Is Your Project a Cultural Intervention? A TLC Checklist for Creating Artistic Projects That Empower Social and Planet Repair

A cultural intervention is what happens when a artistic project genuinely cares about social and planet repair — and is as intentional about how it does that as what it does. How it treats the children in the room. How it moves with a woman's cycle rather than against it. How it tends to the ecosystem it works within, and the relationships between the people doing the work.

The difference between honouring women's wisdom on stage and honouring the women in your life when no one is watching. Between singing about the earth and letting a child's need, a woman's cycle, or a man's grief slow the project down when it needs to. Between a good cause and a lived one.

If you want to go deep into a 30 min read to understand the full thinking behind what makes a cultural intervention — and why TLC believes the world needs more of them — read the full post here:

Article on Cultural Intervention

How the checklist works

The checklist below covers 34 criteria across six categories: the practitioners, the art and the project, the community, structure and economics, justice and accountability, and learning, health and planet.

Check off what applies to your project. The score at the top updates as you go, giving you a percentage and a verdict — from thoughtful performance all the way to the full living revolution.

It is not a pass or fail. It is a map. Most projects will sit somewhere in the middle, and that is exactly where the most interesting work happens — in the gap between where you are and where you could go.

One thing above all else

This checklist is a set of options, not a prescription. Every single criterion needs to be interpreted in light of the specific place, the specific people, and the specific moment you are working in. What mutual aid looks like in a mountain valley in Andalucía is not the same as what it looks like in a festival field in Somerset or a community centre in São Paulo. The checklist gives you the questions. The community gives you the answers.

Got Inspired & want to talk it through?

If you are working on a project and want a conversation about how any of this might apply — or you want TLC's eyes on what you are building — get in touch. We are always glad to hear from people doing the work.

📩 thelovingcollaborative@gmail.com

The checklist below is a living document. It will keep evolving — because, as Maya Angelou put it, when you know better, you do better.