RETURN TO RESUME
Collectively, As One...
The Couchfire Collective burns with bright, artistic ideas
By Lindsay Nichols
Columbus City Scene Magazine
March 1, 2008 Sitting down with The Couchfire Collective is a lot like parachuting into both a business meeting and a get-together of old friends.
Emily Cable, Anne Holman, Adam Brouillette and Jen Adrion represent the entire group as they explain The Couchfire Collective’s history: Couchfire officially began in July of 2006 as a group of artists who wanted to share studio space at the Junctionview Studios in Grandview. The formation of Couchfire was an evolutionary, organic process largely due to the members having an extensive web of mutual friends.
As they began to share the common area and set basic ground rules, the idea of creating the Collective was born. The need to become their own business didn’t start until the first Agora show drew 800 people. The sheer number of people at an inaugural show made the Couchfire members realize they needed to address the practical side of exhibiting and they did so by becoming an LLC (an official business), which protects them from the liabilities of holding shows.
Couchfire, notes Brouillette, is a rather odd business model; it’s run like a non-profit and has nothing to do with making money, but rather everything to do about supporting artists and art. However, becoming a business has also restricted the process of adding new members.
The membership process is largely based off of activity and participation, notes Adrion. Membership is based on involvement and commitment to the Collective.
Members each have missions as individual artists that the group tries to uphold collectively; the group’s mission is to support each other. It’s not unusual to have the entire group working on one artist’s individual show. Because of this, it’s sometimes hard to draw the line between the Couchfire members and the Collective.
The main event that the entire Couchfire Collective works on is called Agora. As the name suggests, it’s a meeting place for artists of all kinds - from painters to sculptors to musicians to performance artists. And the event has been incredibly well-received by the Columbus community. The first Agora drew 800 people and numbers have only skyrocketed. For the upcoming Agora in April, members are planning on upwards of 4,000 attendees.
Their rather unique name, ‘Couchfire Collective,’ comes from what they acknowledged as a lot of brainstorming. Members wanted something uniquely Columbus; something that was art related; and something that was indicative of their motivation.
The ‘Couchfire’ part of their name has various meanings. First, it is a reference to the OSU campus and its tendency to set couches on fire after Buckeye football games; thus, it’s a link to their location. It also functions in the sense that people tend to think of art as something simply to hang over a couch and the members refute that, suggesting that people burn the couch and look at the art instead.
The Collective also wanted to stress the idea that people stop being a couch-potato and get up and do something - to go and experience the world around them. It is to this that the Collective has really dedicated itself.
Originally, after the Couchfire Collective set their rules and name, they only met occasionally. Now, however, there’s a structured meeting once a month that everyone attends. Keeping in mind everyone’s expertise and areas of interests, the members also have an Internal Message Board to communicate and share inspiration. For other projects, like meeting with the media, members come as they can.
The group now consists of Adam Brouillette, Ginnie Baer, Jay C. Moffett, Tony Belleau, Jen Adrion, Dave Horton, Michael Reed, Emily Cable, Adam Crum, Andrew Ina, Mike Akira Litzau and Anne Holman. Cable notes that The Collective is still trying to figure out where to draw the line between business and social aspects. The members are trying to create more social events such as meeting together for dinner-but, they admit, even in a social setting, they still talk about their work, shows and studio.
The Couchfire Collective has accomplished a lot in a little less than two years. Brouillette says that he’s most proud of the fact that Couchfire has been able to maintain the equilibrium between thinking about art and creating art. Furthermore, the Collective has been able to access the combined intelligence and work well as a team.
Holman points out that they’ve been able to get along well, or if they have disputes, to work it out. The members have been able to figure out everyone’s strengths, weaknesses, backgrounds and talents. For example, the more deliberate members of the group may help to balance out the more impulsive members from making rash decisions; conversely, the members that act quickly will keep the more deliberate members moving forward.
As Brouillette says, “It’s been a crazy learning experience and forces everyone to work as a group and learn from each other”. Adrion says she is proud that in only two years, the focus has shifted from on them individually, at the creation of Couchfire, outward to helping other artists, the community, the local arts scene and civic development.
Within the Couchfire Collective, there’s a lot of friendly competition, but also a lot of helping and encouraging other members. The different personalities in the group, as well as their different ages and roles make the Collective a diverse and dynamic group. Brouillette, Adrion, Holman and Cable all agree that it’s great being around people who are moving forward and accomplishing things in their art. And it's motivating.
Holman notes that they’ve become better friends and have formed a network of backup support for everything from art to life decisions. They have yet to work on one joint work- they’ve only done collective shows - but they do admit that it could be an interesting challenge.
The Couchfire members continue to set individual goals and collective goals. The Collective’s agenda is constantly shifting and navigating, making their goals fluid in nature. But among the things they know they want to improve on: they want to shift focus from doing many shows to doing just a few and really going all out for those shows; to tackle projects that they haven’t done before; and to reach out to other groups. And certainly a Couchfire goal is to support the individual artistic goals of the members. States Brouillette, “You have to make a point to not ignore yourself as an artist in helping the community. You need to know when to put on the breaks.”
The Collective currently has shows in the Ross Arts Museum at the 2001 Gallery at Ohio Wesleyan University and in the Upper Arlington Arts Center. For more information on The Couchfire Collective, visit its Web site at www.thecouchfire.org. For more information about the upcoming annual Agora show, visit www.agoracolumbus.com.
