Co-ops: The Communal Art of Leverage

As I continue to refine my business model for Re:Store DC, I have been doing alot of research into the advantages of the cooperative business model. One of the most appealing characteristics of the cooperative model is that it serves as a vehicle for many small organizations or micro businesses (sole proprietorships) to band together and use their network to obtain resources at a lower cost than they could individually. Coops also have the advantage of being able to be non profits as well.

Coops foster a sense of democracy and investment among their owners, as all owners have a voice in shaping the goals and work of the enterprise. Co-ops can be found in many different sectors and industries, including agriculture, healthcare, retail, housing, and arts enterprises.

One particularly interesting co-op is the Black Star Co-op in Austin, TX. Black Star is the worlds first cooperatively owned and worker self managed brewpub.

“SO WHAT?” you might ask. Indeed. Black Star is interesting because it is the first brewpub to be “owned” by it’s community. Currently, membership costs $150 and does not expire. In addition to voting rights, membership gets you access to exclusive events and a like-minded social network.

“HOW DOES IT WORK?” For Black Star, all member-owners (currently over 3,000) comprise the Members’ Assembly and each has a vote. . .The Members’ Assembly elects a 9-seat Board of Directors, and the Board focuses on the large organizational picture and oversees the Workers’ Assembly, which manages the daily business operations of the brew pub. 

“DOES THIS MAKE IT MORE SUSTAINABLE?” That is yet to be seen. As Black Star continues to grow and build its community in Austin, the benefits of their business model that are most effective will become more apparent. The hope is that as a co-op, Black Star will be able to best meet the needs of their patrons (and owners) while becoming an irreplaceable part of Austin’s culture scene.

Cheers, Black Star!

Old Skool Cafe

Old Skool Cafe is a non-profit supper club in San Fransisco, CA run almost entirely by youth who are at-risk. It was started in 2006, so it has been around for a while. I thought that the combination of entrepreneurship, food, music, and youth development was definitely worth highlighting.

Write a House

Write a house is a new take on a writers’ residency as a means for community revitalization.  The project is developing in Detroit and offers writers from all over the nation a place to live and produce work.  One unique thing about the project is that it was started by writers and they are putting in the sweat equity to renovate the houses to prepare them for residence.

1% for the Planet

1% For the Planet is an organization dedicated to activating an alliance of businesses financially committed to creating a healthy planet. Started by the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, they now have more than 1,200 member companies giving 1% (at least) of their annual sales to  over 3,300 nonprofit organizations resulting in over 100 million dollars going towards the benefit of the environment and sustainability.

Business that have joined the pledge include names you might suspect like Klean Kanteen, and Clif Bar, they also include that of Jack Johnson and New Belgium Brewery. So, keep a lookout for the logo on products you purchase and consume.

Directr for Videos?

Directr is an option for your videos? Its free… up till a certain point where they charge, but…..its free, at first.

Sharing is Caring, and that’s what arts organizations should do.

Based in Chicago, IL, founder Julia Rhodes launched Creative Partners as a mechanism for allowing several arts organizations to maximize the return on their resources.

Creative Partners is comprised of three well known Chicago arts organizations – eighth blackbird (music), Lucky Plush Productions (dance), and Blair Thomas & Company (theatre). Together, the partners share the cost of their professional fundraising infrastructure and a two person development team while splitting overhead costs.

By sharing this “pooled resource” each organization is able to access development resources that they could not afford solo. Furthermore, the two development employees receive the benefits of full time employment, rather than having to endure the stress of cobbling together a work week from three different part time jobs.

The three companies also present their work together, sharing the cost of space rental and production expenses.

Recently featured in APAP’s InsideArts magazine and a recipient of Fractured Atlas’ Arts Entrepreneurship Award, Creative Partners’ work is living proof that this shared resource model is a win for artists and administrators alike!

Higherglypics – merging business and public art in Erie, PA

Founded by artist and designer Todd Scalise, Higherglyphics forges partnerships with cultural institutions, business, and nonprofits that further brand awareness and patron interaction through public art projects.

Established as a for-profit Visual Public Relations firm, Higherglyphics works with clients to craft custom public art campaigns around high profile events, brands, and product launches. These projects have included large scale interior and exterior murals for Erie Skate Park, the Erie Philharmonic, and the Erie Art Museum as well as logo designs installed in public sites around the city.

Higherglyphics furthers public awareness by using the public as walking art billboards, creating artfully designed shirts, tote bags, mugs, cozies, and flasks to advertise commissioned campaigns.

 

Higherglyphics was recently featured by Fractured Atlas as one of their 2014 Arts Entrepreneurship Award recipients. You can read more about the award and their work here.

Urban ReThink and also Florida Creatives

I feel as though we may have talked about this in class, but perhaps we didn’t since this place is now closed for the moment. Urban ReThink is (or was) a coworking space in Orlando, Florida that seems to have derived from the community space and environment of the former and independently owned, Urban Think! Bookstore. The details are fuzzy, but it appears that Urban ReThink was once a program of the 501(c)3, Urban Think! Foundation, before it became an independent entity.

Urban ReThink was operating independently in a location from 2011 until it lost its space in 2013. The founder, Darren McDaniel, is highly dedicated to the city and its creative community. He also created a business plan for the Creative Consortium of Metro Orlando and I’m pretty sure he started this very cool forum called Florida Creatives.

Florida Creatives is a website that encourages creative folks to begin local groups to network, share ideas, and collaborate in-person. To generate further virtual and face-to-face connectivity, each group’s information is hosted on the Florida Creatives website.

Neither of these entities seem to be formalized organizations. They appear to be (and have been) motivated by artists and creative folks dedicated to creating a local identity. Great stuff.

COMMUNIKEY Festival and the International Cities of Advanced Sound

The International Cities of Advanced Sound is a network of international electronic music festivals that “aims to spark dialogue, knowledge exchange and mutual support amongst international organizations engaged with experimental sound cultures.”  They help support 23 festivals world wide, with 3 in the United States.  The Communikey (CKMY) Festival, one of these three, begins on 4/10 in Boulder, Colorado.

With an impressive line up of events and an even more impressive list of sponsors, the non profit organization that runs the Communikey Festival uses some wonderful language to explain being a non profit that supports electronic music.  Their mission boasts that they “facilitate forward thinking cultural experiences that emphasize the intersection of sound, design and technology in artistic forms.” Just…. wow.

 

 

League of Creative Interventionists

There’s this magazine called GOOD – it’s a quarterly publication that also exists online. It’s a space for people “to share creative solutions for living well and doing good.” It’s worth checking out. But this post is about The League of Creative Interventionists, which appears to be an off-shoot of the website, started by San Francisco-based artist Hunter Franks, who is affiliated, if not employed by GOOD. They champion creative placemaking and tactical urbanism, with a mission to “build community through creativity.” A global network in its most nascent stages, they propose a theme each month around which people organize creative projects in their communities. It looks like he has received funding from at least one grant, and possibly GOOD. From everything I can tell (and it just started in February), it’s probably a temporary project, or one that could turn into a non-profit at some point.