Local students were recently named Young Cultural innovators by the Salzburg Global Seminar and were awarded fellowships to travel and participate in an upcoming forum.
They will be going to Austria along with other participants from all over the world to learn how to activate arts/culture networks within their communities.
The Memphis fellows are:
- Burton Bridges of ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
- Ebony Archie of the Urban Art Commission
- Chloe Moore of Seeding Success
Burton Bridges
With more than a decade of non-profit fundraising and strategic communications experience, Bartlett native Burton Bridges has fostered multi-million-dollar national partnerships and built innovative strategies to acquire public support for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
As Field Development’s associate director, he leads a diverse team that produces dynamic content and memorable experiences for St. Jude supporters nationwide. Around Memphis, Burton is deeply involved in the artistic community as an avid stage actor and storyteller with professional and community theatres. He has also taken great pride in raising queer visibility by collaborating and performing with Memphis’ two LGBTQ+ companies: Emerald Theatre and Friends of George’s.
He currently serves or has served on the boards of directors of the DeNeuville Learning Center, Delta Sigma Pi, the CBU Alumni Association, and the Memphis and Shelby County Music Commission.
Burton has volunteered at the Memphis Child Advocacy Center since 2008 and serves as a member of its Works of Heart art auction committee. He is also an alumnus of the New Memphis Institute and Leadership Memphis.
He is a graduate of Bolton High School, and he also graduated summa cum laude from Christian Brothers University with a B.S.B.A. in finance. He also holds a master of arts in journalism from the University of Memphis.
Ebony Archie
Ebony Archie is a “Memphissippian” who has a love for the cultural landscape of urban Southern cities. She has an extensive background in community building, fostering partnerships, and facilitating projects for non-profits across Memphis, where she currently serves as the communications and development manager at UrbanArt Commission.
Ebony studied history with a minor in Africana studies at Rhodes College, which led her to fall in love with the complex narrative of Memphis and other cities likened to it.
She believes in the power of storytelling and recently launched a creative agency called MEMFOLK, which captures urban folklore.
Chloe Moore
Chloe is a design strategist, sociologist, and humanitarian who serves as a fierce advocate for children and families. Her reverence for human dignity drives her to reimagine and create a more joyful and just world where all people are well, regardless of their social standing and identities.
She currently leads the operational work at Seeding Success to establish Shelby County’s first early childhood education system; and she also leads the design and implementation of NEXT Memphis, a $32 million pilot program structured to equitably expand access to high quality early childhood education.
Her past projects include working with the National Institutes of Health on an international collaboration serving persons with disabilities in Trinidad and Tobago; and supporting local refugee and immigrant populations through creating a citizenship program and catalyzing food entrepreneurship opportunities.
She was recently awarded the Memphis Flyer’s 20 under 30 designation and the Urban elite 40 Under 40 award. A native Memphian and a Clarence Day Scholar while at Rhodes, Chloe received a B.A. in anthropology/sociology in 2016.
The program
Each year the YCI Forum brings together a new group of 50 cultural innovators and creative practitioners, selected from participating city or country “hubs” with the active support of local partner organizations. The artistic disciplines they represent range from the visual and performing arts, literature, and cultural heritage, to foods, fashion, architecture, and design.
The residential program at Schloss Leopoldskron, home of Salzburg Global Seminar, is designed to help participants develop the dynamic vision, practical skills, and global networks they need to bridge divides, expand collaboration, and transform systems at the local, regional, and global levels.
Each annual YCI cohort comprises approximately ten expert facilitators and 50 young cultural innovators between the ages of 25 and 35 from around the world.
Salzburg Global strives to have a group each year that is balanced in terms of gender, discipline, and geographic representation.
Participants are chosen through a competitive application and nomination process, to ensure outstanding quality and diversity of professional knowledge and experience within the Forum.
