Founder’s Corner
GATE: An Opportunity
To Do It Differently
Visionaries imagine possibilities.
Pragmatists focus on what is practical.
Skeptics question everything.
Cynics doubt that anything will work.
Optimists hope for the best.
Creators weave questions, imagination,
the practical, doubts, and hope ... and create.
Great Things Are Done By A Series Of Small Things Brought Together.
—VINCENT VAN GOGH
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
—HENRY DAVID THOREAU
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
―BUCKMINSTER FULLER
It may be that the most radical thing we can do right now is to act from our vision, not from our fear, and to believe in the possibility of its realization… We’re called to take a leap into the unknown.
—STARHAWK, WEBS OF POWER
“It is not the job of a good message to say what is popular. It is the job of a good message to make popular what we need to say.”
— Anat Shenker-Osorio
We have established a clear vision, mission, task, and organizational structure to serve as the foundation for our ongoing growth and future evolution. This framework is designed to inspire and support generations of creatives who seek to integrate consciousness, creativity, and transformation into every aspect of their artistic expression, as well as their personal and professional lives. Our aim is to cultivate a living legacy—a community and movement that continues to evolve as artists awaken to their deeper purpose and use their creativity as a force for personal fulfillment and collective transformation.
In this Era of Transformation, all aspects of life—personal, social, and global—will undergo a radical reformation and restructuring.
—JOHN RAATZ
Entertainment, arts, and media businesses are reinventing themselves in this age of transformation by embracing a higher purpose beyond profit and spectacle. They are evolving into platforms for cultural renewal, social impact, and human flourishing. Storytelling is being reimagined as a catalyst for empathy and connection, technologies are being harnessed not just for innovation but for meaning, and creative communities are increasingly oriented toward collaboration over competition. This reinvention reflects a shift from content as mere distraction to creation as conscious contribution—where art, entertainment, and media serve as instruments of transformation for individuals, societies, and the planet.
How are Entertainment, Arts and Media Businesses Reinventing in this Age of Transformation?
Reexamining the Rules: Why Professionals Must Rethink Their Business Principles
Given the lessons of both history and the present moment — including how creatives are often treated and undervalued — it is essential that professionals working in entertainment, the arts, and media reexamine and reconsider the conventions and rules that shape their business practices.
The traditional frameworks that have guided the industry—contractual norms, compensation models, gender and ethnic matters, gatekeeping structures, intellectual property standards, and career pathways—were largely built in an era that did not fully recognize the value, dignity, or agency of the creative individual. As a result, many creatives have navigated systems that benefit intermediaries more than the creators themselves.
Today’s rapidly changing landscape, paired with historical precedent, calls for a serious inquiry into the norms that govern the creative professions.
The time has come for creatives—individually and collectively—to engage in a thoughtful reexamination of the rules that shape their professional lives. By updating the principles and practices of their businesses, artists can help build a healthier, more just, and more sustainable creative economy for the future.
Without a
creator, there
is no creation or
transformation!
A feeling of incompleteness gnawed at me…
Sometimes, I thought the obvious is less apparent to me and I counseled myself to let this feeling marinate within me, in the silence and attention of my awareness.
When I founded GATE in 2009, I thought the vision statement was complete. Living with it over time, I increasingly felt a sense that the statement was not whole, it was deficient.
In the ensuing years, it became clear to me that essential elements were missing in the first expression of the GATE Vision:
“Transforming the World, by Transforming Entertainment and Media.”
What was missing? For one thing, ‘arts’ was missing. I make a clear distinction between entertainment, arts and media and arts rightfully belongs in the declaration. But more essential, more importantly, the subjective aspect of the formula was absent:
The Creative Artist!
With this realization, a more fully articulated vision emerged:
“Creative Artists Transforming the World by Transforming Entertainment, Arts and Media.”
This felt like a more accurate and resonant expression, moving in the right direction, but still, imperfect.
In recent years, during the process of reinventing GATE, amid periods of deep reflection, I felt a shift occur - from name and concept (‘transformational entertainment”) - to a primary emphasis on the innermost aspect of a Creative’s life - consciousness.
This inner element brought fulfillment to the GATE vision with the addition of a simple phrase:
“From Within.”
Thus, a refined vision was revealed:
“Creative Artists Transforming the World by Transforming Entertainment, Arts and Media… From Within.”
Now, it felt complete! At least in that moment. Soon after, I added the word, “united,” and the ending phrase “for the benefit of earth and its people.”
