From left to right: artfarm organizers Nick Lyell, Beau Green, and Max Puchalsky. Photo by Madylin Goins
The history of cooperative organizations in the United States is long, with the first known — the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire, organized by Benjamin Franklin in 1752 — dating back nearly three centuries. From business and agricultural co-ops to housing co-ops, credit unions, and worker-owned businesses, the cooperative model is based on democratic ownership and control, mutual support, and meeting community needs by providing goods or services that are not available or affordable through traditional channels.
The new local community organization artfarm has adopted the worker-owned cooperative model to establish a commons for art and organizing that “cooperator” Beau Green hopes will lead to “a more free, caring and ecological world.”
“A few years ago, it became clear to a number of artists and organizers that it was tricky to find space,” Green said. “We found that a lot of groups were meeting in neighbors’ backyards to do their work and stringing things together to make their practices work.”
After gauging there was significant interest among local artists and organizers for a shared space to create and collaborate with one another, Green and fellow cooperators Nick Lyell and Max Puchalsky hosted a few rounds of community visioning sessions and began looking for a location in earnest. They have since refurbished a former pawn shop on Winchester Road, transforming it into a shared space where artists and organizers can work, gather, create and perform.
“We felt really lucky when this space came along,” Green said. “It was ADA accessible and had enough space that we could play around with.”
Located near the Eastland Shopping Center, the building contains 5,000 square feet of space that Green, Lyell and Pulchalsky have modified to include comfortable and functional open space for group collaboration, smaller meeting spaces, artist studios, a dedicated art gallery and a print shop.
“In the front, we have a sort of public living room with a small library forming, in addition to some games and children’s toys, as well as a collaboration and event space with a modular stage that can be moved around,” Green said. “Workshops, classes and events can happen here. We also have the reception area where a little art shop is forming. Members are invited to sell their creations with a portion going back to support the common resources.”
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Located in a former pawn shop on Winchester Road, the artistic co-op artfarm features artist studios, a performance space, resources for creative projects, an art shop and more. Photo by Madylin Goins
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The organization has created six artist studios in the building, which are available for local artists to rent on a sliding scale.
“We also have our print shop, and we hope it will be a resource for members to print their zines, educational materials and flyers for public events,” Green added. The organization utilizes a risograph duplicator, a piece of printing equipment that was popular in the 1980s and can be described as a kind of digital screen-printing printer.
“It uses soy-based ink and is a cool[-temperature] printing process, so it’s more energy-efficient than a photocopier,” Green said, adding that the printer is “very popular with artists.”
Tool Library, also founded by Nick Lyell, operates from artfarm, and groups like the Appalachian Rekindling Project, KY Tenants, and Mutual Menstruation have made artfarm their base camp, maintaining small offices and using the larger gathering spaces for their activities. Additionally, artfarm has hosted the Really Really Free Market, and as an extension of that initiative has created a mutual aid pantry, which is stocked with an oscillating set of supplies, ranging from COVID tests, Narcan and reusable menstrual products to shelf-stable foods, garden seeds and hand sanitizer. Green describes it as “a place for everyone, so everyone can take what they need.”
The organization’s structure is officially what is known as a Limited Cooperative Association (LCA), which combines aspects of traditional cooperatives and Limited Liability Corporations (LLC). LCAs allow for flexibility in membership and can have both patron members who use the co-op’s services and investor members who provide equity capital. They also allow for variability in voting rights within the membership, and the structure and operations of an LCA are more adaptable than a traditional cooperative.
The organization utilizes a sliding scale membership model, with no one turned away for lack of funds. “Memberships make up about half of our budget. We figure if folks aren’t interested in what’s happening here and not signing up for memberships, then we need to rethink or change what we’re doing,” Green said.
“This shared governance approach is something we’re all going to learn together, but the way it looks so far is that all members are invited into the process,” they continued. “Using finances as an example, we hold monthly financial transparency meetings where members can show up, ask questions and provide input. Most importantly, we will hold seasonal or quarterly assemblies where members are invited to come and share ideas and concerns, celebrate milestones, look at the schedule and what’s ahead, and report back about what the teams, which work like committees, are doing.”
The ultimate idea is that artfarm’s resources — not only financial, but also resources related to skills and expertise — come from the people who are using and benefitting from the space.
Artfarm’s cooperators are looking forward to bringing community and value to Lexington and to watching the organization evolve through shared decision making.
“There’s an obviously rich history of organizing toward a more free world in Lexington, and we’re excited to be a part of it and to contribute to that and to Lexington’s creative ecology,” said Green.
“There are a lot of different ways for members to make use of the space and the community, and we know that they’ll surprise us with many interesting ways of using this kind of membership community space.”
More info on artfarm, including how to become a member or otherwise get involved, can be found at www.artfarm.coop.
Artfarm provides space to some other organizations as well. The Lexington