Envisioning a studio where artists have access to affordable space did not come from studying business in college or learning from inside the system. It came from thinking outside the box to combine the creative problem-solving approaches of an artist with those of a scientist. To approach art-making as scientific inquiry is to recognize the much-needed shift in the role of the artist.

Art and science seem to lie on polar opposite ends of the spectrum, but they’re merely varying degrees of exploration, experimentation, and the discovery process. The artist’s practice is a problem-solving practice. Just because the result or output isn’t necessarily quantifiable or measurable doesn’t make it any less purposeful. Emotions and lived experiences can be real without tools of measurement, and they become tools in and of themselves when an artist finds how best to use them. Artists are in a position to provide insight from a particular perspective, using any privilege they might have to share resources and perhaps change the way people think. As quarantine turns into the new normal, artists begin to question how to apply their skills in ways that have the most potential to affect change. 

We live in a post-truth era, when facts and logic are thrown out the window and emotional reality is people’s only truth. Science-based problem-solving is becoming obsolete in a world of Ben Shapiros and Donald Trumps, and appealing to them through statistics and evidence isn’t working. Perhaps artistic problem-solving is now the better method of reasoning with people in the post-truth world.

We can look at the United States as an experiment gone wrong. Its technicians prematurely dispose of the wrong materials — human life and basic access to food, water, shelter, healthcare. What’s left is a system where one in four people are unemployed and the president flirts with becoming a dictator. The artist’s role is to observe this experiment and to make sense of its systems and situations and stories. It’s easy to say that the system is not working for anybody except the elite few. For a lot of folks, the system was not only created to put a stop to their artist practice, but to kill and divide them. In this regard, it’s important to have systemic conversations about the role of the artist. The artistic approach, like the scientific approach, occupies a very legitimate place in society. Beyond archiving and storytelling, art represents and reflects various perspectives, identities, and communities. The folks who need to be heard the most are those never allowed to legitimate their research. We need to make sure that we are doing our best to pass the microphone to folks who have been creating that work for a long time.

So, how do we stop asking governments, corporations, and higher institutions for permission to effect change? Where are the places we should build and occupy within our own sovereignty that aren’t part of the capitalist game? What are the things we can do now to build what comes next?

What concepts are we imagining in those artist laboratories? What relationships are we building? What resources could we be sharing?

I’m an anti-capitalist, anti-neoliberal, start my own cult over there type-of-girl. But I also hate feeling like the welfare state is the final destination, because it’s not. The socialized state is amazing because it provides everyone with basic needs and care, but people need experimental laboratory spaces to make art and explore science and innovate. We have to push past the welfare state invented by Aristotle; surely our final destination isn’t an idea imagined by a 2400 year-old dead white guy?

I’d like all of us to claim our power now. Our minds are so fixated on waiting for the future, for a utopia to take over where capitalism is dead and money isn’t real. But we can choose to live in that world now! We don’t need to ask permission to dismantle anything. In fact, we should dismantle asking permission. Let’s stop talking like we operate within the institution, when we can opt out of it completely and live over here. The laboratory is our space. Here we don’t have to ask permission to take advantage of tools, to exchange goods and services, construct social contracts, barter, or matter. Here we can build our own infrastructure, implement our own procedures, support our own communities, try new social norms on for-size, and design models for the future of artistic problem-solving.

Quarantine forced artists to unplug, and we’ve recognized that there is so much unlearning to be had. Abandoning capitalism is like ditching a toxic relationship — not only are we addicted to having it in our lives, but it can be embarrassing when we finally leave. There’s humiliation involved with unlearning what we’ve always known, but as artists we should be the first to shed these privileges. 

We might never wake up in a society free from capitalism, so it’s important we find solutions now to sustain the growth of our artists and innovators and uplift their diversity. We need reflective representation and diverse ideas participating in the economy if we want to ever push past the welfare state. I’m not saying that participating in the economy makes artists capitalists. Rather, it's important to emphasize that artists deserve to be paid what their labor and skills are worth. Financially sustaining all types of artists means more people will find solutions for their particular niche in the corner of the world of their experience. 

