YOU'RE INVITED

After years of participating in an unjust economy, artists and culture bearers are searching for viable alternatives to the traditional models of cultural production. Cooperatives and the solidarity economy are gaining traction as a values-aligned solution. But what's the difference between a worker-owned cooperative and a purchasing cooperative? Is an ensemble a cooperative? Is talking about ownership inherently capitalist? In this workshop, participants will learn about the fundamentals that define cooperatives and how they differ from other types of collectives, explore case studies of cooperatives in the arts and culture sector, and brainstorm how a cooperative could meet their needs and the needs of their communities. Participants are welcome to join as individuals or alongside their collaborators, and will receive resources for further study into various cooperative models.

Who is this workshop for?

The Co-op Curious - Any individual or group that is curious to learn more about cooperatives in theory and in practice.
Community Builders - People who value the things we can do together, that we can’t do alone.
Irrepressible Artists - Artists who have felt the pain of our current economic systems, and know that something better must be out there.

About Power Tools for Artists

Power Tools for Artists: A Capacity Building Series is a year-long collaboration providing capacity building support to artists in the Solidarity Economy, among Art.coop, Obvious Agency, United Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and the Artist Legal Cafe (a project of the Sustainable Economies Law Center, Vital Arts, and Movement Law). 

• The Artist Legal Cafe is a collaborative project among the Sustainable Economies Law Center, Vital Arts, and Movement Law. The ALC is generously supported by the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Foundation, the Gerbode Foundation, the City of Oakland, and Bay Area Cultural Funders for Equity. 

• Obvious Agency makes playable theatre, spreads democratic and cooperative practice, and organizes arts workers and workplaces with the mission to play hard, work together, and get free. Always serious, always silly, Obvious Agency believes that by helping create and define culture, we can create systemic and interpersonal change. Obvious Agency is a worker-owned cooperative grounded in anti-capitalist, anti-racist, non-normative, liberatory, and feminist frameworks. Obvious Agency’s work is collectively authored and owned. 

• The United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) is the national grassroots membership organization for worker cooperatives and democratic workplaces. USFWC's mission is to build a thriving ecosystem for worker-owned and controlled businesses and their cooperative leaders to power movements for racial justice and economic democracy.

• Art.coop is a hub where artists get money, ideas, and tools to strengthen their communities. We are part of the movement to remember future art worlds with community-control at the core. 

Join us for a a year-long series of monthly events pairing training (rotating between legal, cooperative development, and culture and governance topics) with technical assistance provided by lawyers, cooperative developers, and Art.coop staff.

Daniel Park - Daniel Park is a queer, bi-racial, theatre and performance artist, movement facilitator, and organizer for racial and labor justice in the cultural sector. Through all of the above, his work brings people together to understand and experiment with their individual and mutual roles in bringing about the liberation of all people. Since moving to Philadelphia in 2014 Daniel has become a leader for radical thought in the local creative ecosystem and a trusted national source for guidance on the intersection between cooperatives and the arts. Daniel has self-produced multiple major works, co-founded the worker cooperative Obvious Agency (www.obvious-agency.com), created commissions for institutions such as the Barnes Foundation and Moore College of Art and Design, and taught anti-oppressive creation methodology at the University of the Arts. He was the recipient of a 2024 NTP grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts and a 2022 Art Works Grant from the Philadelphia Foundation and Forman Arts Initiative. Daniel has provided his services as a facilitator and consultant nationally with organizations such as Creatives Rebuild New York, The PA Governor’s Commission on Asian American Affairs, ArtPlace America, and many others. Daniel was also instrumental as an organizer and recruiter for Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists, a community group that brings together folks of pan-Asian descent involved in the performing arts.

Obvious Agency offers tickets to our workshops at a variety of price points:

Discount Rate - Obvious Agency offers five heavily discounted Discount Rate tickets for all of our workshops, and Art.coop is adding five more of these tickets for this offering. This is a way for Obvious Agency to bridge the gap between our goal to support working artists who are systemically under-resourced, and our need to support ourselves as working artists under capitalism. 

Solidarity Rate - Acknowledging the reality that many arts workers cannot afford our sustain or actual cost rate, we also offer a Solidarity Rate. This act of solidarity allows us to not undervalue our own work, and to help us achieve our goal of having a robust community in each workshop. We ask that you only pay this rate if you are unable to afford purchasing at our sustain rate or above for one or multiple workshops.

Actual Cost - Our Actual Cost is the real price for a workshop ticket if we have 5 attendees, and allows us to continue to build a dignified workplace, providing salaries and benefits to our hard working artist staff.

Redistribution Rate - Paying the Redistribution Rate allows us to offer Solidarity Rate tickets. The cost of a redistribution rate ticket is one actual cost ticket plus the difference between a solidarity and actual cost ticket.

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