About the Directory

Art.coop started as a report “Solidarity Not Charity” which had seeds for a comprehensive Directory visibilizing the various arts and culture projects in the Solidarity Economy. With the support of Partners & Partners, we are finally publishing this collection of arts and culture Solidarity Economy efforts, projects, organizations, and partners as a resource for artists in the U.S.

Art.coop’s Directory helps you find and connect with cultural efforts in the Solidarity Economy, each of which:

• Have at least 2 people; 
• Are resisting the extraction of capitalism; 
• Are embodying Solidarity Economy movement principles of shared resources and shared vision; liberation culture; collective care, relationships, and accountability; democracy and process; and education and leadership development; and
• Are creating culture by…
  • expressing a community’s identity, needs, and/or thoughts with the intention of sharing with others; 
  • passing on traditional knowledge and practices; and/or
  • offering creative and artistic resources to their communities.

Our Directory includes cultural efforts in the Solidarity Economy that are:

• Stewarding culture for the people. It includes people who make art and preserve culture, wisdom, knowledge for the commons.
• Meeting creative demand through cooperation. It includes people who use their culture skills and materials toward a finished product or service.
• Facilitating alternative culture and resource exchange beyond the “normal” capitalist terms of consumption. It includes sliding scale practices, mutual aid, barter clubs, open source, community-controlled cultural markets, galleries & libraries, cultural advocacy & unions.
• Cooperatively purchasing and sharing resources for the culture. It includes cooperative studios, media, housing cooperatives for creatives, streaming services, consumer coops.

About Art.Coop

Art.coop is a hub where artists and culture bearers get money, ideas, and tools to strengthen their communities.

We want to be honest about the economy in our lives and work. We must create based on different narratives and new logics. Our collective imagination transcends cultures of greed and domination.

Arts groups around the country are fed up with our current system and are inspiring others with practices of shared power and shared money. The movement we are part of is called the Solidarity Economy, where cultural practice and redistribution go together. 

At Art.coop, we are building a world in which work, trade, life, art, and culture flow into a collective space in which we all thrive.