Stone Soup Worcester

Mission:

Stone Soup is a membership-based organization committed to three areas of focus: the arts, community, and affordable housing. Within these areas we strive for self-sustaining, economically accessible spaces and educational activities that are open to neighbors, activists, community groups, and artists. Inspired by principles of inclusion, collective participation, and universal affordability, we will be an example of how creative community development of and for the people can stimulate local economies without resorting to gentrification.

Our Vision is to collectively own a building in which artists, activists and community members can create a space that meets and honors the needs of the community. We envision office space for non-profits and small businesses, studio space for artists, venue space for musical and theatrical shows, an art gallery, a cooking space for Food Not Bombs and community dinners, a place for The Firecracker lending library, a place for groups to have meetings, affordable housing for artists and community members, as well as a home for projects such as Earn a Bike and the Worcester Free School and Worcester Independent Media Center. Another part of our vision is a community center that really belongs to and meets the needs of the neighborhood in which we are located.

Where we are in this process:

Stone Soup has been meeting and planning how to implement our vision and mission since April of 2005. Around fifty people have been actively involved in the project. A core organizing group of fifteen people has been meeting between two and four times a month to work on the planning and organizing. An events committee has been working on fundraising and outreach events. This committee has organized three events in the last few months. A community outreach committee has done outreach in the Main South neighborhood as well as in artist and activist communities in the city. The outreach committee has asked what people would like to see in a community resource center and we have built those ideas into our mission and vision. We have many commitments from people who would like to have space within the Stone Soup project who would make monthly monetary contributions to the project (see Commitments document). We are in the process of negotiating for a building that fits our needs near Main Street . We are in the final stages of working with Lawyer Burton Chandler to incorporate as a 501-c3 non-profit corporation.

Where Stone Soup Comes From: A History

Worcester’s artist and activist communities have been a vibrant source of creativity for many years. Since 1979, when the Grove Street Gallery opened, the city has experienced the benefits of having a strong connection to the arts. The Grove Street Gallery lasted 15 years, offering classes, studio space, events, musicians, film festivals, sculpture, and political theater. Grove Street Gallery was squeezed out of its space by the increase in rents.

The Worcester Artist Group began in 1985 with performance art, lots of theatrical events, and studio space for all types of artists. WAG has been through a number of incarnations and forced moves caused by increases in rent and restrictions on performances.

In 2003 “The Spacement” was formed in the basement of the Heywood Building to provide a safe space for Food-Not-Bombs, a free lending library, the Worcester Independent Media Center,film screenings and performances. “The Spacement” was forced to close in 2004 due to the lack of ability to get necessary permits.

Around this time many activists and community members were experiencing a need for easily accessible meeting and office space within the city. Groups such as Worcester Global Action Network and Worcester Indymedia Center started talking with artists and other community groups to figure out how to meet these needs.

Community non-profit groups and entrepreneurial start-ups have also struggled to find adequate space. Earn-A Bike, a six year old program providing bicycle repair, maintenance, and used bikes has been growing steadily since it opened in the summer of 2000. And Re-Use It, a business offering good quality used building supplies, continues to seek affordable space in downtown Worcester.

Out of the Heywood evictions, the WAG dislocations, and need for a community space, disheartened (but not disillusioned) members of these vibrant groups have formed Stone Soup — a non-profit corporation dedicated to providing a permanent space for arts, activism and community projects.