This section includes the workshop plan Press Press used to facilitate two workshops in January 2019 at the George Peabody Library in Baltimore, Maryland. The conversations that occured within these two workshops are the basis of this toolkit and inspired directions for further research. A sample workshop plan is included below for your reference. We invite you to build on our work by hosting a version of this workshop with your collaborators, peers, and community.


Sample Workshop Plan:

In this small gathering, Press Press invites individuals involved in cooperative, collective, or collaborative work to exchange expertise, experiences, and advice on cooperative processes. Through conversation and group brainstorming, we will collaboratively create a toolkit for cooperative, collaborative, and collective work. We invite you to participate in a small gathering where we can exchange our experiences with cooperative work and workshop through the challenges we have faced.


Materials:

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Chalkboard or whiteboard •
Writing and drawing utensils •
Drawing and collage materials •
Speaker for music •
Dinner, food, snacks •
Name tags •
Two colors of paper •
A box or hat to collect small sheets of paper

Sample Challenge & Tool Note-taking Strategy:

Challenge       →    Tool

Scheduling        →    Communication

Interpersonal    →    Restorative
relationships          practice


Helpful Questions:

What are examples of meaningful cooperation or collaborations you have been part of in Baltimore? Why did these experiences leave an impact on you? How have you used cooperative, collective, or collaborative processes to achieve goals, cultivate projects, and maintain organizations? What challenges have you encountered and overcome? What issues are you still working through?


Folks to invite:

1
A range of people you have worked with closely & a few people who offer different perspectives or are representative of other disciplines
2
People who are or have been deeply involved in collective, collaborative, or cooperative work right now or in the past
3
People who have generously contributed to Baltimore community

Plan:

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Social & Snack Time: 20 Minutes

People come in, get food, catch up, get settled. It’s nice to build in unstructured time at the beginning so people make themselves at home.

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Intentions & Motivations: 10 Minutes

Facilitators share motivation for gathering, set a goal or intention for the night together: to learn from each other about cooperation, collaboration, and collective work by sharing our challenges and our insights. As a facilitator, it may be helpful to mention:

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This isn’t about being an expert, it's about sharing our challenges and learning from one another.
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We are curious and excited to learn from your experiences and share our own.
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What is our shared goal? In our case, it is to try to compile what we know, and work through challenges that we have, to make a toolkit that can be helpful to ourselves and others.

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Introductions: 10 Minutes

Let everyone get a sense of who else is in the room, especially if they don’t already know each other. We like making this part fun by asking folks to answer a goofy question, like: What fruit or vegetable best describes you today? And a more serious question, like: What cooperative, collective, or collaborative project(s) are you involved with or have been involved with in the past?

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Shared Agreements: 10 Minutes

Facilitate a shared agreements process by asking folks what they expect and need of one another in order to be able to have an honest, open, and courageous conversation. Make a distinction between a courageous and safe space. You can suggest or bring forward some of your own agreements as an example if folks struggle to come up with them at first.

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Why do we do this work? Discussion: 20 Minutes

Before delving into the details of our challenges, we want to briefly discuss why we do this work in the first place. Why do we care to sustain cooperative, collective, or collaborative working structures? What are examples of meaningful cooperation or collaborations you have been part of in Baltimore? Why did these experiences leave an impact on you? How have you used cooperative, collective, or collaborative processes to achieve goals, cultivate projects, and maintain organizations? What challenges have you encountered and overcome? What issues are you still working through?

If folks have a hard time starting, you can share a few of your own reasons. For example:

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Different people offer different perspectives
•
It’s more fun brainstorming with others
•
Social and political work is most impactful when working together with others

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Individual Reflection: 20 Minutes

Write down any challenges you face within cooperative work that you want to bring to the group on small sheets of paper. Then, write out the tool(s) you have to offer regarding cooperative work on a different color paper. After giving folks some time to reflect, pass around a box where all of the challenges can be placed inside anonymously. Later, when these are shared, participants can choose to say if they belong to them or not.

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Group Discussion: 45 Minutes

As we pull out challenges from the box, ask the group if anyone’s tools can solve or add insight to the challenges shared. As folks share, write out the challenges and tools on the board using the note-taking technique outlined above.

