When we think about the future in which we want to live, it is important to ask whether we want a world in which wealth and class are determined by birth or whether we want to live in a world where opportunity for wealth creation exists for a wide swath of the population. Historically in America, a college education has been the key to upward mobility. This, however, no longer seems to entirely be the case. Increasingly, there are only a handful of professions–finance, management consulting, real estate, and tech–that seem to offer a genuine chance of building serious wealth. Even historically safe paths towards the upper middle class like medicine and the law are coming under threat by power structures that put extreme financial pressure on these professions. More broadly, those without access to secondary education and connections to those in elite professions are even more at risk of failing to build wealth. This problem is compounded by a rapidly rising cost of living that makes it very difficult for the next generation to save money towards buying a home or investing in their future. Even the path of digital entrepreneurship is being increasingly foreclosed by artificial intelligence and incumbent tech platforms that seek to crush innovation.

In this context, we should ask whether there could be a new point of access for a wide range of individuals to begin a path towards building wealth. Such a point of access would have to go beyond existing physical and digital points of access such as the glossy magazine, the feed, the elite university, the museum, the bank, and the social network. It would also have to draw upon the trends that we have been exploring that suggest the merits for developing a new more comprehensive format of wealth. In doing so, it would have to create meaningful ways of interfacing with a constellational approach to wealth  that go beyond just seeing a trace of that wealth–which may be increasingly difficult as the wealthy become more private–and to actually engaging that trace and the system as a whole on a deeper level. In this sense, it would have to be an access point that engages the structure in a similar manner to those areas of research that we have been pursuing as part of The Woodlawn Initiative. It would, however, have to go beyond a studio format that is limited to a small number of collaborators and that is confined to specific research projects conducted in limited amounts of space. Instead, it would have to become a space that you could walk into and touch this new format of wealth.

To visualize what this space might be like, we propose thinking of it as a combination of a luxury department store, a design school, a publication, and an investment fund. It would be a discursive space that one could enter and in which one would encounter both the objects that trace wealth as well as the systems and expertise that maintain it. Each would be connected to the specific skills that one might need to acquire in order to participate in this aspect of the system that constructs and maintains wealth. At the same time, they would be connected to a critical discourse about who those elements are evolving, how they can perform better, and how new businesses and cultural practices can contribute to this process. In this sense, it would offer both a pedagogy for those who want to engage and build wealth as well as direct connections to the jobs and mentorship required to move from theory to practice.

A critical aspect of such a space would be that capacity to continue to invest in new initiatives that students, teachers, cultural producers, and business partners come together to ideate and build. Doing so should occur with a clear understanding of the role that culture plays in the creation of wealth. It is an essential element in the creation of value that in turn is assigned a monetary quantity. In this sense, through balancing culture and money, a path might open to a new form of philanthropy and social impact investing that delivers both social good, expanded access to wealth, and a return on investment. Pursuing such a path would ideally lead to a more inclusive and sustainable cultural sphere while also providing greater meaning and worth to those who control great fortunes.