What we’ve learned at Holyrad Studio is that when artists share with each other the things that work for them, they start to see themselves as problem-solvers. Taking ownership of one’s skill set, seeking advice from others, and testing out as many tools and situations as possible generate a continuous feedback loop where artists find solutions to their problems and meaning in their work. 

Holyrad acts as a laboratory for artists, a dual base of observation and self-reflection and a catalyst site for change. It’s a space where folks can recognize that their ability to mess up is a privilege in and of itself. It’s so important for us to provide equitable access to space and resources because these environments and tools are fundamental to an artist’s learning and growth. Art institutions shouldn’t focus on getting things right, but having freedom to do things wrong. 

The dilemma facing Holyrad and similar sites for artistic exploration is two-fold. First, we need to shape a society that recognizes the value of artists as groundbreakers and experimenters. The artist is a researcher and is legitimate in the same way that a scientist is considered legitimate. For an artist to be considered a legitimate researcher requires a society that legitimizes the artistic process as an observational tool for significant change. Society will need to shift its attention away from clickbait banana-duct-taped-to-a-wall art to innovators and community leaders who are using their creative skills as resources for advancement.

Second, artists need to recognize how to place their particular observation skills inside of activities or places where legitimate change can occur. We need to give ourselves permission to take on those rolls and give ourselves jobs. We need to walk into those higher institutions, tell them that what they’re doing isn’t working, and claim our seat at the table to bring completely new and affecting changes. The goal is to be an author of systematic creativity, providing a model that is sustainable and circular. 

Creators are themselves entrepreneurs, and at Holyrad we want to provide space for their ideas to come to fruition. During quarantine, Holyrad has expanded its research into our studio model, exploring a potential third location outside of our Clinton Hill and SoHo spaces. We want to focus on providing affordable access to the resources that we as a company, and even I as a freelancer, have found to be really positive deviants from a system that no longer works for everybody. 

Our model acknowledges the importance of artists’ revenue streams. Artists, creators, and producers should set aside time to think about the resources they can sell directly to the market for profit. Abundance is created when artists sift benefits and profit margins back into their communities, not by stock-piling wealth and creating things inside their own vacuum.

Holyrad is an equitable ecosystem like a forest, growing a society of exchange based on long-term sustainability, relationships, and social contracts. We’re playing with the Cartesian dualism of transforming nothing into something, projecting our own ideas of creation onto reality. We’re participating in the very emergent phenomena of global conversation, and we’ve noticed that sustainable artist laboratories and communities are popping up everywhere — from London to Christchurch to Montgomery, Alabama and throughout South Africa. We’re listening to their conversations and sharing their ideas through our online courses and podcasts. We’re evaluating and dismantling the elitist structural systems that we ourselves unintentionally build. We’re eliminating the entire concentric circle of processes that finances institutions but doesn’t give back to the people whose labor sustains them. We’re asking ourselves, How can we add resources to the pool of artists and innovators yet to come?

While Holyrad provides the space for artists to become researchers in their own laboratory, we ourselves also act as scientists. We’re constantly challenging our existing model, observing what does and doesn’t work, trying out new things and throwing out what doesn’t fit. We can observe the changes in the careers of people who’ve worked with us. Sometimes people pass through and their lives aren’t changed at all. We can take that information, observe it, ask questions, look for insight on what we could do differently, and then look at resources and educational tools to help us adjust. We can talk about things, meditate on things, make art about things, and find a process that works. All of that stems from a scientific approach, yet our decisions clearly are not made by numbers, but by emotions. That’s why art has such an important role to play in society. Art shouldn’t be placed on the chopping block when budgets are tight. Perspectives are at play that can change the world as much as any scientific discovery.