Good Morning
There is an alternative to exploitation, isolation, and fear.
Let's build cooperative, connected, and care-based futures.
In March 2021, Art.coop launched with a REPORT. In September and October of 2021, we held Study-into-Action with 105 cultural innovators. Listen to our PODCAST and take a free online COURSE. Attend our Move the Money series. Find us on IG or Twitter.
We exist to support creatives in the Solidarity Economy movement and to usher in the transformation underway.
Yes, artists are workers.
We work together to resist exploitation and create jobs, housing, and resource exchanges that value artists as whole people.
We join the Solidarity Economy movement as we fire our bosses, free the land, and elect ourselves.
We are empowered change-makers who actively choose the lives we want to lead.
We can live our values and do joyful work that pays the bills.
Did you know that cultural workers are co-creating right now?
Join us as we:
STUDY together to practice ways of spreading power and wealth and rooting it in community,
CONNECT cultural innovators across silos in the solidarity economy movement,
AMPLIFY research, inspiration, resources, and events, and
MOVE MONEY to multi-year, self-determined, systems-change work.
📚 Study 
No one knows what arts and culture will look like after the pandemic
63 percent of creatives have become fully unemployed.
⅓ of museums say they are likely to close forever.
The COVID-19 death rate of Black and Indigenous people is more than twice the COVID-19 death rate of White people in the US.
And yet, foundation giving in 2020 documented that only 5 percent of pandemic-response dollars were intended for communities of color.
Around ½ of 1 percent of annual foundation giving directly supports women and girls of color.
And less than ½ of 1 percent goes to Native Americans.
What would the cultural economy be like if it loved Black and Indigenous people?
All around the country, the people who have been most harmed by our current systems are practicing self-determination and community wealth
The movement for permanently affordable space in Oakland places culture at the center of the work.
The first democratically managed investment fund in the country — making non-extractive loans to community members — says: “cultural workers are economy builders.”
Culture bearers lead the oldest native co-op in the country.
Artists started the oldest non-extractive Venture Capital firm in the US.
A co-op giving 35,000 freelancers the benefit of full-time employment was founded by artists. It includes employment insurance and pension.
The nationally recognized legal organization that supports Solidarity Economy groups was co-founded by a cartoonist.
Black Lives Matter was co-founded by an artist.
This work is not new. Creatives are “going back to the future,” to practices of shared livelihoods rooted in cultural traditions.
Why should culture and economic innovation go together?
Because…
Right now, we have a superstar system where the winners take all and the rest are left with crumbs.
Just like art, housing and dignified work are human rights.
Artists are the original gig workers.
Culture-making and political organizing go hand-in-hand.
We want a world where everyone’s needs are met so everyone can participate in the remaking of culture and society.
An artist living in a community land trust in New York City will have 27 hours a week to make art, compared to an artist in market-priced housing who will have 4 hours a week for artmaking.
We must repair centuries of injustice.
What do mutual aid networks,
worker co-ops,
community land trusts,
participatory budgeting,
and time banks
have in common?
Community ownership and democratic governance that builds political, cultural, and economic power.
When these hyper-local initiatives get together, they have enormous power.
This emergent movement goes by many names — economic democracy, new economy, regenerative economics, degrowth, the commons, local community economic development, democratic socialism, just transition, dual power, liberation economy — but internationally, it is known as the Social and Solidarity Economy, or Solidarity Economy for short. It provides resilience against crisis and has lasting impact when supported as a holistic system.
To support this work, you can: educate yourself, join existing organizing work, and advocate for economic justice.
Organize a book club in your community. Read the book “Collective Courage”. Study toward action.
Find your local credit union, worker co-op, or time bank, and join it.
Make media about this work: songs, posters, memes, and stories.
Make gifts and loans of time, art, and money to seed these groups.
Follow the lead of grassroots organizers and commit to long term support.
Advocate for legal and fiscal policies that enable the Solidarity Economy to thrive.
The people who have been most harmed are creating community-controlled, hyper-local economies that are resilient amidst crisis.
The systems that artists want are not only possible—they already exist, and can be strengthened and cultivated with intention.
Resources
Learn more from Art.coop about the ways that creatives strengthen the Solidarity Economy by reaching out to Sruti at sruti@art.coop, or looking through our work below.
Podcast
Listen to the podcast here.
We produced a a pilot season podcast about the Solidarity Economy and the artists and culture workers who are building it in their communities.
With the support of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Meerkat Media Cooperative, Daniel Park (Obvious Agency, Guilded, USFWC), Maddy Clifford aka MADlines, Carlos Uriona (Double Edge Theatre), Rhonda Anderson (Ohketeau Cultural Center), Clara Takarabe (violist), Cierra Peters (Boston Ujima Project), Nia Evans (Boston Ujima Project), and our Co-Organizers Caroline, Marina, and Nati, Art.coop invite listeners to Remember the Future togetherby listening to the stories of artists and culture bearers who know that the practices of the Solidarity Economy are not some new technology, but actually are ways of being in relationship with people and planet that are as old as time. They are our ancestral practices.
In this 7 episode narrative pilot, listeners learn: You don’t have to be a starving artist or a sell out. You can find work where you joyfully live your values and pay the bills. We meet QTBIPOC creatives who are firing their bosses, freeing the land, electing themselves, and building livelihoods based on care, cooperation, mutual aid, and solidarity. Every other episode grounds listeners in a practice-based offering to activate the solidarity economy in their body, in their community, and in their context today.
