The thinking behind ARTHOUSE

 

The world is changing around us. Systems and infrastructures born of a very specific Western-led, colonial and post-war capitalism are being called into question. Under a communal digital scrutiny, a collective voice is rising: one that is interrogating pathways to privilege and that is proposing a new and necessary way of thinking and being. 

 

In the context of our current global meltdown, a perfect storm has been created and a razing to the ground of past norms has the potential to take place. Among other industries, the crises we face have exposed an arts and culture industry that is precarious at best and cruel at worst for those within it. Further, it has particularly articulated the harsh environment that independent artists and arts workers can find themselves in with very little to no support.

 

We come from a community of artists and arts workers who often rely on a loose network of global connections to generate sustainable accommodation options. Our aim is to make these connections easier to form through an organised platform of accommodation options that can serve the creative community. Through ARTHOUSE we aim to move toward a culture of thriving.

 

Change, adaptation and evolution will require many steps and many actions; the responsibility to change and develop from our current systems is collective. As ever, the artistic community has an integral role to play in positively advancing global cultural relations. ARTHOUSE is one action in contributing to the collective movement toward change by creating a system to meaningfully and practically support artists and arts workers.

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Why ARTHOUSE now?

 

A new industrial revolution is in the process of being realised. One that could be moving toward democratic digital information sharing, democratic physical movement and a renewable energy system that separates us from the 20th century fossil fuel reliance and all of its trappings.

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This new sharing economy recognises that economic and environmental sustainability (and growth) can only occur through embracing the power available in shared narratives. We know that art and culture has an important role in mobilising this within society.

 

ARTHOUSE proposes a new system that moves away from traditional and current models of accommodation. Hotels are often exuberantly expensive, and Airbnb has morphed the private housing market into a skewed and unfair economic environment for both residents of many city centres as well as those trying to access accommodation. Both hotels and the current private housing market systems can be prohibitive to accessing opportunities for professional work or artistic development and often don’t cater to individuals’ access needs.

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What are the benefits?

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• An affordable network of accommodation within the artistic community as well as with patrons of the arts (cost-price sublets, spare rooms, home-swaps, donated spaces and so on)

• An opportunity for creative links to be formed between artists, enabling cultural exchange and more collaborative practices

• Access to studio spaces and a network of creatives in situ

• Access to financially supported residencies paid for through the ARTHOUSE network

• Supporting a platform that contributes toward carbon off-setting

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Our approach

 

We have many ideas about how ARTHOUSE as a formal network could look based on our own experiences and networks of peers. And we believe in a design iteration process that values consultation, looped feedback and evolution in response to growing and developing needs. We want to work ethically with a focus on equity as the business develops.

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The next steps

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We want to build this philosophy with you, which is why we are asking lots of questions and challenging our assumptions so that we can create something that actually responds to the needs of our community.

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We appreciate your support, your ideas and feedback and we look forward to sharing this platform with you.

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