Collectively, As One...
The Couchfire Collective burns with bright, artistic ideas
By Lindsay Nichols
Columbus City Scene Magazine
March 1, 2008 Sitting down with The Couchfire Collective is a lot like parachuting into both a business meeting and a get-together of old friends.
Emily Cable, Anne Holman, Adam Brouillette and Jen Adrion represent the entire group as they explain The Couchfire Collective’s history: Couchfire officially began in July of 2006 as a group of artists who wanted to share studio space at the Junctionview Studios in Grandview. The formation of Couchfire was an evolutionary, organic process largely due to the members having an extensive web of mutual friends.
As they began to share the common area and set basic ground rules, the idea of creating the Collective was born. The need to become their own business didn’t start until the first Agora show drew 800 people. The sheer number of people at an inaugural show made the Couchfire members realize they needed to address the practical side of exhibiting and they did so by becoming an LLC (an official business), which protects them from the liabilities of holding shows.
Couchfire, notes Brouillette, is a rather odd business model; it’s run like a non-profit and has nothing to do with making money, but rather everything to do about supporting artists and art. However, becoming a business has also restricted the process of adding new members.
The membership process is largely based off of activity and participation, notes Adrion. Membership is based on involvement and commitment to the Collective.
Members each have missions as individual artists that the group tries to uphold collectively; the group’s mission is to support each other. It’s not unusual to have the entire group working on one artist’s individual show. Because of this, it’s sometimes hard to draw the line between the Couchfire members and the Collective.
The main event that the entire Couchfire Collective works on is called Agora. As the name suggests, it’s a meeting place for artists of all kinds - from painters to sculptors to musicians to performance artists. And the event has been incredibly well-received by the Columbus community. The first Agora drew 800 people and numbers have only skyrocketed. For the upcoming Agora in April, members are planning on upwards of 4,000 attendees.
Their rather unique name, ‘Couchfire Collective,’ comes from what they acknowledged as a lot of brainstorming. Members wanted something uniquely Columbus; something that was art related; and something that was indicative of their motivation.
The ‘Couchfire’ part of their name has various meanings. First, it is a reference to the OSU campus and its tendency to set couches on fire after Buckeye football games; thus, it’s a link to their location. It also functions in the sense that people tend to think of art as something simply to hang over a couch and the members refute that, suggesting that people burn the couch and look at the art instead.
The Collective also wanted to stress the idea that people stop being a couch-potato and get up and do something - to go and experience the world around them. It is to this that the Collective has really dedicated itself.
Originally, after the Couchfire Collective set their rules and name, they only met occasionally. Now, however, there’s a structured meeting once a month that everyone attends. Keeping in mind everyone’s expertise and areas of interests, the members also have an Internal Message Board to communicate and share inspiration. For other projects, like meeting with the media, members come as they can.
The group now consists of Adam Brouillette, Ginnie Baer, Jay C. Moffett, Tony Belleau, Jen Adrion, Dave Horton, Michael Reed, Emily Cable, Adam Crum, Andrew Ina, Mike Akira Litzau and Anne Holman. Cable notes that The Collective is still trying to figure out where to draw the line between business and social aspects. The members are trying to create more social events such as meeting together for dinner-but, they admit, even in a social setting, they still talk about their work, shows and studio.
The Couchfire Collective has accomplished a lot in a little less than two years. Brouillette says that he’s most proud of the fact that Couchfire has been able to maintain the equilibrium between thinking about art and creating art. Furthermore, the Collective has been able to access the combined intelligence and work well as a team.
Holman points out that they’ve been able to get along well, or if they have disputes, to work it out. The members have been able to figure out everyone’s strengths, weaknesses, backgrounds and talents. For example, the more deliberate members of the group may help to balance out the more impulsive members from making rash decisions; conversely, the members that act quickly will keep the more deliberate members moving forward.
As Brouillette says, “It’s been a crazy learning experience and forces everyone to work as a group and learn from each other”. Adrion says she is proud that in only two years, the focus has shifted from on them individually, at the creation of Couchfire, outward to helping other artists, the community, the local arts scene and civic development.
Within the Couchfire Collective, there’s a lot of friendly competition, but also a lot of helping and encouraging other members. The different personalities in the group, as well as their different ages and roles make the Collective a diverse and dynamic group. Brouillette, Adrion, Holman and Cable all agree that it’s great being around people who are moving forward and accomplishing things in their art. And it's motivating.
Holman notes that they’ve become better friends and have formed a network of backup support for everything from art to life decisions. They have yet to work on one joint work- they’ve only done collective shows - but they do admit that it could be an interesting challenge.
The Couchfire members continue to set individual goals and collective goals. The Collective’s agenda is constantly shifting and navigating, making their goals fluid in nature. But among the things they know they want to improve on: they want to shift focus from doing many shows to doing just a few and really going all out for those shows; to tackle projects that they haven’t done before; and to reach out to other groups. And certainly a Couchfire goal is to support the individual artistic goals of the members. States Brouillette, “You have to make a point to not ignore yourself as an artist in helping the community. You need to know when to put on the breaks.”
The Collective currently has shows in the Ross Arts Museum at the 2001 Gallery at Ohio Wesleyan University and in the Upper Arlington Arts Center. For more information on The Couchfire Collective, visit its Web site at www.thecouchfire.org. For more information about the upcoming annual Agora show, visit www.agoracolumbus.com.