Listen to the podcast here, or anywhere you get your podcasts!
Want to join a study group in Spring 2023 about the podcast? Write to Marina at marina@art.coop to learn more.
Support the next season of Remember the Future, here.
Courses
Take our new online courses for FREE right here.
If you would like to learn about the solidarity economy right now, we suggest that everyone reads these texts and attends Economics for Emancipation.
Culture-bearers and creators might want to attend: AntiCapitalism for Artists, Architecture Beyond Capitalism, Dark Study, Dark Matter University, Dark Laboratory, Artists Dismantling Capitalism, Cooperation Humboldt's study group, and the School of Art, Culture, and Resistance. Grantmakers might want to attend workshops and hire: Nwamaka Agbo, Sustainable Economies Law Center, Justice Funders, Resource Generation, Generative Somatics, Solidaire, Miami Institute, Chordata Capital, New Economy Coalition, and USSEN, to practice solidarity in grantmaking. Contact us for more options.
Workbook
We're in the midst of making a PDF Workbook to help you navigate solidarity economies in your communities as a culture bearer. Contact us for more information!
Report
This report, commissioned by Grantmakers in the Arts, is about the ways that arts and culture grantmakers can engage in systems-change work. The cultural sector is actively seeking alternatives to business-as-usual to create economic and racial justice in the sector and beyond. Grantmakers can play a role in the transformation of the sector by following the lead of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, disabled, queer, trans, and working class creatives who are innovating models for self-determination and community wealth. For specific suggestions, see the full report and the Action Checklist.
Top 10 Resources for Grantmakers
- Power-Sharing in Grantmaking
- Trust Based Philanthropy
- Leeway Foundation’s transition from family-control to community-control (written) and video
- See the list of people interviewed for this report and consider hiring them for individual consultations.
- Solidarity Economy Education and Workshops for Grantmakers
- Justice Funders and this chart
- Chordata Capital
- Kataly Foundation / Nwamaka Agbo
- Farhad Ebrahimi
- Weavers’ Fellowship Donor Programming
- Center for Popular Economics
- Solidarity Economy Terms Explained
- United Nations International Solidarity Economy Reports
- Solidarity Economy Legal Questions and Workshops
- Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) (co-op, land trust, barter, community currency legal support)
- SELC Webinar on Worker Self-Directed Nonprofits
- Recommendations for Giving and Endowment Action
- The Case for an Emergency Charity Stimulus
- Guiding a Giving Response to Anti-Black Injustice
- WEBINAR: Leveraging Investments in Support of Social Justice
- Reports about Inequity in Funding
- Books about the History of the Solidarity Economy
- Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice
- The New Systems Reader
- On Common Ground: International Perspectives on the Community Land Trust
- Building for Us: Stories of Homesteading and Cooperative Housing
- The Color of Money
- Shows and Podcasts
- Interdependence.FM Podcast
- The Laura Flanders Show
- Economic Update by Democracy @Work
- Upstream Podcast
- The Rebel Beat
- Conferences
- New Economy Coalition’s CommonBound conference
- Justice Funders
- Allied Media Conference
- People’s Movement Assemblies
- CoCap
Webinars
The following webinars are from our 2021 Study into Action program, which connected cultural innovators across silos who did not know one another well, but are building the cultural economy we want, to socialize, study, and dream together before we can take collective action.
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Friday, September 3rd, 2021 from 12-1 p.m. EDT VIDEO RECORDING "The Way it Works": Abuse, Alienation, and Our Current Condition as Arts & Culture Workers
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Friday, September 10th, 2021 from 12-1 p.m. EDT VIDEO RECORDING Artists Resist & Build: a history of organizing in the arts with a focus on Solidarity Economy alternatives and artist-led resistance
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Friday, September 17th, 2021 from 12-1 p.m. EDT VIDEO RECORDING Law and the Land Craft: permanent real estate cooperatives and the arts
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Friday, September 24th, 2021 from 12-1 p.m. EDT VIDEO RECORDING Solidarity Grantmaking and Investing: #landback and case studies to support grantmakers in deepening their commitment to systems-change.
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Friday, October 1st, 2021 from 12-1 p.m. EDT VIDEO RECORDING Making / Meaning: a live DJ set / jam session / zine making workshop
The Solidarity Economy Ecosystem
A number of organizations that support the Solidarity Economy in the United States have emerged in the past decade, and in recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number and diversity of entities providing support to Solidarity Economy organizations. However, although artists and culture-bearers participate in many of these as workers and beneficiaries, few of these entities place an emphasis on art and culture.
International Solidarity Economy Networks and Task Forces
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The UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy (TFSSE) aims to raise the visibility of Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) within the UN system and beyond. The members and observers of the Task Force have committed to undertake collaborative activities to: enhance the recognition of the role of SSE enterprises and organizations in sustainable development; promote knowledge of SSE and consolidate SSE networks; and support the establishment of an enabling institutional and policy environment for SSE.
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Global Social Economy Forum is an international association of local governments and civil society networks engaged in the promotion of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) as a means to achieve an inclusive and sustainable local development. As of May 2020, GSEF brings together 75 members on the 5 continents coming from 36 countries, including 26 local governments and 35 SSE networks.
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International Centre of Research and Information on the Public, Social and Cooperative Economy (CIRIEC) is a network of companies, organizations, and experts interested in economic activity oriented towards collective support.
