Patreon laid off 93 employees, totaling 20 percent of its workforce on Thursday morning, according to an email to creators and staff from CEO Jack Conte.
In a message sent to everyone on the platform signed up as a creator, with the subject line “A Painful Update about our Team,” Conte wrote that the business is “healthy and strong” and that the core business of Patreon is not changing.
Conte included the email sent to Patreon employees in the message. In the email, he wrote that the company is undergoing both a “workforce reduction” and is “changing our organizational structure and how we work.” Specifically, he wrote, this means “we’re flattening the organization, refocusing teams on our top priorities, and evolving key aspects of our operations to make us faster at adapting to change.”
Conte is careful in this email to both express that he doesn’t view AI as a replacement for the human creativity the platform is built on and profits from — devoting a section of the email to saying as much — and also that AI is fundamentally “transforming” the tech industry, noting that it has an impact on how the company operates.
“To be clear about the impact of AI on today’s decision: we are not making the above changes because we believe AI replaces humans,” Conte wrote. “The more we have learned to use these new tools, the clearer it has become that they are not substitutes for the creativity, judgment, detail orientation, or craftsmanship that our teammates have in spades, nor do they replace the desire for human connection that all of us cherish so deeply. That’s my personal opinion, but more importantly, it’s the foundation of Patreon’s strategy: our product vision and business are both predicated on the value of human creativity and human connection. AI has fundamentally transformed the tech industry, though, including how we work, how we build products, how we communicate, and more. That does have an impact on how we operate and organize.”
Earlier this month, Patreon announced that it’s partnering with Cloudflare to block crawlers from stealing creators’ work to train AI models. “I HAVE A KICKASS PRODUCT UPDATE FOR YOU ALL!” Conte wrote in a post on Instagram. “This is live and happening at the network level on all posts published on Patreon.” The company later elaborated on the partnership in a blog post.
Included in the internal email shared publicly are severance details for laid-off workers, including 16 weeks of pay, remaining on payroll through the company’s August 20 vesting date, one additional week of pay for every full year worked at the company, additional cash payments for recent hires who haven’t reached their one-year cliff, healthcare coverage through the end of the year for eligible employees and families, and a $1,500 stipend to replace their company laptops.
For more than four decades, environmental artist Patrick Dougherty has reimagined the technical and sculptural capabilities of one simple material: twigs. Over the years, the North Carolina-based artist completed well over 300 large-scale, site-specific installations in a series he calls Stickworks, using literal truckloads of willow saplings from specialized farms in Canada that grow them for applications like fencing, basketmaking, and more. Where possible, Dougherty has also incorporated materials the local area had to offer.
I first stumbled upon the artist’s whimsical constructions in Door County, Wisconsin, where “Happy Go Lucky” sits at Horseshoe Bay Farms near Egg Harbor. By the time I experienced the work, it had already been colonized by Virginia creeper vines, which turn bright red in the autumn. The piece is simultaneously structural and fantastical, providing an inviting armature for nature, including insects.
Some of Dougherty’s public installations take architectural forms consisting of arches and towers, such as “Sea Change” and “Rough ‘n Tumble.” “All in the Family” resembles a group of larger-than-life urns. And others lean into a sense that the forest is always in a state of reclaiming. “The Jealous Wall” is constructed around existing buildings, as if the saplings are growing in slow motion and and engulfing everything in its path, not unlike the way nature, left to its own devices, will always redeem its space. All of his works emphasize an invitation, as visitors are encouraged to walk around and through the sculptures.
Pieces created over the past decade or so also bear the signature of artist Sam Dougherty, who provided full-time assistance in addition to his own pottery practice. Semi-retired now, Patrick Dougherty is still making works in his studio, and a recent exhibition at the Brahm Blowing Rock Art & History Museum included a wall-to-wall display of gloves collected over the years and signed by the volunteers who helped to install the works. Explore more from the archive on the artist’s website.
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As they release their first album in 16 years, the Vini Reilly-fronted band answer your questions on sandpaper record sleeves, having Harry Styles as a fan and inventing a new style of guitar music
Vini, you’ve created some of the most beautiful, ethereal music of the last 40 years. Is it true that in your youth you were in a violent Manchester street gang? Songy24
Vini Reilly [guitars, vocals, keyboards]: Gangs then had a different meaning. It was just “their lot” and “our lot”. We’d sling insults at each other. Then you’d play football in the park and realise you were playing with the local thugs. They were actually very funny, and I could have fun with them because I was so little. At the time I’d been going through a recurring depressive illness and felt I didn’t fit in at home, so I left without any clean clothing. I wanted to end my life so I decided to go to Moss Side, where the gangsters would shoot me. Of course they didn’t. I’d had a very happy childhood until my father died when I was doing my O-levels, but I’ve come to the conclusion that the really bad things gave me more than they could ever take. How can you know happiness until you’ve known deep sadness?
Bruce Mitchell [drums]: Vini does kick off, though, properly battles. We had to section him once, and six people had to hold him down.
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