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Optional Creative Activity: 30 Minutes

If folks want to stay late after the discussion, they can choose their tool or another person’s tool and make a collage or design that represents it that will go into the toolkit.

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Closing: 10 Minutes

Give thanks to everyone for coming! Facilitate a closing activity or reflection. This can take several forms, like asking everyone to share one adjective describing their emotional state or one highlight from the evening. Let folks know that you will be sharing a document of the materials compiled from the conversation for them to edit, adjust, and OK.

The following list is a collection of organizations, PDF’s, activities, books, and resources we admire that have influenced this project and may be helpful to those working in the intersections of arts & culture, education, social justice, and collective, cooperative, or collaborative work. We invite you to expand this list with us! If you want to contribute your own resources or have a suggestion for something that should exist on this list, please email us!

1. Anti-Oppression Resource Training and Alliance (AORTA) is a worker-owned cooperative devoted to strengthening movements for social justice and a solidarity economy. AORTA’s website offers several resources that may be helpful for growing and investing in your collective’s culture and working practices. You can access helpful resources such as webinars, handouts, and toolkits on their website and check out their Theory of Change, a working document that defines AORTA’s shared vision for working towards equity and justice for all.

2. Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice is an accessibility guide geared toward small-scale arts nonprofits written by Carolyn Lazard and commissioned by Recess Art. As written in its introduction, the guide “details specific ways in which disabled people are excluded from cultural spaces and offers possible solutions to those barriers. Moving away from historical and juridical definitions of accessibility, this guide considers the unique capacity of small scale arts organizations to meet the needs of disabled communities. It engages principles of disability justice to think through what can urgently be done to create more equitable and accessible arts spaces.”

3. Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha maps histories and politics of disability justice, a movement that centers the leadership and expertise of disabled queer, trans, Black, and brown people. Leah writes about creating what she calls “collective access,” understanding access and care as a collective responsibility and pleasure, and shares tools and experiences that may aid in building sustainable collectives, projects, and communities of liberation.

4. GenerationFIVE is an organization that works to interrupt and mend the intergenerational impact of child sexual abuse on individuals, families, and communities and focuses on a transformative justice approach. The teachings of transformative justice may be applied on a small scale within the culture and labor practices of the collective. You can access a range of free resources and advice online.

5. The field of Group Relations offers a helpful framework for understanding how power, authority, and leadership may operate within various group dynamics. A glossary of terms may be found here.

6. Powercube.net is a website created by The Participation, Power and Social Change team at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, that offers amazing resources on power analysis. These may be helpful for developing strategies for meaningful working dynamics both internally and externally to the group.

7. “Finding the Spaces for Change: A Power Analysis” by John Gaventa offers a thoughtful look at different forms of power that appear both interpersonally and structurally in society.

8. In her book, De-Facing Power, Clarissa Hayward offers a thoughtful analysis of how power operates within the public education system in the United States. Her analysis may be helpful further research on the theme of power in groups within different contexts.

9. Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process is a method for giving and receiving feedback on works of art in progress. Although it was created as a specific process for artists, it can be useful for cultivating meaningful communication and culture within collectives.

10. “The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture,” from Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun, offers a list of characteristics of white supremacy culture within organizations. As stated by the authors, “Culture is powerful precisely because it is so present and at the same time so very difficult to name or identify. The characteristics listed below are damaging because they are used as norms and standards without being pro-actively named or chosen by the group. They are damaging because they promote white supremacy thinking. They are damaging to both people of color and to white people. Organizations that are people of color-led or a majority people of color can also demonstrate many damaging characteristics of white supremacy culture.”

11. Homie Ethics by Homie House Press shares a short and sweet list of values the organizers hold dear when working with their collaborators. The list includes, Hang, Heal, Listen, Dance, Read, Walk, Feed, Pillow Talk, Netflix + Chill, TLC (Tender Loving Care), among others.

12. Women’s Center for Creative Work’s Core Values outlines a set of values the organization aims to follow within their work. Creating a collaborative organizational vision may facilitate a meaningful process of learning, exchange, and coming together among collective members. It may also support the focus and intention behind the work the collective takes on.

13. Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree Brown explores the politics and practice of the healing and joy that can exist within social justice work. In the book, she addresses questions such as, “How do we make social justice the most pleasurable human experience? How can we awaken within ourselves desires that make it impossible to settle for anything less than a fulfilling life?” It’s a worthwhile read for anyone involved in collective work.

14. Experiments in Joy by Gabrielle Civil is a book that celebrates Black feminist work, both collaborative and independent, in essays, scores, images, performances, and more. Addressing questions such as, “What can people do together that we can’t do alone? What can we discover in ourselves only by way of other people?” Civil’s work on finding and cultivating joyful practices can also be found in the zine published by Co-Conspirator Press, Experiments in Joy: a Workbook, which includes contributions by Call & Response Artists Gabrielle Civil, Duriel E. Harris, Kenyatta A. C. Hinkle, Rosamond S. King, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Miré Regulus, and Awilda Rodríguez Lora.

15. Decolonizing Non-Violent Communication is a workbook of activities and ideas that explore communication, bodies, and relationships, written by Meenadchi, edited by Nicole Kelly, and published by Co-Conspirator Press. As the publishers described it, “Using a trauma-informed approach, this workbook encourages readers to deepen our emotional vocabularies so that we can work towards a more enlivened, healthy interdependence.”

16. Peace Learning Center is an organization that supports communities in redefining peace through equity, social emotional learning, and the implementation of innovative practices. They offer a range of online resources that may be helpful in times of conflict through restorative practices, as well as other issues that may come up in collective work. Their Practitioners Toolkit for Restorative Practices may be especially relevant.

17. The Allied Media Conference (AMC) is a large gathering of media, technology, and art practitioners working in media-based organizing and social justice work. Reflecting on their two decades of work, the AMC outlined nine essential traits of media-based organizing. This document shares helpful strategies for both media-based organizers as well as collectives building meaningful accountability and communication processes internally. The nine essential traits include root problem analysis, holistic solution-building, collective vision/purpose-development, essential question-asking, deep listening, facilitative leadership, synthesis with integrity, power/resource-mapping, and iteration.

18. In “Equality Is Not Enough: What the Classroom Has Taught Me About Justice” published on Everyday Feminism, Amy Sun talks about the difference between equity and equality in classroom settings. This distinction will be helpful for navigating some conflicts among group members.

19. In “Six Thoughts Dealing with Toxic Behavior,” published on Psychology Today, Rita Watson describes personality traits of toxic people and ways of navigating toxic relationships.

20. The philosopher Pierre Bourdieu developed the concept of symbolic capital as well as cultural capital, which may be helpful frameworks for understanding negotiations for the group regarding authorship, ownership, and visibility. Ed Walker shares an explanation and context for the terms in the article, “On Pierre Bourdieu Part 4: Symbolic Capital.”

21. In the article “Watching the Sunset: An Interview with Deana Haggag,” Cameron Shaw and Deana Haggag share advice and experiences around sunsetting their former organizations, The Contemporary in Baltimore, Maryland, where Deana was the Executive Director, and Pelican Bomb in New Orleans where Cameron was the Executive Director and Founder. This article may be helpful for those who are considering sunsetting or even just leaving their collectives or organizations.

22. Generative Somatics is an organization whose mission “is to support social and climate justice movements in achieving their visions of a radically transformed society. We do this by bringing somatic transformation to movement leaders, organizations, and alliances,” as outlined on their website. In a webinar conversation with Adrienne Maree Brown, and fellow generative somatics teachers, Jonathan Stith, Mei-ying Williams, and Staci K. Haines, the group discusses somatics and Pleasure Activism, Adrienne’s most recent book. Watch the webinar and access online resources as well as in-person trainings from Generative Somatics.

23. The book Making and Being, a project of BFAMFAPhd, and authored by Susan Jahoda and Caroline Woolard, shares “a framework for teaching art that emphasizes contemplation, collaboration, and political economy.” It is filled with strategies, worksheets, activities, and other resources for educators, arts practitioners, and especially those who are interested in working through collective, collaborative, or cooperative models.