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Research Network For Social Enterprise (EMES) is a research network of established university research centers and individual researchers whose goal has been so far to gradually build up an international corpus of theoretical and empirical knowledge, pluralistic in disciplines and methodologies, around SE concepts: social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, social economy, solidarity economy, and social innovation.
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Community Economies Research Network (CERN) is an international network of researchers, activists, artists, and others who are interested in ways of enacting new visions of the economy.
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RIPESS North America RIPESS is a global network of continental networks committed to the promotion of Social Solidarity Economy. The member networks themselves (Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania) bring together national and sectoral networks, thus ensuring strong territorial anchoring.
National Networks / Coalitions
Examples of Sector-Based Networks:
- Center for Cultural Innovation’s AmbitioUS program (artists and cultural organizers)
- The US Federation of Worker Cooperatives (worker co-ops),
- The Participatory Budgeting Project,
- The Free Press (media)
- Geo.coop (media)
- Grounded Solutions (housing)
- Foundation for Intentional Community (housing)
- Right to the City (tenants Organizing)
- The Allied Media Conference (media)
- HowlRound Theater Commons (performing artists)
- Community Economies Research Network (academics)
♥️ Connect
In the coming days, months, and years, our world will critically reflect not on the havoc this period of compounding chaos and crisis wreaked, but rather on the changes we made in response. At a time of such variant institutional and interpersonal violence, how did we, as ancestors, seed sustainable kindness for those who would come after us?
The crises themselves are clear: the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has left our (im)migrant, displaced, working poor, rural, disabled, elderly, trans, queer, and BIPOC communities financially, physically, socially, and culturally devastated. Multiple debt buckets are overflowing and flooding the lives of many, including young graduates---mostly those of color. The world, quite literally, is burning away due to unmitigated climate catastrophes.
Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) most harmed by our extractive economic system have continued the courageous work of studying together to heal, imagine, and enact creative futures of shared power and shared wealth. From guru-shishya paramparas in South Asia to Valor y Cambio in Puerto Rico to the Young Lords in Harlem, collectively BIPOC-led cultural learning spaces are keystones of resistance and innovation in the arts.
This work has roots in the Black liberation movement in the United States and has been developed by cooperatives in an internationally recognized set of principles.
The Solidarity Economy Ecosystem in the U.S.
A number of organizations that support the Solidarity Economy in the United States have emerged in the past decade, and in recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number and diversity of entities providing support to Solidarity Economy organizations. However, although artists and culture-bearers participate in many of these as workers and beneficiaries, few of these entities place an emphasis on art and culture.
Events
We're planning Process Potlucks and more work with the Arts Culture and Care Working Group, led by Marina Lopez, Robin Bean Crane, and Ebony Gustave. Reach out to learn more about how you can get involved and join us!
Directory
We're working on a directory to help our community navigate the solidarity economy and its culture bearers.
Here are a few examples of arts and culture groups and initiatives in the Solidarity Economy. As shown throughout the report, all networks and infrastructure in the Solidarity Economy---regardless of their emphasis on arts and culture---will support artists and culture-bearers.
Participatory Budgeting
A community makes decisions together about a pool of money because they will be most impacted by where it goes.
Participatory Budgeting with arts & culture:
Arts Collectives and Cooperatives
Artists get together, form a business, and make decisions about how it operates and how profits are distributed.
Arts Collectives and Cooperatives with arts & culture:
Community Land Trusts
Land and buildings are moved from the speculative market to a nonprofit. Decisions are made by residents and community members to make sure the space is affordable forever.
Community Land Trusts with arts & culture:
Permanent Real Estate Cooperative
Buildings are moved from the speculative market to a co-op that serves people rather than profit. Decisions are made by residents and community members to make sure the space is affordable forever.
Permanent Real Estate Cooperative with arts & culture:
Study Groups
People learn about the history of collective work together to connect to their shared power and take action.
Study Groups with arts & culture:
Time Banking
People exchange an hour for an hour, meeting one another's needs without money.
Time Banking with arts & culture:
Community Currency
A currency that circulates locally to encourage greater local spending.
Community Currency with arts & culture:
Investment Cooperative
People pool their savings and make decisions together about how to invest it.
Investment Cooperative with arts & culture:
Credit Union
A bank owned by its members that is commited to investing in local communities.
Credit Union with arts & culture:
Mutual Aid
People helping each other meet their needs, often with a shared political commitment.
Mutual Aid with arts & culture:
Worker-Managed Non Profit
A non-profit organization that is managed democratically by its workers rather than by a single Director.
Worker-Managed Non Profit with arts & culture:
Consumer Co-op
A buying club that is owned and run by the people who use it.
Consumer Co-op with arts & culture:
Community Development Financial Institution
A range of institutions and funds — including non-profit banks, credit unions, loan funds, and venture capital funds — that exist to grow community wealth for low-income communities.
Community Development Financial Institution with arts & culture:
Community Wealth Cooperative
Give the power of big finance to small, community-centered actors, creating a network that makes local investments that serve people rather than extracting from them.
Community Wealth Cooperative with arts & culture:
Write to sruti@art.coop to learn more!
Solidarity Economy & Culture
Here are a few examples of arts and culture groups and initiatives in the Solidarity Economy. As shown throughout the report, all networks and infrastructure in the Solidarity Economy—regardless of their emphasis on arts and culture—will support artists and culture-bearers.
