The Merit of Metrics: Rethinking Accountability in the Arts | Carolyn Ramsay | TEDxSt Helier
In this raw, personal talk, Carolyn Rose Ramsay, former ballet dancer, aviation operations officer, and now Artistic Director of a national ballet company asks a provocative question: how do we know we’re doing a good job in the arts? Drawing on the contrast between the procedural rigour of aviation and the ambiguity of artistic value, she explores how we measure success in a sector where impact can be emotional, delayed, or unmeasurable.Carolyn challenges both artists and funders to rethink accountability not as a box-ticking exercise, but as a shared commitment to integrity, transparency, and long-term value. She urges creatives to engage with scrutiny rather than fear it, and calls on supporters to get involved beyond applause from helping write budgets to backing risky but meaningful work.This talk is a rallying cry for artists to own their worth, for funders to question their metrics, and for all of us to bet on brave ideas not just the ones that look safe on paper.Carolyn Rose Ramsay is originally from Vancouver BC, and her training took place at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. She danced professionally with Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Miami City Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte Carlo, and the Norwegian National Ballet. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
More from TED
- 18:54Reimagining Economies through AI-Powered Innovation | Gary Shiffman | TEDxGreenville SalonIn his TEDxGreenville talk, Gary Shiffman explores the disconnect between Greenville’s impressive GDP growth and its lagging real wages, highlighting South Carolina’s rank near the bottom nationally. Analyzing over a century of economic plans, he reveals the city’s consistent prioritization of growth over wages. Shiffman warns that Greenville’s labor-driven economic path is outdated in an era of AI, where capital increasingly replaces labor. He urges local leaders, educators, and entrepreneurs to act now—by building innovation labs, launching startups, and recruiting AI firms. Greenville, he argues, is ideally positioned to lead the next generation of advanced manufacturing by focusing on building happy employees. I believe that small groups of creative and dedicated people change the world. I seek to work with and to empower others working to help make our communities freer and safer in a complex, coercive, and violent world. I have served in war and traveled the world, studied Economics human behavior, and worked at the pinnacles of power in government and in industry.I co-founded two AI companies when I saw an opportunity join behavioral science with AI innovations coming from computer science to empower those on the front lines of combatting coercion, fraud, and violence in the military, law enforcement, and in financial institutions.I love to teach, write, and engage with curious people. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
- 9:37We need ugly art — here’s why | MJ Chiao | TEDxUBCWhen we think academia, the comic book and comic form is usually overlooked as a piece of valuable literary scholarship. Comics are often presumed as not academic or critical enough to be a valid source of literary study, and if they are to be taken seriously only a certain kind of tragic, memoir style are considered worth analyzing. By arguing that ‘bad art’, ‘ugly comics’, or ‘juvenile fiction’ are necessary fragments of history to navigate the quickly developing world around us, MJ Chiao advocates for the comics form as a radical form of activism and social remembering. Ugly comics becomes survival. MJ Chiao is a fourth year English Literature student who is passionate about comics and graphic forms. With a love for teaching and writing, MJ wishes to challenge the status quo of English studies and academia to encompass the new medias and technologies of our everyday. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
