It started about ten years ago. As emerging artists, YTB members were trying to imagine how we were going to live our lives, raise a family, take care of aging parents, and maybe retire. The ways artists made a living in previous generations weren’t going to work out for us. Someone said, “we should all just live together in a trailer park.” Through conversations, workshops, and programming with our peers, YTB embarks on a journey to research and co-dream a vision of an artists' cooperative with shared land and facilities (gallery, alternative school, studio/programming/residency spaces, daycare, etc) with space to build tiny homes, co-run an arts-based community centre, and learn and support each other.

In collaboration with SHEEEP𝓼𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓸𝓵, we have been holding a series of public visioning sessions with early-career artists & collectives. We are creating a community to answer the following questions: What are the art ecosystems we want to build and nurture? How can artists co-create the conditions to meet our basic needs, without replicating the logics of settler colonialism and an exploitative art sector?

All programs are held at BAAA! (Back Alley for Art + Architecture, 300 Campbell Ave, Unit 114).

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HATCH 01: Collective Visioning Conversations & Worldbuilding Game
October 18-19, 2024
with YTB and SHEEEP𝓼𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓸𝓵

HATCH 02: What’s it like living in an artist co-op?
January 31-February 1, 2025
with Ric Amis (Beaver Hall Co-op) and Lilian Radovac, Peter Norman, Pat Lewis (Lakeshore Village Artist Co-op)

HATCH 03: Housing Co-ops and Community Land Trusts
March 7-8, 2025
with Tom Clement (Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto), Alexandra Hong (Toronto Chinatown Land Trust), Joshua Barndt (Neighbourhood Land Trust)

HATCH 04: The Social Life of Cooperative Housing in New York and Vienna
April 29, 2025
with Dan Jonas Roche

HATCH 05: Co-ownership Models
June 1, 2025
with Lesli Gaynor and Parimal Gosai (Husmates), Lesley Tenaglia (Fuse Mortgage Inc.), Michael Piper (ReHousing).

See event details here.

Collaborators

SHEEEP𝓼𝓬𝓱𝓸𝓸𝓵 is not really a sheep, not really a school, but a collective working to expand how we learn & engage spatial practice. We are Nam Hoang, Lily Jeon, Reza Nik, Dana Prieto, and Dana Salama.

Image by Noel Pendawa.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts’ Sector Innovation Funding.