Art Studio & Marketplace

We would like to start a brick & mortar location which we would also share in collaboration with other small creators. Everyone would benefit from being in a single location and working together, and it would help those who would otherwise have an off-season where they can’t attend festivals and the like to physically sell their creations.

The idea would be that the shop would be open for business for 60 hours per week, plus have an online presence to sell from 24/7. It would be manned by a small staff, plus part-time assistance from some Creators who would work for 3 hours per week in exchange for a section to host their creations for sale.

Certain larger sections would be made available for a fee to host items for 8 weeks at a time. Everything will be professionally photographed and cataloged, monitored by staff, and even packaged and shipped if bought online. Creators just have to restock their own items, and collect their money at the end of their 8-week contract.

There would be some rules in place in regards to what will be allowed in the shop. The idea is that we are Creators, and so everything should have some semblance of a personal touch and intention. No strictly adult content. No weapons. No reselling. No “junk” or used items. Nothing edible. Prints ONLY of your own original work. No copyrighted (except your own) images.

We also plan to host workshops and events at the shop on a regular basis, which gives everyone involved more visibility. Anyone wanting to teach a class for a group (and earn some $ doing it) would be welcome to give it a go!

We are planning to set this up as a Not-for-Profit with full transparency for all Collaborating Vendors. I would not make any money off of this directly (except maybe as a paid organizer). We also intend to have a Photographer / Listing Designer for the online store and probably a Social Media person to help with that aspect as well as a couple of people to handle store functions. Funds from Vendor Fees would go into an account that only pays for things like rent and bills for the shop, employee payroll, and shipping supplies and the shop would pay for any online fees on behalf of Vendors selling through the collaborative storefront.

If you are interested and close enough to Central Oklahoma to partake in this idea, please let me know!