OURGOODS: Why do artists need to share resources?

Think about this...

1) More Americans identify as artists than as lawyers, doctors, or police officers... There are at least 2 million of us! (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

2) Since 2009, 80% of arts organizations in NY are reducing their budgets and more than 50% are reducing staff and canceling programs. (source: Alliance for the Arts 2009)

3) Meanwhile, sharing is on the rise. As The Economist put it, "What do you do when you are green, broke and connected? You share."

4) OurGoods exists because more work gets done in networks of mutual respect and shared resources than in competitive isolation. By working together, members of OurGoods build lasting ties in communities of enormous potential.

How is OurGoods funded?

Three years ago, I applied for the first round of ERPA funding for the idea that became OurGoods.org. With three years of mentorship and financial support from The Field backing OurGoods up, I'm teaching a class at The New School called Barter: The Social Practice of Non-Monetary Exchange. If you're interested in reading more about barter and following the class from the blog, go to http://barterclass.tumblr.com/. Also, we just received $100,000 from The Rockefeller Foundation and will be running an analog version of OurGoods as part of Creative Time's Living as Form show. For a schedule of events there, and appointments for barter advice, check out: http://ourgoods.org/events/ourgoods_living_as_form

money does grow on trees?

IT WORKED!! And we couldn’t be prouder!!

ERPA was launched in 2008 to help performing artists make new revenue streams from their art and for their art.

One of our original ERPA (Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists) artists, OurGoods, is now a recipient of their own Rockefeller Foundation Cultural Innovation Fund grant!! This is trickle down (and up and sideways!) at its very best!

We started with Caroline Woolard (co-founder of OurGoods) back in 2008 (with our own funding from the Rockefeller Foundation!) and since then we’ve invested $30,000 in funds in OurGoods and many many consulting hours of strategic thinking, listening and learning. In 2010, The Field received renewed funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to expand our work with OurGoods and to increase our ERPA outreach and services to other ambitious artists. And now this! What a great gift in our 25th Anniversary year!!

It’s been transformative for me personally and the whole Field organization to work with Caroline Woolard and Jen Abrams and the entire OurGoods team over these years. And there have been many highlights of our time with them: the We Are No Longer Strangers book we published in 2010 (what a challenge to tell the whole truth about ERPA!) and the Action Tank at last year’s Prelude Festival (a live demonstration of our ERPA artists' savvy skills!) to cite just two. I can’t wait to see where they go next. I am enormously grateful to OurGoods for working with us in such an intimate and dynamic way. And I am enormously grateful to the Rockefeller Foundation for their belief in us and their support of ERPA.

As Caroline told us, “I applied for a grant from The Field while working the night-shift. I was tired and felt little connection to the world. From this place of sleep-deprivation in 2008, the grant felt more like a dream whispered to the wind than a bold declaration of belief. From 2008-now, with funding and mentorship, The Field has helped me become the person I want to be, and to see that no dream is too big. I have learned to work with a team of co-founders on OurGoods, speak confidently in public, leverage ERPA funding towards grants of $100,000, and share this truth with others: no dream is too big for you.”

OurGoods' success and Caroline’s “no dream is too big for you” stance is an amazing manifestation of The Field’s services and our belief that we can meet artists where they are at and help them achieve their unique goals. Please check out OurGoods.org and please continue to support your own big artistic dreamers in your world.

Happy happy summer and thank you for all YOU do to help us help artists like Caroline and OurGoods!!