What is it like to be a key-holder member?

I feel like these ramblings will become a lot more succinct and current as the weeks go on and we are all caught up with what Hale and I have been up to but I’ve been coming back to my notes from these first few months of planning and feel like there is just too much to recap in great detail. For this week I thought I’d just brush over the last few months in broad strokes in my style of stream of consciousness and finish with what I’ve been wondering about most recently; what it will look like to be a Key-Holder Member at Queer•y.

I often use the same explicative method when considering the viability of a new adventure. Wether it’s a business or a trip or a big life change; we’re going to outer space… Have I ever gone to outer space? no. Do I know anything about going to outer space? not really but I do read a LOT of science fiction and have always had a deep fascination with all things space-travel related. I like being prepared (34 years with an ADHD/OCD brain is a solid motivator) and considering ways that a project might teeter out of its assumed orbit. Also, undoubtably educated by the eight moves my family made before I was fourteen, my mother instilled a value in my siblings and I that bridges foresight and adaptability.

In the final moments before take off, a series of queries are made in the launch status check, the “go/no go poll”, where things like Booster Systems, Guidance Systems, Electrical, Environmental and Consumables Management all get one final check. Any one of these systems malfunction or under-preparedness would mean a total project halt through these series of kill switches. Starting a business or engaging in a new partnership may not seem as consequential as a mission to Mars but, individually, to our ability to live with self-sovereignty, investing our personal resources into anything is a risk that we must plan for.

I’ve been asked a number of times these last few months if I’ve made such considerations. Realistically, we’ll never make every inquery possible. As an obsessive, I’ve had to come to terms with this fact and create boundaries for myself to not get stuck in endless analysis. So, am I sure that Dear Dairy Ice Cream could be better attended to by not splitting my attention to this new project? Do I think that Queer•y will be able to make any money? Are there others who would be better suited to building this kind of resource for our community? They are all good questions and I could spend hours writing about them but what I am getting at here is that, yes, I’ve considered not signing the 15-20 year lease that will be ready June 1st that commits this project to motion (with an appropriate 6-month back-out period). Yes, I’ve considered not seeking funding for the $475,000 buildout that the space will need. Yes, I’ve considered the implications of not investing that energy and money int0 a business I already have to more efficiently build my personal wealth. Yes, I am aware of the other orgs out there supporting the Queers and the Arts and working hard to a similar goal.

The last three months have been full of meetings and conversations to get more data to support answering these questions. Organizations like Indigo Arts Alliance, Able Baker, Space Gallery, Tender Table, MECAD, Institute for American Art, StreamState ME and others. Individuals like Hale Linnet, Jon Courtney, Wendy Chapkis, Stephen Benenson, Daniel Minter, Jessica MilNiel, Christopher Stiegler and so many others. We’ve talked about projects that are current and thriving and ones that are on hiatus or are permanently shuttered. We’ve learned about ways to finance, of people we need to talk to, of organizations we need to build connections with and of things to avoid at all costs.

I see the human experience as an individually perceived group project. I am curious to a fault, always searching for and sifting through others experience for hints and warnings. Queer•y is an agglomeration of so many peoples experience as an answer to a problem; How do we, as queer artists, thrive in symbiosis with our need to foster our creative practice. That answer is a web of support; a series of limbs that can uplift when another is weak, a thoroughly explicated, amorphous plan that can shift to shelter in strong wind and leap to action in calmer weather. Queer•y is a community project, like any good project, because life is a community project. I look forward to having a conversation with YOU about it soon!

A day in the life of a Key-Holder Member at Queer•y? Well, its gonna be fucking awesome, obviously.

We see the space as being able to support 32 Key-Holder Members, to start. There will be a secondary membership status for up to another 60-ish individuals that we are calling “Community Members” with limited access to practicing in person and without on-site storage but who will maintain access to programming and have stake in communal decision making.

We are still cementing the monthly cost of a Key-Holder Membership (That will depend on the final cost of running this space that we can’t possibly say with honest certainty) but plan for it to be between $50-90 at a sliding scale of access. We will be incorporating scholarship applications within the bounds of community support. There won’t be any additional fees for having access to different parts of Queer•y’s systems.

Key-Holder Members will have 24 hour access to the shared practice space including the ability to book one of three private rooms for 3 hour blocks (each member will have a certain number of bookings each month, likely 6-10). Within an hour of when the private rooms haven’t been blocked off by a member using one of their allotted monthly bookings, anyone can use a room in one hour increments.

The only restriction on practice as it relates to time will be during monthly workshops, lecture and exhibition. Exhibition will happen once or twice a week for a few hours and, regularly, during open practice times any member can invite a guest to talk about their practice or have a “studio visitor”. The expectation here is centered around the idea that we are all sharing this space and respecting each others practice within this space. There will be “quiet hours” certain times of the day. Facilitated conversations between members about the impact of their use of the space will be a normal occurrence, I am sure… heheh

Each Key-Holder Member will have a locked cubby to store supplies that fall within a range of safety. There are paints and photo chemicals and things that could cause harm and won’t be allowed to be stored in these lockers but we’ll come up with some kind of accommodation for such things in time. The cubby will be two feet wide, three feet deep and four feet high.

We are having conversations with artists about what a two by three tote packed with the instruments, small tools and machines necessary to practice in their medium would look like. These totes would be specific to painting, photography, clothing design, audio/visual recording, drawing etc and would be available to and maintained by members.

I am going to leave Programming, Lecture, Residency, Skill Share and Exhibition to next time I write. Trying to keep these check-ins less than 1500 words and I have a lot to do to get ready for Queer•y’s next event this week. Speaking of, I guess I’ll finish these with a quick two week outlook.

April 24th - I’ll be selling ice cream and talking about Queer•y while celebrating Mel Andrel, a local, queer designer, and The Drift Collective, a new project at the intersection of India and Commercial. There will be cool, limited prints by Mel, access to sick embroidery concepts via The Drift Collective’s digital embroidery machine and their “upcycling resources” for making an article of clothing more fun.

This week and next, I’m focused on some business admin shit, L3C filings, lease terms finalization, bank accounts, fundraising, etc. and Hale is working at some outreach; finding other orgs to collaborate with and dreaming about spring and summer events to book!

Finally, I’d love some help! hehe. We need to make a little more time in our lives to focus in on some of these details and to do that we need a little cash. If you or someone you know could help financially, heres a link to our donation page! If you have an idea about larger financing access, shoot me an email ! I’m a Calendar Gay and am really good at booking out and sticking to a meeting; lets chat!

Talk again soooon.

Love,

Padien

(p.s. including this p.s., this is exactly 1500 words… thanks for the guidance, universe. lol)