Land and Housing
Community Land Trusts: Community Arts Stabilization Trust, Oakland CLT, Cooper Square Community Land Trust
Cooperative Housing: East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative*, Greene Street Artists, Emeryville Artists Co-op
Housing Cooperatives: Divine House, Art Cooperative
Cooperative Co-working Space: The Artist Co-op, Soft Surplus, Prime Produce
Cooperative Venue: Tianguis de la Raza, U Street Music Hall (closed), Network of Ensemble Theaters, ( = majority BIPOC membership)
Cooperative Store / Gallery: Dutch Alley Artists Co-op, A.I.R Gallery, Ujamaa Collective, ARTZ (Ancestral Rich Treasures of Zuni) Cooperative, Qualla Arts & Crafts,_ Art Center Cooperative, Aarhus Makers, Ulična galerija (_ = majority BIPOC membership)
Cooperative Studios: Talking Dolls, Adaept
Cooperative Recording Spaces: Live Musicians Co-op
Cooperative Darkrooms: Lone Star Darkroom, Bushwick Community Darkroom
Cohousing and Intentional Communities: Convent Arts Community, MilePost 5
Cooperative Co-working, Retreat, Residency, or #Landback Network: ZEAL, Activation Residency, Flux Factory, The Weavers Project, Soul Fire Farm, Yo Mama’s House, [Black [Space] Residency](https://www.blackspaceresidency.com), Land Relationships Super Collective* (* = majority BIPOC membership)
Work and Labor
Worker Cooperatives: ➔ News and Media: Cafeteria Radio, Means TV, Media Reparations, Associated Press, Devil Strip, Discourse Blog ➔ Architectural Design and Construction: Earth-Bound Building, Oxbow Design Build ➔ Craft: Adams & Chittenden Scientific Glass, and so many more, including over 300 craft cooperatives. ➔ Fashion: Custom Collaborative,_ Friends of Light ➔ Printmaking: Cards by Dé, Story 2 Designs, JustSeeds, Radix Media ➔ Graphic Design: Story2Designs,* Surplus Plus, TESA, Partner & Partners ➔ Film + VR + Tech + Audio + Video Games: CRUX, Emma, The Sound Co-op, MOXI, Meerkat Media_, GlorySociety, Agaric* ➔ Beauty: Mirror Beauty Cooperative,_ Brown Beauty Co-op,_ Salon Cooperative ➔ Music, Dance, Theatre: Ujima Theatre Company, Obvious Agency, Rhythm Conspiracy,_ The Team, the COOP ➔ Orchestra: Pro Arte Orchestra of Boston, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (_ = majority BIPOC membership)
Multi-stakeholder Cooperatives: Happy Family Night Market
Producer Cooperatives: 200 Million Artisans, Justseeds
Time Banking: Metasofa Arts Community, Kolanut Collaborative
Mutual Aid: NDN Collective, Sol Collective
Barter Systems and Non-Monetary Exchange: O+ Festival
Money and Finance
Participatory Budgeting: Runway, Participatory Budgeting Project
Credit Unions: Actors Federal Credit Union
Community currencies: Circles, Tandas
CDFIs: The Working World, SeedCommons, First People’s Fund, Oweesta Corporation
Community Loan Fund: Boston Ujima Project, Black Farmer Fund
Solidarity Philanthropy and Grantmaking: Center for Economic Democracy, The Weavers Project, AmbitioUS, NDNCollective, Intercultural Leadership Institute
Democratic Loan Funds and Grants: Boston Ujima Project, NDN Collective, Runway, First People’s Fund, Black Artist Fund*, Seed Commons, Common Future (* = majority BIPOC membership)
Cooperative Billing and Accounting: Freelancer Guilded*, ArtsPool, Open Collective (* = majority BIPOC membership)
Cooperative Insurance: Guilded, Open Collective Foundation, ArtsPool ( = majority BIPOC membership)
Cooperative Marketing: 200 Million Artisans*, BlacSpace Cooperative* (* = majority BIPOC membership)
Patronage Cooperatives: Ampled, Resonate, Catalytic Sound
Unions and Guilds: Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Actors, Freelancers Union, Art Guild of Tellico Village
UBI / UBA / GBI: Creatives Rebuild New York, Springboard for the Arts UBI, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts UBI
Energy and Utilities
Community Solar: Soulardarity
Community Broadband: Institute for Local Self Reliance’s MuniNetworks
Energy Democracy: Uprose Brooklyn
Food and Farming
Community Gardens: All community gardens!
Community Supported Agriculture: All CSAs!
Food and Farm Co-ops: Soul Fire Farm, Double Edge Theatre, Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive (CoFED), Acres of Ancestry
Community Fridges: All Community fridges!
