Co-Ops Every Artist Should Know About

Giving you "required reading" isn't quite our style here at Fractured Atlas, but when it's urgent we can get pretty serious. For years, if not decades and centuries, the established economic system in the U.S. has routinely failed artists, refugees, people of color, indigenous peoples, the unhoused, people with disabilities, parents — to say nothing of its ravaging effect on the environment and disproportionate harm on the global south. The creative co-ops we're sharing with you today may not be the solution to a rapidly warming planet or an exploitative billionaire class, but artists have always been the first to dream, test, and demonstrate the viability of alternate worlds. If any part of you dreams of alternative economies, this post is for you.

Psssst! Let's back up for a second — what exactly is a cooperative? Think of it as a business owned and run by the people who work there or use its services. No CEOs making millions while workers struggle. No shareholders extracting profits they didn't earn. Just real people coming together to build something that works for everyone involved. The fancy definition? "An autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise." But really, it's just people power in action. And yes, you can totally start one!

Creative & Media Co-ops

🎵Resonate - The music streaming platform that actually pays artists fairly and gives listeners a voice in how the platform evolves.

📸Stocksy - A stock photography, videography, and illustration cooperative where artists retain ownership and earn higher royalties than traditional agencies.

🎨Guilded - Supporting creative freelancers with shared resources, community, and collective bargaining power in the gig economy.

🎼Groupmuse - A worker-owned platform bringing intimate concerts of historically-rooted music to unconventional spaces.

Geographic & Community-Focused Co-ops

🏺Clay Art Pottery Group - A hands-on pottery cooperative in Louisville, Colorado, where ceramic artists share studio space, equipment, and knowledge.

✊🏾Zeal - A Black arts cooperative creating space for Black artists to thrive through shared resources and community support

🍃Cooperation Racine - A Chicago-based arts cooperative fostering creative collaboration and economic sustainability in the Windy City.

🏡East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative - Fighting displacement by creating permanently affordable housing and commercial space for artists and communities in the Bay Area.

🎭Obvious Agency - A Philadelphia-based performance and play cooperative that blurs the lines between art, activism, and community engagement.

🎪Theater of the Oppressed NYC - A worker-owned NYC theater cooperative using performance as a tool for social change and community empowerment.

🧘🏽The Tree Yoga Cooperative - An LA-based yoga cooperative that prioritizes accessibility, community ownership, and healing justice.

🍜Happy Family Market - An emerging cooperative supporting Asian food, arts, and cultural workers through shared economic power.

Service & Support Co-ops

🧮Bookkeeping Cooperative - Professional financial services owned and operated by bookkeepers who understand the unique needs of creative businesses.

🚲Pedal People - A Northampton-based delivery and hauling service that proves sustainable transportation can be both eco-friendly and worker-owned.

🗣️Community Language Cooperative - Translation and interpretation services rooted in language justice and community empowerment.

Want to Start Your Own? Start Here.

📚Boston Center for Community Ownership - Get the education, training, and support you need to form or convert your business to a cooperative structure.

⏳Project Equity - Helping companies transition to worker ownership, especially when original owners are ready to retire.

🥯Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance - The Philly-based co-op of co-ops supporting the cooperative economy throughout the region.

🧰Sustainable Economies Law Center - Providing free legal tools, templates, and guidance for starting and running cooperatives.

🛣️Exit to Community (E2C) - Developing alternatives to the standard model of the startup "exit." Rather than simply aiming for an acquisition by a more established company or a public stock offering, startups can mature into ownership by their community of stakeholders.

⚖️Co-op Law - Legal resources and frameworks specifically designed to support cooperative enterprises and democratic business structures.

Ready to dive deeper into cooperative economics? These organizations aren't just changing how work gets done — they're proving that another world is possible, one shared decision and fair wage at a time. If we missed a cooperative you know and love, drop a comment below so the next reader can hear all about it. After all, we’re smarter and stronger together.

Intrigued? Keep Going!

🌱Art.coop
🌅New Economy Coalition
📑Grantmakers in the Arts Report: Solidarity, Not Charity