The Vision statement now stands:
“Creative Artists, United, in Transforming the World by Transforming Entertainment, Arts and Media… From Within… for the Benefit of Earth and Its People.”
How does the Creative Artist create transformation in entertainment, arts and media? “From Within!” By exploring the inner aspect of their lives and allowing it to naturally emerge and take shape and embodiment in a creative work. The creative process IS an inner process and the transformation (evolution) of the artist is also an inner process. They share a common root system: inner silence.
In Eastern Spirituality there is a concept called Rishi, Devata and Chandas. Simply stated, it means, the subject (creator, the artist), the object (that which is created - the works of the artist) and Chandas, the process which connects and animates the two giving rise to timeless works of inspired beauty.
Fundamentally, this is how the Creative Artist, engaged with the most basic level of their awareness, working silently within themselves - and imbuing their works with the inner energy of pure creativity, effortlesssly facilitates personal, social and global transformational.
This is a central role of “The Great Creative Lineage” and one of the greatest blessings Creative Artists, throughout history, have shared and bestowed upon humanity and our world.
Imagine if the Creative Artist disappeared!
• Unthinkable!
• Unimaginable!
• Unbearable!
At GATE, our mission is supporting Creative Artists and helping them bring fulfillment to their world-changing work.
Blessings To All Creatives Moved By Spirit!
As you get older, the questions
come down to about two or three.
How long? And what do I do with the
time I’ve got left?
—DAVID BOWIE
David’s questions prompted me to face my mortality and think about my legacy — who I want to help and how I want to spend the time I have left. The answer was simple: Creative Artists. GATE is the vehicle I established to offer real services, opportunities, mentorship, community and practical resources so artists can grow, thrive and sustain meaningful careers. Everything I do now is aimed at clearing a path for creators to realize their gifts and make lasting contributions.
When I was asked to write this letter, I began to think, with great enthusiasm and vigor, about what I wanted to share with you about GATE and our comprehensive world-changing vision / mission. After considering and noting a multitude of salient points that I felt would inspire you and illuminate GATE, I realized that there are more essential thoughts and feelings to share with you that reflect a fundamental value of GATE. After all, you will no doubt learn more about GATE programs and activities detailed in this website, so it is prudent that I convey what is most important and the story below represents this crucial and distinguishing factor.
So, this website is a new beginning – GATE going public - worldwide. For the past couple years, we have been internally considering who we are in the world, what role do we play, what our vision and mission is, issues related to messaging and identity, assembling a team, developing programs and initiatives and putting our business house in order. Now, it’s time to share our internal achievements, magnetize a resonant tribe and take action in the world to realize our vision / mission.
GATE is about “US”. It is about our collective energy and intention. It is about seeding and imagining a better future for everyone and the planet. It is about the coming together of a group of like-spirited, heartful and committed people who chant the mantra, “transform the world by transforming entertainment, arts and media.” WE believe this is not only possible, but also inevitable. The transformation has already started and the audience is ready!
We also have to acknowledge our gratitude and humility. Have you ever felt so grateful that you could barely speak? Have you ever, in the face of true greatness, felt so humble, that the silent fullness of your being rose within like a tidal wave? Well, in working with the GATE team, I have been blessed to experience these feelings on countless occasions. Our great team has worked selflessly and tirelessly, with incredible mindfulness, to further the GATE vision / mission. They have worked together harmoniously, supporting one another in ways unprecedented in my experience. This is testament to the unwavering potency of a group of committed individuals acting in harmony, from an inspired heart, and to the power of a unifying vision whose time has come. I am grateful beyond words to our honorary co-founders emeritus, our board, executive team and each and every GATE Leadership Circle and team member and volunteer who made GATE possible.
And I ‘thank you’ too. For showing up, for your attention, for engaging, and contributing your spirit to the continuing emergence of GATE. Please join us as we continue this magnificent journey and witness the unfolding of a new paradigm in entertainment, arts and media for the benefit of the world.
We’re all in this together. We are all THIS. Let the unfolding speak for itself.
—JOHN RAATZ
In our emerging “Wisdom Culture” we see the dismantling, and renovation, of old structures that no longer serve who we are and more importantly, who we are to become. We see US, as Wisdom Culture leaders, embodying the new consciousness arising, innovating, and creating new forms to supplant the old and support the growth of the new. And GATE is a catalyst for this transformation in the entertainment, arts and media worlds.
There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action,
and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it,
it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost.
The world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression.
It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
—MARTHA GRAHAM
