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| CREATIVITY+COOPERATION | |
| Vision |
| New Bohemian Arts Cooperative serves and sustains freelance, unaffiliated artists and the arts community at large. As members we create, develop, produce and manage our own art projects in a variety of disciplines and genres. We help each other find resources, audiences and paid work. We also contract out to share our vision, skills and ingenuity with non-members. |
| Background |
Last year an economist wrote in the New York Times “When the times get tough, the tough form co-ops.” That, in a nutshell, is what this enterprise is about. Our slogan “Creativity + Cooperation” is not a straightforward arithmetic problem—it’s a formula born of necessity for making more out of less. It’s a homespun recipe for catalysis, combustion and generation of energy using the ingredients on hand. "For the past few decades I moved from one arts or nonprofit job or contract to another without really understanding how this economic sector fits into the whole. I followed my interests in art that is off the beaten path, in projects driven by independent artists and in edgy forms and content. Then the big recession hit. I started swapping stories with other freelancers and recently laid-off employees who helped build the arts scene here. What I heard convinced me there would be no path to stability and reasonable working conditions soon. The status quo looked like a dead end for independent, unaffiliated and under-employed arts workers. So I thought on it, researched economic models and business structures that allow for ownership with a conscience, and got a few hardy, intrepid colleagues with similar experiences together. We formed New Bohemian Arts Cooperative in summer of 2009." Kathleen Maloney, Initiator and CEO |
| Roots |
Our name is inspired by the imaginary place called Bohemia and a real place that once existed here in Minneapolis. The French word bohémien originally referred to the nomadic Romani people of France who had reached Western Europe via Bohemia. Later the term Bohemianism emerged when artists and creators began to concentrate in the lower rent, lower class gypsy neighborhoods of Paris. As this counterculture grew--first in Paris, then Budapest, Munich, London, New York and beyond--Bohemia was not so much a place as state of mind. In 1851 Henry Murger wrote in La Vie de Bohème: “Bohemia, bordered on the North by hope, work, and gaiety, on the South by necessity and courage; on the West and East by slander and the hospital.” Bohemian Flats was an isolated, rambunctious shantytown on the low-lying West Bank of the Mississippi River. Home to many immigrants from the mid 1800s to 1930s, Bohemian Flats was known by other names as well including Danish Flats, Little Bohemia, Connemara Patch, Little Ireland, Little Lithuania, and Cabbage Patch. Frequently flooded in springtime, the community was also sometimes called Little Venice. This densely packed and vibrant Old World style village, characterized by rough living conditions and picturesque scenery, was also home to artists, iconoclasts and unorthodox characters of all kinds. |
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© 2010 New Bohemian Arts Cooperative |
3220 East 24th Street Minneapolis, MN 55406 |
651.336.4202 | info@newbohemianarts.coop | |