Media & Technology
Worker-Owned News Media: Media Reparations, Associated Press, Devil Strip
Community Radio: KOJH 104.7 FM (Mutual Musicians Foundation)
Platform Cooperatives: CRUX, Guilded, Ampled, and internationally Stocksy in Canada, Smart in Belgium, Arctic Co-ops in Canada, and Doc Servizi in Italy
Solutions Journalism: Solutions Journalism Network
Open Source: Mozilla, Wikipedia
Copyleft: Creative Commons
Cooperative and Collective Study Groups: Repaired Nations,* GEEX, Anti- capitalism for Artists, Architecture Beyond Capitalism, Dark Study, Dark Matter University, Dark Laboratory,_ Artists Dismantling Capitalism, Cooperation Humboldt, School of Art, Culture, and Resistance, Arts, Culture, and Care in the Solidarity Economy Working Group_, TradeSchool.coop (closed), and so many more (* = majority BIPOC membership)
People
The report was created by Nati Linares and Caroline Woolard for Grantmakers in the Arts and draws upon interviews and conversations with the following people
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Nwamaka AgboCEO, Kataly Foundation
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Caron AtlasDirector, Arts & Democracy
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Teesa BahanaDirector, 32° East Ugandan Arts Trust, Uganda
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Julia BeattyProgram Officer, Black-Led Movement Fund and the Communities Transforming Policing Fund, Borealis Philanthropy
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Alicia BellOrganizing Manager, Free Press and Media Reparations 2070
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David BoillierDirector, Reinventing the Commons Program, Schumacher Center for a New Economics
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Craig BorowiakAssociate Professor of Political Science, Haverford College
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Melody CapoteExecutive Director of Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute
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Rachel ChanoffFounder and Director, THE OFFICE
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Esther ChoiDoctoral Candidate, Ethnic Studies, University of California - San Diego
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Binna ChoiDirector, Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, Netherlands
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Jen ColeDirector, National Accelerator for Cultural Innovation, Arizona State University
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Willa ConwayFounder, Weavers Fellowship
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Joey DeFrancescoHistorian and Organizer, Union for Musicians and Allied Workers
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Penelope DouglasChief of Strategy and Revenue, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
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Estrella EsquilínProgram Manager, National Accelerator for Cultural Innovation, Arizona State University
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Nia EvansDirector, Boston Ujima Project
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Eli FeghaliNetwork Organizer, New Economy Coalition
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Gertrude FlentgeProgram Manager, DOEN Foundation
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Reg FlowersArtist, Activist, and Educator
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Alexis FraszCo-Director, Helicon
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Allen Kwabena FrimpongCo-Founder, ZEAL
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Luna Olavarria GallegosStoryteller, Researcher, and Co-Founder, Art.Exit
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Noémi GiszpencExecutive Director, Cooperative Development Institute
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Lavastian GlennDirector, Racial and Economic Justice, The Nathan Cummings Foundation
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Jeffreen HayesExecutive Director, Threewalls
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Tempestt HazelProgram Officer, Field Foundation
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Greg JacksonFounder, Repaired Nations and Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Sustainable Economies Law Center
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Michael JohnsonDirector of Advancement, NDN Collective
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Emily KawanoCo-Director, Wellspring Cooperative Corporation and Coordinator, US Solidarity Economy Network
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Esteban KellyExecutive Director, US Federation of Worker Cooperatives
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Ceceile KleinDouble Edge Theatre
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Arleta LittleProgram Officer and Director of Artist Fellowships, McKnight Foundation
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abdiel lópezProgram Officer, AmbitioUS, Center for Cultural Innovation
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Josh MacPheeFounding Member, JustSeeds Collective
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Annie McShirasInvestment and Fundraising Director, East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative
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Margaret MortonCreativity and Free Expression Team, Ford Foundation
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Gabriela MuñozProgram Coordinator, National Accelerator for Cultural Innovation, Arizona State University
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Jennifer NearPhilanthropic Advisor and Organizational Consultant
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Jessica Gordon NembhardProfessor, Community Justice and Social Economic Development, Department of Africana Studies, CUNY
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Emiko OnoDirector, Performing Arts Program, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
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Janelle OrsiDirector, Sustainable Economies Law Center
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Alexis OrtizSenior Program Associate, Office of the President, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
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Leticia PegueroVice President of Programs, Nathan Cummings Foundation
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Francisco PérezDirector, Center for Popular Economics
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Cierra PetersCommunications Director, Boston Ujima Project
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Yvon PoirierVice-Coordinator, RIPESS
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Kate PoolePrincipal, Chordata Capital
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Michelle RamosVision Keeper / Executive Director, Alternate Roots
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Esther RobinsonFounder/ Co-Executive Director, ArtHome
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Ted RussellAssociate Director, Kenneth Rainin Foundation
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Maliha SafriChair and Associate Professor of Economics, Drew University
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Estella SanchezFounder, Sol Collective
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Noni Session,Director, East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative
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Nathan SchneiderAssistant Professor, Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder
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Danya ShermanSherman Cultural Strategies, Consultant for ArtPlace America
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Aisha ShillingfordIntelligent Mischief
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Kamal SinclairExecutive Director, Guild of Future Architects
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Gaby StrongDirector of Grantmaking, NDN Collective
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Leila TamariPrevious Senior Program Officer, ArtPlace America
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Aaron TanakaCo-Founder and Director, Center for Economic Democracy
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Anasa TroutmanCultural Strategist
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Carlton TurnerLead Artist and Director, Mississippi Center for Cultural Production
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Eddie TorresPresident and CEO, Grantmakers in the Arts
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F. Javier Torres-CamposProgram Director, Thriving Cultures, Surdna Foundation
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Carlos UrionaCo-Artistic Director, Double Edge Theatre
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James VamboiChief of Staff, Boston Ujima Project
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Susan WittDirector, Schumacher Center for a New Economics
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DeeArah WrightCreative Strategist and Cooperative Organizer
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San San WongDirector of Arts & Creativity, Barr Foundation
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Laura ZabelExecutive Director, Springboard for the Arts
📣 Amplify
Art.coop is working on a way to share arts and culture bearers' offerings to the Solidarity Economy within, across and beyond existing networks and we want to know:
What stories, experiences, ideas, and resources do you have around questioning our current economic system?
