How to Build a Cultural Programme in a Coliving Without Exploiting Artists.
Coliving operators can create meaningful cultural programmes by paying for labour, protecting boundaries, and treating artists as collaborators rather than amenities.
Colivings often talk about community as if it appears automatically when enough people share a kitchen. It does not. Someone usually carries the work of making an encounter happen, and that work is often handed to an artist without being named or paid.
The answer is not to remove culture from the building. It is to stop treating culture as a free amenity.
Do not ask the artist to be everything
Artist, teacher, host, community manager, photographer, social media producer, local guide, event organiser, and emotional atmosphere are not one job. A residency or programme can include several of those things, but the operator needs to state which ones are actually required.
Clear boundaries make better work. The artist should know when they are available, what spaces are private, what the public programme includes, who handles logistics, and who is responsible for safety.
The building is not a free studio
A room can be part of an exchange. It does not give the coliving unlimited access to the artist’s time, image, process, or network. The programme should specify what the artist can use and what the operator is providing beyond the room.
A shared kitchen, a roof, a projector, a workshop, and a local introduction can all be valuable. They become useful when they are part of an honest offer rather than presented as a substitute for cash.
Make the public outcome proportionate
Not every residency needs a final exhibition. A small conversation, a process note, a shared meal, a study group, or no public event at all may be the right outcome. The pressure to produce a photographable ending is one of the fastest ways to make a residency shallow.
If a public outcome is required, it should be in the brief and budget. The artist should have enough time to make something considered rather than being asked to perform a finished idea on the last night.
Use local knowledge carefully
A coliving can introduce an artist to a place, but it should not ask the artist to turn a neighbourhood into a backdrop or extract local stories without permission. Local operators, spaces, and cultural workers should be involved on their own terms and paid when their knowledge becomes part of the programme.
Countercult’s curated network gives operators a way to start with people and places that have chosen to be discoverable. That is different from scraping a city for whatever looks useful online.
A good cultural programme does not make artists decorate a property’s idea of community. It gives them the conditions to make work that can meet the people and place honestly.
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Countercult Studios works as a contractor or specialist delivery partner on research, mapping, cultural strategy, campaigns, experiences, commissions, archives, and production.
An original Countercult field note on fair cultural programming, coliving communities, artist boundaries, and responsible local engagement.
This piece was informed by Shona Neary’s writing, conversations, and thinking around independent culture, artists, and place.
editorial process: Our Journals are pulled from our writings over the years to get information out as quickly and as widely as possible, and to get to what matters: finding each other and claiming our seat in the circular economy. Some ideas overlap between Shona Neary's work on cultural infrastructure and their artist practice as Sketchy Shona. AI is a tool for infrastructure, not for creating Journal writing or artists' work. We welcome original reporting and pitches from journalists and independent publishers.