Community Studio Update- 2025
Last year was a big year for our community studio dream! In April of 2024 we began fundraising through collaborative art projects. I teamed up with artists from all over the US (and even one artist living in Mexico), to create one of a kind pieces of ceramic art which we raffled off to raise money for studio equipment. If you’re new here you can get caught up in this post. I collaborated with 7 different artists to create 15 ceramic works of art, and between those raffles and several generous donations, we raised just over $15,000 between April and December. How incredible is that?
I’m really amazed by how many people have been following along and offering support of this big dream. So I thought it was important to share some updates about our progress before we begin our 2025 fundraising. Here’s what’s happening:
The total after taxes, card processing fees and exchange rate (from dollars to euros) is 9,700 €. We’re researching costs of equipment, and will then use that money to purchase a couple pottery wheels and some other studio equipment.
The original plan in 2024 was to form an Associasão ( a Portuguese non-profit) and partner with one or two local municipalities to help us find a space big enough to accommodate all of the programming and gallery space, but there were some hiccups along the way. Two different locations were offered to us, and both locations fell through. We went back and forth a bit with the municipalities and progress has been halted indefinitely.
The formation of the Associação is also more complex than we initially realized and after lots of research and consulting experts, Mariana and I decided that this is something we can work towards, but that it is not the starting point. Especially because we need to form a board of trusted and qualified professionals, and we want to be very selective about who we bring on board for this project.
The structure for 2025 will be shifting to a collective studio model, as we redefine our definition of what a “community studio” looks like. Our goal is to help as many artists as possible to have access to equipment, classes, and community. We don’t need one space to get that started. We have Mariana’s studio and the studio we’ve been building for art residencies too. So between those two spaces we’ll expand the class offerings Mariana has capacity for in her studio. We’ll have guest artists workshops, and offer artists visiting and staying in my residency house the opportunity to connect with the local community of artists through classes, events and get togethers.
There are several amazing artists in the area, and we are chatting with some of them about joining the collective so we can share resources: equipment, studio space to host workshops, collective buying power on clay (to get bulk pricing), and cross promoting events to help lift each other up.
We’re welcoming our first resident artists in May! We have residents booked for June, July, and maybe September so far, and I’m hopeful to host more soon too.
We’re still having some trouble with the electricity so residencies will be low-fi to start. We have a 60 liter kiln and two wheels at the residency house now (all purchased with my personal money) to get us started, until we can get the electricity increased and support the bigger kiln.
We will continue fundraising in 2025, because we still need more equipment- things like slab rollers, more wheels, and additional funds to build a soda fire kiln. In the future when we have a bigger space, these items will shift over to that space, but being able to collect these items now, not only helps us get things started, but also helps us save money in addition to our fundraising efforts.
I’ll be kicking off the collaborative raffles again in the next few weeks with pieces from Astrid Wilk, Delvin Goode, Alex Simon, and a few other artists from Europe. Plus Mariana and I will be setting aside 10% from all of our collaboration sales for the studio fund, and we’ll be collaborating more this year since we live on the same continent.
We’ll be offering a few pieces other artists have donated as auction pieces.
I’m also looking into doing some local events here in Portugal to raise awareness of the project, and raise additional funds.
With a little luck and the continued generosity of our community, we’re shooting to raise $25,000 this year ( this is the number before taxes and fees). Once we confirm what equipment we’re purchasing with the 2024 money, I’ll share another update.