Write to our Co-Organizer, Sruti, at sruti@art.coop, and connect with us on Instagram and Twitter, where we amplify the work of our ecosystemic neighbors.
💰 Move Money
Join our monthly #MoveTheMoney series with Grantmakers in the Arts here.
Write to Sruti (sruti@art.coop) and Marina (marina@art.coop) if you would like to move money to systems-change work led by artists and culture-bearers.
Action
How can grantmakers support the Solidarity Economy?
Grantmaker’s role
Grantmakers play a role in the transformation of the sector by following the lead of BIPOC creatives who are innovating models for self-determination and community wealth. This work is part of an emergent movement in the United States that is known globally as the Solidarity Economy.
Problem Statement
As the cultural sector actively seeks alternatives to business-as-usual to create economic and racial justice in the sector and beyond, the main barriers for many Solidarity Economy cultural entities include
- a lack of understanding by grantmakers of systems-change and existing power imbalances
- ways to support cooperative governance in the sector
- the best tools of support for Solidarity Economy business structures, deliberate incubation, and start-up capital, and
- ways to change whole systems by transforming investments and endowments and advocating for systems-change policies to create a fiscal and legal enabling environment for Solidarity Economy cultures to thrive.
Results
Shifts in grantmakers’ mindset, practices, programs, investment/endowment, and policy advocacy to support interconnected, locally-rooted models of community ownership and democratic governance to flourish in the arts and culture sector and beyond. This repairs inequity in the sector and allows those who have been most harmed by our current systems to achieve cultural, economic, and political power.
Transform
The transformation underway can be summarized as follows:
| MARKET-BASED PARADIGM | COMMONS-BASED PARADIGM | |
|---|---|---|
| Social Dynamic | Competition; I prevail at the expense of others. | Collaboration; together we rise. |
| Power Tendency | Centralization and monopoly | Decentralization and collaboration |
| Leadership | Individual | Shared, rotating, co-leaders |
| Racial Imaginary | White-led and White-culture organizations can serve everyone and deserve to receive the majority of programmatic, financial, and informational resources | Culturally-grounded and community-based organizations serve their people and receive an equitable distribution of programmatic, financial, and informational resources |
| Strategy | Five-year strategic plans | Emergent, principled, responsive |
| Org Form | Hierarchical firm, nonprofit, 501c3 | Collective, cooperative, worker-managed nonprofit, guild, mutual association, LLC, 501c4, unincorporated |
| Creative Agents | Individual artists, charismatic leaders | Culture-bearers, collectives, rotating co-leaders, culturally-grounded orgs |
| Grantmaking Culture | Polite, avoid conflict | “Messy,” rupture and repair |
| Role of Foundations | Charity, “we know what is best for you,” proud convener of artists | Solidarity, reparations, “we follow your lead,” humble attendee of artist-led gatherings |
| Leadership Skill Sets | Written word, delegation, strategic planning, research, measurement, analysis | Storytelling, power analysis, conflict transformation, facilitation, organizing |
| Tools of Support | Grants | Grants, peer lending, mutual aid, community currency, non-extractive finance |
| Outputs | Short-term projects | Daily practices, member gatherings, trusting relationships, long term infrastructure |
| Timeframe for Support | 1 year or less, restricted | 5–20 years, unrestricted |
| Application | Written | Conversations |
| Decision Makers | Program officer, panel-review | Grassroots advisory board, participatory assembly, ripple granting |
| Review / Reporting | Written | Conversations, artwork, video |
| Geographic Focus | Urban spaces dominate | Emphasis on regional, rural, and virtual support |
| Main Gathering Structure | Meetings, conferences | Assembly, encuentro, ritual, deep dive, unconference |
| Surplus | Maximize return on investment | Redistribute for community wellbeing |
| Use-rights | Granted by the owner (or not). Focus on: individual property and assets | Co-decided by co-producing users. Focus on: equity, access |
| Pay | Wages | Shared livelihood |
| Political Economy | Neoliberal, capitalist | Post-capitalist: Solidarity Economy, socialism, or social democracy |
Interventions
The table below presents some of the practices and policies that arts and culture grantmakers have adopted to support Solidarity Economies.
Note: This list is a working document, developed in dialogue with our interviewees, and it reflects a small snapshot of the range of practices underway as of March 2021. These grantmaking practices are the result of each group’s ongoing learning and shared commitment to long-term organizational transformation in the service of racial and economic justice in the sector and beyond. Practices will look different for each organization based on their culture, context, process, and desires.
Conduct a power analysis.
Colleagues doing the work
Hewlett Foundation, Barr Foundation, Headwaters Foundation, Swift Foundation, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Sol Collective, Threewalls
Engage in somatic and embodied leadership training that addresses social position, rank, trauma, and race.
Colleagues doing the work
Weavers Project
Get data about inequities in the allocation of funding in your region along racial and cultural lines. Measure your organization’s prior investment in BIPOC staff and grantees: culture-bearers and culturally-grounded organizations. Set internal and external benchmarks and practices for repair.
Colleagues doing the work
Borealis Philanthropy, Barr Foundation, Echoing Green, Threewalls
Do diversity, equity, and inclusion training that is led by artists and culture-bearers.
Colleagues doing the work
Ford Foundation
Take time during the workday to educate your group (public sector workers, investment and program staff, and board members) about the Solidarity Economy and the co-ops, credit unions, land trusts, and other entities in your region.
