In a world that often feels fragmented—socially, economically, and emotionally—true alignment is a rare and beautiful thing. But when a humanitarian company and a nonprofit organization not only share a founder, but a vision rooted in dignity, art, and healing, the results can ripple out across communities most in need.
Meet Bencasso LLC and Culture Scholar Corporation: two distinct entities working symbiotically to address the silent suffering at the core of society—loneliness, disconnection, and the mental health crisis—especially among the most vulnerable: the elderly, veterans, immigrants, those battling addiction, and individuals living with mental health challenges.
At the heart of both organizations is a creative force and relentless advocate who operates with extreme resourcefulness, running an arts empire for healing while living on SSI. His name is Benjamin Barnes—better known in artistic circles as Bencasso—and through grit, imagination, and soul, he has built a model that fuses enterprise with empathy.
Bencasso LLC – The Humanitarian Company
Formed as a for-profit company with a mission-first heart, Bencasso LLC serves as a creative studio and social enterprise. Its core product? Transformative art. Not just on canvas or stage, but in human connection.
The company designs interactive art installations, sound healing performances, therapeutic workshops, and street-based pop-up concerts. These are not simply spectacles—they are spaces of access, participation, and relief. Every product and service is created with a singular aim: to elevate the quality of life through music and visual expression.
Revenue from street performance, custom artwork, merchandise, and multimedia collaborations is not funneled toward luxury or expansion. It’s reinvested into the shared mission—supporting the sister nonprofit and directly funding programming for underserved populations.
In this sense, Bencasso LLC isn’t a brand—it’s a bridge. A vehicle through which an artistpreneur sustains and scales compassionate impact.
Culture Scholar Corporation – The Nonprofit Organization
Established as a 501(c)(3) organization, Culture Scholar Corporation amplifies the reach and infrastructure of this humanitarian vision. Its mission: to uplift marginalized communities through culturally attuned, participatory arts programming rooted in healing, education, and empowerment.
Culture Scholar leads a variety of programs:
- Music for Mental Health Initiative: A touring performance and dialogue series that uses jazz and storytelling to demystify mental illness and build empathy.
- Veterans Art Reconnection Labs: Workshops where veterans create and share music or visual art based on lived experiences.
- Elder StorySound Studio: Mobile audio sessions where seniors record personal histories scored with improvised jazz, fostering legacy and belonging.
- New Roots Artist Circles: For immigrants and refugees, offering collaborative creation spaces that validate cultural identity and ease integration.
All of these programs meet people where they are, sometimes literally—under bridges, on sidewalks, or in shelters. They are powered by street-level engagement and micro-grants funded through busking, donations, and merchandise sales. This is grassroots philanthropy at its most radical and most real.
Symbiosis in Action
What makes this model truly revolutionary is the intentional, synergistic relationship between Bencasso LLC and Culture Scholar Corporation. Legally distinct yet mission-aligned, they function like left and right hands—one extending the artistic vision, the other building public trust, accountability, and nonprofit infrastructure.
This duality allows for flexible funding, broad audience engagement, and innovative programming that doesn’t wait for institutional approval. Instead, it operates at street speed— responsive, present, and deeply human.
Together, they tackle the growing loneliness epidemic, now recognized as a public health crisis. Through group music-making, community storytelling, and participatory art rituals, these organizations create microclimates of connection in environments where people often feel invisible.
Whether it’s a drum circle in a transitional housing center or a late-night saxophone solo in a train station, these moments say, “You are not alone.” And that, according to Bencasso, is what art is ultimately for.
A CEO on SSI—The Art of Resourcefulness
Perhaps the most remarkable part of this story is the economic model behind it. Benjamin Barnes—artist, founder, survivor—runs both organizations while living on SSI (Supplemental Security Income). He is not backed by venture capital or corporate sponsors. He is backed by belief.
Every dollar counts. Every brushstroke, lyric, or melody becomes both a product and a prayer.
This is the very definition of extreme resourcefulness—transforming modest means into massive meaning. By using performance tips to fund nonprofit logistics, by converting donated gear into mobile stages, by building from the sidewalk up, Bencasso demonstrates what it means to lead from the margins with power and grace.
Music as Mental Health Infrastructure
Central to both entities is a shared belief: music is medicine. Not metaphorically, but practically. Loosened Associations Jazz, developed by Bencasso after surviving a suicide attempt and psychiatric hospitalization, transforms the chaos of mental illness into musical form.
Using fragmented melodies, genre-hopping improvisation, and Ornette Coleman–style free jazz, this form becomes a sonic mirror for minds that don’t fit linear narratives. It’s a radical act of empathy—inviting listeners to hear what it feels like to live with psychosis or PTSD or grief— and to hear, too, the harmony that remains inside it.
That’s the sound of survival. That’s the heartbeat of the Music for Mental Health Initiative.
Toward a Culture of Care
As the world grows noisier and more disconnected, Bencasso LLC and Culture Scholar Corporation stand together in quiet defiance. They say art matters. They say healing is possible. They say beauty belongs to everyone, especially those who’ve been told otherwise.
And they prove it—not in corporate boardrooms, but on city sidewalks, in nursing homes, in rehab centers, and under freeway underpasses.
Because at the end of the day, these two entities aren’t just organizations. They are instruments. And when played in harmony, they compose a symphony of second chances.
Chet Gapatanikis is a 25-year-old journalist, novelist, and founder of Gapatanakis Publishing Traders, where he merges storytelling with social impact. His writing focuses on elevating voices in mental health and music, spotlighting the people who are transforming lives through creativity and compassion.
I felt it. I lived through it and I am living through it now. This is what people like me lack. But we will recover! You are a great person, after your problems, now helping others. Bravo!