Remembering the Future is tapping into ancestral wisdom to inform the co-creation of a world that prioritizes the wellbeing of human and non-human life for the next seven generations and beyond. Artists are the culture—they invite us to question, reimagine, and shape our present and future economy. The influence and wealth they infuse into society is undeniable, yet too often underappreciated. Society values the product more than the process or the artist’s humanity. Rather than creating in isolation and comprising values, worth, or creative control, artists are collectivizing to pave another way.
Art.coop is an emergent hub where artists who are fed up with the current system of extraction are connected to 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.
Our Remember the Future Fellowship (RTF) honors arts groups that are rooted in their power and choose to actively transform the system by building solidarity economy models.
Celebrate the new toolkit
Limited time only! Help us celebrate version 2.0 of the Library of Things Toolkit by chipping in $100 and receive an advance print edition.
Season 2 of Art.coop’s Remember the Future Podcast focuses on the RTF Fellowship. It is an archive to share stories that artists don’t have to rely solely on institutions that perpetuate harm or dilute creative expression. Artist cooperative models exist as a source of autonomy, shared resources, and knowledge.
The season opens with our intention for moving $90,000 to solidarity economy arts groups, emphasizing not just the financial exchange but also peer-2-peer learning, trust, and participatory redistribution.
You’ll hear interviews with some of the fellows, Groupmuse, a worker- and musician-owned cooperative; MeansTV, the first worker-owned, anticapitalist, steaming service; and Artisans Cooperative, a member-owned handmade marketplace that emerged out of the Etsy Strike. We also reflect on the work of Acres of Ancestry, Ohketeau Cultural Center, and Question Culture, whose work in cultural preservation, fiber arts, and media continues to expand the boundaries of what’s possible. As well as what we learned from the pilot after listening, integrating, and reshaping year two of the fellowship to meet the needs of the fellows.
This season is an exploration of solidarity among artists and the ability to create abundance through cooperation, not competition. It is an invitation for artists to consider their role in the solidarity economy—is it through sharing spaces and resources as a collective or co-creating a cooperative business? It is an opportunity for us all to reflect on how the art we consume shapes our values, informs our practices, and the culture we sustain.
Listen to the rest of season 2:
- Worker & Musician Ownership with Groupmuse
- Anticapitalist Media with MeansTV
- Alternative to Etsy with Artisans Cooperative
- Reimagining Redistribution: When Artists Resource Each Other
About Remember the Future Podcast
Art.coop invites listeners to Remember the Future together by 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.
