powerful tool for connection, healing, and reflection. That’s when the idea of purpose-driven Textile Art Workshops took root. I asked myself: What do we need most in life today? In the fast pace and noise of modern life, where our natural ways of connecting and communicating are fading, I saw a need for spaces where people could express their emotions freely, without judgment, fear, or offense. Read more>>
Eric Benz
I kind of have 3 really meaningful projects to me but I’ll try and keep them short and sweet.
The first is with my first band, started at the end of high school with my brother and a couple of his friends, called LakeMonsters.
We got together as a church band, essentially. We played for school assemblies and events like that but after high school, we realised we all had been working on our own music and so we came together to work on some songs together. Read more>>
Chelsea Sanford
First, is my piece titled, “The Fabric Hills” from 2023. It was displayed at the 2023 Oregon Biennial art show at The Arts Center in Corvallis Oregon. This piece is very important to me because I am a ‘grandma taught’ sewer and this piece was created with my grandma present. This is the first art piece that she was able to see and be involved in my entire creative process, start to finish. This was such a special moment for her and I and it’s a piece I will cherish because of the full circle feeling of creating it with her using the skill she taught me. Read more>>
Tori Garris
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on yet has been a sweet, wholesome kids show called Torbee. I’m a devoted mom of two young kids, and I created Torbee to bring a sense of calm and simplicity to today’s fast-paced world of kids’ entertainment. The idea came from my own search for content that could help bridge the gap between screen time and playtime. When I couldn’t find the right fit, I decided to make it myself. Read more>>
Rebecca Grace
It may seem strange that my most meaningful projects are filled with all the heart and high stakes of a contemporary masterpiece – and yet are seen by one judicial panel, then never again. We at the nonprofit I founded (Complete Picture) tell the life-stories of people facing prison for nonviolent crimes. The intended audience for each meticulously created 20-minute documentary we make is just one person – the judge deciding that person’s fate. So much is at stake for the person facing prison. The weeks and months leading up to their sentencing day are brutal for them and their children, who often face foster care. And that means we truly put feeling and soul into each story we create, regardless that it will never be published. Read more>>
Keisha Bissram
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my short film Black Cake. As an Indo-Caribbean writer—specifically Trinidadian-American—my mission is to bring Indo-Caribbean women to the forefront in film. Growing up, I never saw stories like mine on screen. West Indian families, and especially Indo-Caribbean women, are deeply underrepresented in both the South Asian and Caribbean cultural spaces. That invisibility shaped my creative purpose. Read more>>
Desirae Jar
One of the most meaningful projects I’ve had the pleasure of being part of is a cat-themed cabaret called Show Me Your Kitties! To date, the show has raised over $10,000 in donations for the Little Lions Foundation, a Long Beach-based cat rescue, with much of the funding supporting their TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release) program. For those unfamiliar, TNR involves humanely trapping stray cats, spaying or neutering them, and returning them to their communities. This not only helps reduce the number of kittens born on the streets, but also decreases fighting, traffic accidents, and shelter overcrowding. Read more>>
Collins White
As a film director, the biggest milestone you can achieve in your early career is directing your first feature. For the past few years that’s basically been my only new years resolution, and this past year I had the privilege of directing “Christmas in Mistletoe,” a feature film shot in Tryon, NC and Greer, SC and set to be released holiday season this year. Read more>>
Haley
About a year ago, I had a solo show at Over Here Gallery in Portland, Maine, titled Nautical Twilight. The exhibition was shaped around the National Weather Service’s definition of the term: “Nautical twilight begins in the morning, or ends in the evening, when the geometric center of the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon. In general, the term refers to sailors being able to take reliable readings via well-known stars because the horizon is still visible, even under moonless conditions.” Read more>>
Shasha Dothan
Every project I work on feels like the most meaningful one at the time. My most recent installation, Suspended Dreams and Nightmares, created during my time at the Peleh Family Residency was on view at the Working Assumption Gallery in Berkeley. The installation combines painting, video, and kinetic sculptural mobiles to reflect on the fraught realities of parenthood and childhood in a world rife with violence—particularly in Israel and Palestine. As both a mother and an artist, I wanted to explore how militarization and inherited trauma shape our personal and collective experiences. Read more>>
Victoria Zapata
Back in 2022, I joined a music project that helped me truly understand what passion feels like. A close friend—who also became one of my biggest mentors—taught me the ins and outs of the music industry and how to build strategies for social media. We were launching an emerging artist’s first campaign, and although we faced multiple challenges, we learned from every single one of them. I co-directed and produced my first music video, handled the social media strategy entirely, and helped grow a loyal fanbase from scratch. That project didn’t just open doors—it taught me that the best results come when real passion is involved. Read more>>
Neon Amor
music and i have always had a really solid connective relationship. it’s the place that for most of my life i’ve felt the most held/seen/cared for. i’ve always put all my questions, misunderstanding, emotions in when they were not/did not feel welcome in the world. when i did not feel welcome in the world. its therapy my greatest confidant (beyond my actual therapist, thanks nicole.) Read more>>
Herbie
The Most meaningful project I’ve worked on was the remake of the 80’s hit song ” We Are Family ” by Sister Sledge . I co- produced this remake record alongside Iconic music producer Nile Rodgers .The remake was in response to the tragic 9/11 attack on the twin towers in NYC 2001 as a unity campaign . I re-recorded and played all the music including synths ,electric bass ,programmed drums and electric guitar and Nile added his funky guitar and recruited an impressive multi generational star studded cast of singers for the celebratory Unity recording sessions including : Luther Vandross, Diana Ross, Peaches n Herb, Roberta Flak, Faith Evans , the B 52’s , Angie Stone , Dionne Warwick , Queen Latifah , Jackson Brown , David Hasselhoff and many more. Read more>>
Mo Nicole
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my second album, The Motion. I created this album while I was literally in motion—touring, growing, losing people, meeting new ones, and performing in cities I’d only ever dreamed of. It was a season of major transition. I was finding my voice not just as a rapper, but as a full-fledged artist. And while everything around me was shifting—relationships, locations, even my own self-doubt—I chose to lean in, keep moving, and create something powerful in the process. Read more>>
Claudia Logi
All of my work as a choreographer is inherently meaningful to me. However, one work that stands out most is Waves of the Unseen. I choreographed it to premiere at Dixon Place as part of the Dance Bloc NYC Festival, and it became one of the most creatively fulfilling projects I’ve done. Read more>>
Christa Collier
Every show we do is meant to tell a woman’s story, a story that might not otherwise be heard, as women’s voices are often drowned out by multiple factors. Women tend to take a back seat for the greater good, tend to put their wants and needs second, third, fourth, to make sure others are well-cared for, no matter how it affects them. Read more>>
Meredith Nemirov
There are two projects that have been the most meaningful to me so I will chose the most recent one.