Colleagues doing the work
Center for Cultural Innovation, Barr Foundation
Learn about distributed leadership and worker self-managed nonprofits.
Colleagues doing the work
Highlander Center, Sol Collective, New Economy Coalition
Join a peer network and/or giving circle to support ongoing transformation.
Colleagues doing the work
Weavers Project, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, Headwaters Foundation Giving Project
Conduct listening sessions with grantees, stakeholders, community members, and the people most impacted by grantmaking decisions.
Colleagues doing the work
Surdna Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Leeway Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, CultureBank
Engage artists and staff in transformative justice and conflict transformation work.
Colleagues doing the work
McKnight Foundation
Practice distributed leadership and/or become a worker self-managed nonprofit.
Colleagues doing the work
Highlander Center, Sol Collective, New Economy Coalition, Kenneth Rainin Foundation
Movement leaders and community members make decisions as non-board members or board members.
Colleagues doing the work
Leeway Foundation
Enable arts community-led participatory grantmaking for public arts monies.
Colleagues doing the work
SF Arts Commission
Transition from
a White-led family foundation to a foundation led by a multiracial community board.
Colleagues doing the work
Leeway Foundation
Create a giving circle or donor collaboration that centers culture and Solidarity Economy work.
Colleagues doing the work
Arts Collaboratory
Foundations (partner with a nonprofit to) provide fiscal sponsorship for investment cooperatives and mutual aid groups.
Colleagues doing the work
NDN Collective, Center for Economic Democracy,
Social Impact Commons, Springboard for the Arts
Offer technical assistance and support from your legal counsel to help co-ops get incorporated.
Colleagues doing the work
The Center for Cultural Innovation
Fund communities to own their own property.
Colleagues doing the work
The Center for Cultural Innovation in partnership with the Barr Foundation and Hewlett Foundation, East Bay Community Foundation
Use your assets to secure loans for BIPOC arts and culture groups. Collateralize nonprofit property and assets to help BIPOC arts and culture centers access loans at much more favorable terms than if they had applied alone.
Colleagues doing the work
Agnes Gund
Be early investors and technical assistance providers for community-owned businesses.
Colleagues doing the work
The Center for Cultural Innovation, Barr Foundation, Hewlett Foundation
Be early investors in cooperative financial institutions.
Colleagues doing the work
The Center for Cultural Innovation, Barr Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Nexus Northstar Black Cooperative Fellowship
Support culturally anchoring grantees to have long-term affordable rental, to pay or buy out the mortgages, or act as guarantors to renegotiate these debts.
Colleagues doing the work
Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Internet Archive, ArtBuilt
Support intergenerational land stewardship and reparations work.
Colleagues doing the work
Resora / New Communities, NDN Collective, Center for Heirs' Property Preservation, Ohketeau Center
Support culturally-grounded and community-led giving circles, peer-lending, and funder collaboratives.
Colleagues doing the work
Asian Women Giving Circle, Buen Vivir Fund, Lunar Project, Massachusetts Solidarity Economy Initiative from the Center for Economic Democracy, Headwaters Foundation
Support peer-mentorship networks of grantees and culturally-grounded organizations who are working for the Solidarity Economy.
Colleagues doing the work
DOEN Foundation, Surdna Foundation
Support community currencies, local currencies, and time banks.
Colleagues doing the work
City employees and residents paid in local currency: Yamato, Japan; Calgary, Canada, Maricá, Brazil.
Time Banks: Boston Ujima Project
Support Solidarity Economy education for culture-bearers and artists to create initiatives and to support existing initiatives.
Colleagues doing the work
Weavers Project, Boston Ujima Project, Springboard for the Arts, Alternate Roots
Be a guarantor for any kind of debt.
Support land bank initiatives.
Colleagues doing the work
Provide patient or low-interest loans that allow intermediaries, including CDFIs, to provide flexible terms to small businesses such as royalty financing and convertible notes.
Colleagues doing the work
Move deposits and fixed income portions of the investment portfolio to community development financial institutions such as credit unions.
Colleagues doing the work
FB Heron Foundation, Swift Foundation, Schumacher Center for a New Economics,
Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Springboard for the Arts
Share your investment portfolio publicly or in peer group contexts to invite opportunities for accountability and collaboration.
Colleagues doing the work
Swift Foundation, Kristin Hull
Create donor-advised funds and partner with fund managers to establish program-specific funds to directly source, evaluate and underwrite investments.
Colleagues doing the work
McKnight Foundation, Swift Foundation, Local Initiatives Support Corporation, California Public Employees Retirement System,
Revise investment policies and mission/vision/bylaws to include support for the Solidarity Economy.
Colleagues doing the work
Morgan Simon, Mellon Foundation, Springboard for Arts, Crosshatch
Add financial and investment advisors who have knowledge and experience investing in the Solidarity Economy and culture.
Colleagues doing the work
Emerson Collective, Start Small, Akonadi Foundation, Blue Haven Initiative, Nia Impact Capital
Make portfolio investments that are mission-aligned and operating in concert with grantmaking.
Colleagues doing the work
Kataly Foundation, Heron Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Swift Foundation, Barr Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation
Make bold investments in the Solidarity Economy.
Colleagues doing the work
Swift Foundation, Barr Foundation,
CultureBank, Buen Vivir Fund, MacKenzie Scott
Join a peer group to continue learning about transforming finance.
Colleagues doing the work
YOXI, Surdna Foundation,
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Increase your “spend rate” to 10% or more or spend down the endowment.