24. BFAMFAPhD is a collective that offers a range of resources for self-organized learning, that may be helpful for collectives working to establish a shared group culture. BFAMFAPhD, as explained on their website, “formed in 2012 to make art, reports, and teaching tools to advocate for cultural equity in the United States. The work of the collective is to bring people together to analyze and reimagine relationships of power in the arts. BFAMFAPhD core members are: Susan Jahoda, Emilio Martínez Poppe, Agnes Szanyi, Emily Tareila, Vicky Virgin, and Caroline Woolard.”

25. The Study Center for Group Work is an open access library of collaborative methods created by artists and designers. They also share a range of teaching resources, events, and jobs related to collaboration.

26. ASIAN AMERICAN FEMINIST ANTIBODIES {care in the time of coronavirus} is a zine collaboratively produced by Asain American Feminist Collective and Bluestocking NYC. It features a range of stories, resources, and accounts of social and cultural workers during the rise of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

27. The International Cooperative Alliance represents and serves cooperatives across the globe. As stated on their website, “it is one of the oldest non-governmental organisations and one of the largest ones measured by the number of people represented: 1,2 billion cooperative members on the planet.” Their online library features a range of helpful resources for those interested in working through cooperative models.

28. Trade School was a non-traditional learning space that used a gift- and barter-based economic model to facilitate a network of teachers and students. As stated on their website, “At Trade School, anyone could teach a class. Students signed up for classes by agreeing to bring a barter item that the teacher requested. Trade School became an international network of local, self-organized chapters with over 22,000 people in classes.” After founding and running the school for 10 years, the organizers created a manual for others interested in recreating or building on the model they developed.

29. The Book of Everyday Instruction, published with The Operating System, is a project by artist Chloë Bass that focuses on one-on-one social interaction. As Bass states on her website, “The project investigates the particular states of flow, play, and conflict that we experience when interacting with only ourselves and one other. Conceptually, the project is the next step in my creation of performance work for no audience. The majority (if not the entirety) of The Book of Everyday Instruction’s performance aspects will be conducted without witnesses: as shared pair activities between artist and participant.” This book may be helpful to individuals working through collective models in considering their intimate relationships to others through the conceptual and artistic lens of the artist. A copy of chapter 4, "A Field Guide to Spacial Intimacy," is made available by The Study Center for Group Work and can be found here.

30. The United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC) is a national grassroots membership organization for worker cooperatives. In addition to becoming a member, their website offers a range of resources and information on worker cooperatives.

31. Common Field is a national network of artists-run organizations and cultural organizers that “connects, supports, and advocates for the artist-centered field,” as outlined on their website. Their network, online platform, and annual convening gathers and distributes a range of materials that may be helpful for those involved in cooperative cultural work, with an emphasis in the arts.

32. Imaginings: A DIY Guide to Arts-based Community Dialogue is a guidebook by the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC). As described in the guidebook, “the USDAC is a people-powered department—a grassroots action network inciting creativity and social imagination to shape a culture of empathy, equity, and belonging.” In this guide, the organization explains how to host an Imagining, a performance- and dialogue-based artwork that invites community members to imagine and transform their collective futures. In addition to this, USDAC offers a range of other resources for organizers and organizational collaborations.

33. The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society is an organization that explores and supports how contemplative practices, or “activities that help us inquire into our experience—can make a difference in people’s lives and in the environments, institutions, and systems we create together.” In Contemplative Community in Higher Education: A Toolkit, the organization lays out a framework for integrating contemplative practices into higher education. However, the processes, activities, and ideas in this toolkit can also be applied to independently organized groups, such as collectives, cooperatives, or collaborative projects.

34. The Strozzi Institute facilitates embodied leadership training and team-building that engage “the entire psychobiology of a person to learn and embody new skills, behavior, and context.” As explained on their website, “we’ve created a pragmatic on-the-ground version of mindfulness and embodiment that your team can use in high-pressure business situations to stay grounded in the values of your organization…” Their website includes a range of online offerings that may be relevant to collective, cooperative, and collaborative work.

35. The Manifesto for Tender Collaborative Work, co-authored by Shan Wallace, Jenna Porter, and Iris Lee and edited by Kimi Hanauer, offers a set of values and a conversation around how to build space for tenderness within collaborative work. It was published by Press Press in 2017.