Artist Cooperatives
Why?
Before we built ourselves shelters, long before we cultivated plants and animals, humans made art. We sang, we drummed, we painted, we sculpted, we danced, we told stories around the campfire. Art is an integral part of our humanity, an impulse so deep we share it with other animals. And while making art is something we have in common, each individual artistic expression is unique and reminds us of how infinitely precious each person is.
It also happens to be the case that art is good for a local economy. The presence of creative people attracts businesses, residents, and tourists and boosts the productivity of nearby businesses.[1] Most art-making is necessarily local and can’t be outsourced or off-shored.
That said, the current situation for artists and artisans is fairly dire. Promoters prefer to invest heavily in a few sure-fire big-name artists. Policies that hurt the poor, like inadequate housing, healthcare, and education, also hurt struggling artists. The result is that a very small percentage of artists are able to make a living from their artistic work. And the same forces that marginalize people in society also make it more difficult for people of color, indigenous people, immigrants, LGBTQ, disabled, and low-income people to make art that affirms their human dignity.
What?
Many artists have responded by creating cooperatives to serve their various needs. A cooperative is an enterprise that produces benefits for its members and is owned and democratically controlled by its members. Any type of co-op is an artist co-op if it benefits members who are artists. The co-op may be a producer’s co-op, marketing the products of the individual member artists; it might be a worker co-op of performers or graphic artists; it might be a purchasing co-op, obtaining services or supplies at a better price; it might be a residential housing co-op devoted to artists; or any other kind of co-op or some combination of these.
Though any kind of co-op can be an artist’s co-op, there are certain problems that come up more for artists. For instance, a housing co-op serving artists would need to have ways of evaluating ability to pay monthly costs when income is lumpy and hard to predict. It would also need to understand the law around fair housing as it applies to membership criteria. Another area of special need for artists is insurance--workers’ comp, event, health, are all complicated for artists. Additionally, there are new forms of cooperation that are being developed that could be helpful to artists, such as “community supported art” programs and digital platform co-ops.
One way to characterize artist cooperatives is by what they are designed to do: help artists to pursue their passion, earn a living, and live their lives. They do this by structuring a way to share in various ways. The following table offers an illustration of these possibilities.
Artists can… | …pursue their passion | earn a living | live their lives ↩️ |
through 👇 | |||
shared spaces | studios / workshops / recording / practice space / darkroom / photo studio (e.g. Talking Dolls, Detroit) | gallery / performance space / retail space / online store (e.g. Taller Portobello, U Street Music Hall, Dutch Alley Artists Co-op, Aarhus Makers) | housing: permanent, retreats/sabbaticals, residencies (e.g. ArtCondo, Greene Street Artists Cooperative, Emeryville Artists Co-op) |
shared sourcing | purchase or solicit donations of materials, instruments, etc. (e.g. ClayArt Pottery Co-op, the Scrap Exchange) | shared services: billing, taxes, booking, insurance (see ArtsPool), marketing etc. (e.g. Freedom Quilting Bee, Ujamaa Collective), platforms (Stocksy, Member’s Media, Resonate) | food: growing, purchase (e.g. GLUT), preparation (e.g. Alternate ROOTS, New Orleans Food Co-op, The Locals) |
shared work | group performance (e.g. worker co-op troupe, ensemble) (e.g. Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Maquis Original, Lusty Lady, Ujima Theatre Company, Obvious Agency); support, produce, and commission work (e.g. Black Theatre Cooperative, Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, The Welders); collectives of various kinds (Assemble, Beehive) | standard setting/jurying (e.g. Art Center Cooperative) | temp/part-time jobs / worker co-op with time for creative pursuit (e.g. 3B B&B, Dirtbaby Farm) |
shared abundance | share tools, share spaces (e.g. OurGoods) | barter with others for services, contribute to micro-grants (e.g. Valley Art Share) | babysitting, food exchange, time exchange (e.g. Windham Area Hour Exchange) |
shared connections | networking, continuing ed (e.g. Picturetank -- helped photographers set up collectives, Network of Ensemble Theaters) | travel, broadcasting, publishing (e.g. Book View Cafe) (Picturetank included major clients in co-op membership) organize classes for public (e.g. Art Guild of Tellico Village) | socializing (Snake Rodeo, Lansing MI, Keskidee Centre, London) |
shared safety net | event insurance, general liability insurance, workers’ comp (SMart, Kunstler Kasse, Guilded co-op) | patron-member co-ops (e.g. Art Theater Co-op, Jubilee Community Arts) or ones with Supporter Friends (Roundabout Art Collective) | health care/health insurance (e.g. Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Actors, Freelancers Union) smooth income (Tchookar SCOP) |
Help!
Cooperatives can be complicated, but at least there are a lot of people working on it! There’s great information from the following organizations:
- Guilded
- Springboard for the Arts
- art.coop
- Center for Cultural Innovation Artist Resources
- ZEAL
- LA Co-op Lab Academy
Background resources:
Latowa Giwa, in collaboration with Susan Sakash, “Building an Arts Solidarity Economy,” Nonprofit Quarterly, December 6, 2023.
Toolkit 2: Form an Artist Cooperative from Tamarack Foundation