Professional Overview

Matty Bovard stands at the intersection of artistic innovation and community empowerment, bringing over fifteen years of experience in creative production, cultural organization, and digital transformation to his role at Distributed Creatives. His work bridges traditional artistic practices with emerging technologies, always focused on creating sustainable opportunities for artists and fostering vibrant creative communities.

Early Influences & Education

Growing up in Fairfield, Iowa provided Matty with a unique perspective on cultural integration and community building. The town represented a remarkable synthesis of rural Midwestern farm life and international influence through the Transcendental Meditation movement, exposing him to diverse worldviews from an early age. This environment, where conservative agricultural lifestyles coexisted with progressive artistic and spiritual pursuits, laid the foundation for his later work in building bridges between different cultural frameworks and economic models.

Raised in a household where creativity was paramount—his parents operated one of the world’s premier stained glass studios both were also artists in their own right—Matty developed an early appreciation for the practical aspects of sustaining artistic practices. The combination of his mother’s Roman Catholic faith and his parents’ mutual engagement with Transcendental Meditation demonstrated the possibility of harmonizing seemingly divergent worldviews, a theme that would become central to his community-building work.

His formal education at the University of Iowa, where he earned a B.A. in Theater and a minor in English (2009), provided technical training in performance and literary arts while offering opportunities to explore the relationship between artistic expression and social change. During this period, Matty began developing his unique approach to poetry and performance, influenced by the legacy of the Beat Generation writers and their integration of artistic practice with social transformation.

Community Building & Event Production

Early Initiatives (2009-2011)

Following his graduation, Matty launched “Knew Evolution,” a magazine designed to serve as a focal point for creative community building. This project, supported by his father with cost of printing paid for as a college graduation present, represented his first attempt at creating a platform for artistic collaboration and community engagement. The publication’s name—emphasizing both evolution and revolution—reflected his vision of gradual but fundamental cultural transformation through artistic expression.

During this period, he also began organizing poetry events and open mics in Iowa City, building connections with the Minneapolis art scene and developing his understanding of the challenges facing artists in smaller cultural centers. His work with the Evolver network introduced him to new models of community organization around progressive cultural initiatives.

Boulder Period (2011-Present)

StarWater Wednesdays (2013-2020)

After relocating to Boulder in 2011, Matty co-founded what would become one of his most significant contributions to the local creative ecosystem. The StarWater Wednesday series, running for seven years, it brought together different elements of the arts and intellectual ideas featuring a live interview, an open mic and featured acts. It grew into a vital platform for artistic collaboration and community building. The event’s success demonstrated his ability to create sustainable frameworks for creative expression while building lasting relationships between artists and venues.

Festival Integration & Programming

As Poetry Coordinator for ARISE Music Festival (2013-2014), Matty pioneered new approaches to integrating spoken word performance into festival environments. His curation brought together established figures like Anne Waldman with emerging voices, creating unprecedented opportunities for poetic expression in festival settings. He developed a model for wandering performers that activated different spaces throughout the festival grounds, demonstrating innovative approaches to artistic programming.

Radio Broadcasting (2021-2023)

In partnership with legendary event producer Buddha Bomb of Family Moons, Matty established a proof-of-concept internet radio station under the Knew rEvolution banner. Broadcasting from North Boulder, he produced biweekly four-hour shows every Sunday that exemplified his vision for community-driven media. Each broadcast combined two hours of original music, one hour from his extensive community of artists and one hour from urban New Orleans hosted by Ayana Molina, with two hours of talk radio, covering a wide spectrum of topics including alternative medicine, artist interviews, psychedelic philosophy, and cultural commentary. This project, which continued until Buddha Bomb’s passing on his 72nd birthday in February 2023, demonstrated the potential for community-driven media platforms. The extensive archive of recordings and vast catalog of original music from his network of artists represents a significant documentation of Boulder’s creative community during this period.

Digital Innovation & Economic Models

Web3 Initiatives (2021-Present)

Recognizing the potential of blockchain technology to create new economic opportunities for artists, Matty began exploring NFTs and decentralized organizational models in early 2021. His experience attempting to create sustainable revenue streams through traditional digital platforms (Instagram, Patreon, Amazon) informed his approach to Web3 technologies, focusing on creating genuine value for artists and their communities rather than speculative markets.