Colleagues doing the work
The Fund for Democratic Communities, Merck Foundation, Patriotic Millionaires
Make concessionary or below market investments that support the Solidarity Economy.
Support the development of relationships and collaborations between strong regional networks with a focus on culture and the Solidarity Economy.
Colleagues doing the work
Center for Economic Democracy, Surdna Foundation, NDN Collective
Support the development of relationships and collaborations internationally with a focus on culture and the Solidarity Economy.
Colleagues doing the work
DOEN / ArtsCollaboratory, Kadist / AField, Lambent Foundation
Support existing business development and technical assistance providers in arts and culture to work with existing Solidarity Economy groups, and vice versa.
Colleagues doing the work
The Center for Cultural Innovation, Barr Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Invest4All, Detroit Entrepreneurs of Color, Libra Foundation, EBCF, San Francisco Foundation
Support cross-sector collaborations and supply-chains and technical assistance for culture and Solidarity Economy.
Colleagues doing the work
No one is doing this yet.
Create culture and economic justice portfolios; reward collaboration across culture and economic justice portfolios.
Colleagues doing the work
Surdna, McKnight
Fund communications strategy and media at Solidarity Economy institutions and networks.
Colleagues doing the work
No one is doing this yet.
Fund permanent research centers for Solidarity Economy and culture
Colleagues doing the work
No one is doing this yet.
Convene Solidarity Economy lawyers and financial innovators and center culture-bearers, artists, and culturally-grounded organizations.
Colleagues doing the work
No one is doing this yet.
Convene the next generation of public sector workers with culturally-grounded organizations, artists, and culture-bearers.
Colleagues doing the work
No one is doing this yet. Consider DAWI’s Seed Fellowship as a model, shifting the focus to arts and culture.
Transform due diligence processes to include and account for three additional questions: Does it spread power? Does it spread wealth?
Does it root community wealth and power?
Invest with BIPOC financial partners—even at investment firms without a stated commitment to investing in BIPOC—evidence suggests venture capital firms led by BIPOC are also more likely to support investees or communities of color.
Work to reach outside of your network because evidence suggests people tend to build networks within their race or ethnicity.
Bank at Black-owned banks.
Colleagues doing the work
Support the organizations that are already doing Solidarity Economy and co-op Policy Advocacy advocacy.
Colleagues doing the work
Borealis
Advocate for guaranteed basic income.
Colleagues doing the work
San Francisco Foundation, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, St. Paul Foundation, Springboard for the Arts
Support public procurement from Solidarity Economy entities; hire artists and culture-bearers as full-time employees.
Colleagues doing the work
Rachel Chanoff and THE OFFICE, Springboard for the Arts, San Francisco Creative Corps
Support peer-to-peer Policy Advocacy exchange.
Colleagues doing the work
SF Arts Coalition
Support artists, culture-bearers, and cooperative and solidarity entrepreneurship programs in public education and in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
Colleagues doing the work
Juxtaposition Arts, Appalshop
Support the Cultural New Deal and People’s Works Progress Administration.
Advocate for increased minimum payout rates.
Center culture in community benefit agreements.
Expand the Community Reinvestment Act.
🍃 About
In March 2021, Art.coop launched with a REPORT. In September and October of 2021, we held Study-into-Action with 105 cultural innovators. Listen to our PODCAST and take a free online COURSE. Attend our Move the Money series. Find us on IG or Twitter.
Team
- Marina Lopez, Co-Organizer
- Sruti Suryanarayanan, Co-Organizer
- Caroline Woolard, Co-Organizer
- Nati Linares, Co-Organizer in Orbit
Timeline
Phase One (fall 2021)
Our aim is to connect cultural innovators across silos - popular arts educators, cultural organizers and creators, arts academics, economists, and grantmakers - who do not know one another well, but are building the cultural economy we want. We need to socialize, study, and dream together before we can take collective action.
Phase Two (2022)
The future emerges as we deepen relationships and align our ideas, desires, and goals, collectively. For example, do we want to map the culture and solidarity economy ecosystem? Do we want to gather in person? Do we want to create curricula for specific groups (i.e. creators, money managers, public grantmakers, private grantmakers, giving circles)? Do we want to focus on supporting regional organizers to lead this? Do we want to create a collective calendar of learning opportunities? What content and formats for learning should we prioritize?
Phase Three (2023)
We will manifest the future together.
✨ Support
We are incubating a cooperative model of study. We aim to become socially and financially self-determined and invite you to support us in this effort with gifts of time, money, art, and open-source code. Any surplus from Phase 1 will support Phase 2 and 3 of our work.
Contact
Let's connect! :)
Email: marina lopez, sruti suryanarayanan, nati conrazon, caroline woolard
Instagram: @_artcoop
Twitter: @_artcoop
Please notify me about upcoming events related to this report
Art.coop is a fiscally sponsored project of Open Collective Foundation. Our budget is transparent and available online here. Support comes from individual contributors like you as well as the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the Barr Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation.
This is a website for Art.coop which exists to grow the Solidarity Economy movement by centering creatives making systems-change. The core organizers are Sruti Suryanarayanan and Marina Lopez. The founding organizers in orbit are co-authors of the report: Nati Linares and Caroline Woolard. Drawings by Emma Werowinski, report design by Surplus+ (Shea Fitzpatrick and Lucy Siyao Liu), and website by Cole Krumbholz and Julian Boilen