RIVERS FEED THE TREES; THE MOON MOVES THE TIDES is a one-person show at Milk Moon Gallery in Telluride, CO, that opens on May 15th, 2025.
RIVERS FEED THE TREES is an ongoing series of works on paper, acrylagouache and ink on original historic topographic maps, that I started in the winter of 2021. After the summer of 2020, which saw the largest number of severe wildfires recorded in Colorado’s history, I spent that winter imagining a re-watered landscape that was represented. Read more>>
Annie Lure
Stomping grapes in a trough with my grandmother at age 3 formed my poet – durational performance artist dyad. It is an atavistic practice underscoring the liminality of death. Dionysus ecstatically reconstituted. I recall the floridness of crushed crapes on her ankles. She was countervailing her imminent dispossession by releasing their ichor to recollect her husband, the house’s departed owner. I wrote ‘Dionysus’ Maiden’ published in Odyssey: Mediterranean Poetry. I kept enacting the ritual, noting its intensity and duration as my body fused with the grapes. I came to know the body as instrument and the ritual as techne for spiritual ends. Read more>>
Paul Bruno
The most meaningful project I have worked on is my 26-year journey to tell the story of the creation of the Jeep. I was looking for stories in 1999 to write screenplays about and when I heard that the first Jeep was created in 1940 in the considered impossible timeframe of 49 days by a bankrupt small car company no one has ever heard of, the American Bantam Car Company of Butler, PA, I felt that would make a great movie. 26 years later, numerous screenplay drafts and 3 books written I have, created the most accurate recounting of the development of the Jeep in 1940 – 1941 to date. Read more>>
Katie Runnels
When I started therapy in my early 20s, I realized that without self-love and self-acceptance, I could not move forward and evolve. It was a very difficult journey because I grew up in a very authoritative, religious, and critical family. I felt like I could not only never measure up to the expectations of my parents, but I also felt like I never measured up to society’s expectations of me. Over time, I learned to be comfortable in my own skin and comfortable with my own imperfections. Over the years, I continued to write songs and perform, but my biggest passion was being an educator. I found amazing fulfillment in inspiring at-risk youth to persevere through hardships and not give up on their dreams. Read more>>
Ingeborg Kolstad
The most meaningful project I’ve ever worked on was choreographing and staging my piece “Styggen på ryggen.” It premiered professionally at the KODA Festival, hosted by IKADA Dance Company at the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater in New York City in 2024. Read more>>
Matt Sassano
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is my EP In Defiance. It’s a personal rock record that digs into identity, trauma, and those quiet battles so many people keep buried. Growing up with cerebral palsy and dyscalculia, I often felt out of place. Writing lyrics became my way of processing what I couldn’t say out loud. Years later, those early writings evolved into In Defiance, produced by Josiah Prince of Disciple at The Ranch Studio in Nashville. Read more>>
Ran Loya
A Man Without a Land, released on May 8th, is the most personal and significant project I’ve ever created. It’s not just an album — it’s a reckoning. A way of facing the shame and shyness that have followed me all my life. As a teenager, I often felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. No one truly understood me. I carried a vast inner world I didn’t know how to express, let alone contain. Read more>>
Yufei Fu
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is The Witch Pricker and the Hare, my thesis film at the American Film Institute. It’s a project that brought together the brilliant talents and relentless dedication of AFI fellows, and I’m proud to have been involved from the very beginning—taking full charge of post-production, from editing to visual effects. Read more>>
Ovi Paulter
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on is Floral Sessions with Ovi, a free, monthly painting gathering I host in Glen Rock, NJ. After seven years of slowly finding my way back from burnout and emotional exhaustion, I realized how much the simple act of painting flowers had restored me. It wasn’t about getting it perfect—it was about pausing, breathing, and creating something gentle in the midst of life’s noise. Read more>>
Luigi Leone
Working on my first record “Petrichor” was an incredible experience. I’ve recorded a lot of songs across many bands over the years, but this was the first time I worked in a professional studio with a real producer. The album is cohesive and each song has a purpose. It wasn’t just “oh, this is what I have right now, so let’s record this one”. It was really important to me that I approach making “Petrichor” as if it was going be the only record I ever make, so Tim Franzkowiak (my friend and producer) and I experimented and tried out whatever came to mind randomly. If it worked, it worked; if it didn’t, it didn’t; but at least we tried stuff out and didn’t have to say, “Man, if only we tried this out. Too late, I guess”. Read more>>