Vision for Digital Community

Through his work with Distributed Creatives, Matty is developing comprehensive systems for artist empowerment that combine physical community building with digital infrastructure. His approach emphasizes:

• Creating direct relationships between artists and their supporters
• Building sustainable revenue models that prioritize artist autonomy
• Fostering collaboration across artistic disciplines
• Developing technical solutions that serve creative communities
• Establishing frameworks for community-driven funding and support

Performance & Artistic Practice

Matty’s own artistic practice serves as a laboratory for testing new approaches to creative expression and community engagement. His 13-hour continuous poetry performance at Vision Quest (October 2020) demonstrated both his artistic endurance and his commitment to pushing creative boundaries. This marathon performance, documented and available on YouTube, represented a public declaration of his dedication to artistic practice as a vehicle for social transformation.

His performance style, described as “aggressive nonviolence,” combines elements of Beat poetry, prankster tradition, and spiritual practice. This approach allows him to engage with challenging social issues while maintaining a spirit of inclusion and possibility, reflecting his vision of art as a tool for healing social divisions.

Current Focus & Future Vision

As Co-founder and Board Member of Distributed Creatives, Matty focuses on scaling the insights gained from years of community building and artistic practice. His current initiatives emphasize multiple key areas:

Economic Innovation

• Developing new models for artistic sustainability that don’t require corporate compromise
• Creating frameworks for community-supported artistic development
• Exploring hybrid funding models that combine traditional grants with blockchain-based systems
• Turning creative industries into a main economic backbone to compete with the military-industrial complex
• Building economic models where art and creativity become fundamental market drivers

Community Development

• Establishing networks of autonomous creative communities
• Building infrastructure for collaboration across geographic and cultural boundaries
• Creating educational resources for artistic and economic empowerment
• Implementing a “cellular model” where each community contains all components needed to thrive
• Ensuring local sustainability before feeding into larger organizational structures

Technical Infrastructure

• Developing platforms that support artistic independence
• Creating systems for efficient resource sharing among creative communities
• Implementing blockchain solutions that serve artistic needs
• Building scalable systems for artist empowerment
• Creating frameworks for community-driven funding and support

Cultural Integration

• Bridging traditional and emerging artistic practices
• Creating frameworks for cross-cultural creative exchange
• Fostering dialogue between different creative communities
• Supporting diverse artistic expressions beyond any single style or medium
• Facilitating collaboration while preserving cultural authenticity

Vision for Cultural Transformation

Matty envisions transforming the creative industries into a primary driver of economic and cultural development. This vision represents an alternative to existing industrial and commercial models, demonstrating how artistic practice and community building can create sustainable economic systems that benefit all participants while fostering cultural vitality and social healing.

His approach emphasizes:

• Building mutually beneficial models rather than parasitic economic structures
• Creating systems where financial success feeds back into community support
• Enabling crowd-funded research and development for creative initiatives
• Establishing direct connections between artists and their supporters
• Developing frameworks for fans to participate in the wealth generation of art brands

This vision builds on historical precedents—from the Beat Generation to the Grateful Dead to Burning Man—while incorporating new technologies and organizational models. The goal is to create systems that support artistic independence while fostering deep collaboration and community support, always maintaining local autonomy within a larger supportive network.

Professional Philosophy

Matty’s approach combines practical organization with visionary thinking, always grounded in direct experience with artistic communities. His work demonstrates that successful creative ecosystems must:

• Support artist independence while fostering collaboration
• Create sustainable economic models that don’t compromise artistic integrity
• Build bridges between different cultural and creative traditions
• Utilize technology in service of human connection and artistic expression
• Maintain focus on tangible value creation for artists and their communities
• Ensure economic benefits flow back to support community development
• Foster non-homogeneous reality that embraces diverse artistic expressions
• Create frameworks for sustainable artist-led communities
• Support cross-pollination between different artistic disciplines and cultural traditions

Through Distributed Creatives and his ongoing artistic practice, Matty continues to develop and implement these principles, working toward a future where creative expression serves as a foundation for economic and cultural vitality. His goal is to help establish art and creativity as fundamental forces in shaping our economic and cultural future, building systems that empower artists while fostering deep community connections and sustainable growth.