The Reliquarium HQ Campaign

The Reliquarium needs to grow and we need your support!  The opportunity to turn our small sculptural fabrication studio into a thriving community arts and shared workshop makerspace is at our doorstep.  In April, The Reliquarium collective will be annexing the massive fabrication workshop  space attached adjacent to our current live/work studio.   Due to growing demands of creative projects and a mission to build community through the expression of the arts, we will be renovating the old millspace into a multifasceted arts magnet that offers a multitude of creative practices.  The Reliquarium collective is calling for support from our friends, family, and community in this ambitious undertaking!


WHO WE ARE:

The Reliquarium, LLC is an art organization established in Boston, Massachusetts by a collective of artists dedicated to facilitating environments for expression of the creative spirit. The Reliquarium provides professional art installation, fabrication, and special event consulting services for a variety of clients in both the public and private sector. Utilizing a wide range of mediums, The Reliquarium combines design, technology, nature, and engineering to execute projects from conceptualization through final design and implementation, creating inspirational works of art for universal audiences.



OUR STORY:

The Reliquarium has found early success and recognition through executing projects pertaining to the design, fabrication, and installation of sculptural, lighting, and aesthetics of stage productions for concerts, events, and music festivals. Through this avenue, the potential for sharing The Reliquarium’s artistic vision and demonstrate its capabilities were realized via implementation of artworks that serve as atmospheric enhancements for the curation of environments devoted to free expression of the creative impulse. As the clock ticked forward, The Reliquarium has played a vital role in reimagining the possibilities for celebration of all forms of performance, art, and music.



A new vision was discovered as the collective became interested in reinventing a new standard for experiential design of skill shares, galleries, storefronts, public spaces, and concert venues. Consequently, as the project demand and scale increased simultaneously, the necessity for enhanced production capabilities followed suit, making the impending need for adequate workshop space imminent. In March of 2016, The Reliquarium secured a long-term lease on a 3,500 square-foot mixed-use (commercially and residentially zoned) warehouse space in the greater Providence area. Through intensive collaboration between the members of the business, The Reliquarium Headquarters were established with the transformation of an open floor plan with 15-foot high ceilings into five individual studio lofts with communal workshop, living room, kitchen, and bathroom.



Placing the utmost importance on being open to the public and follow the necessary legal and safety protocol to function as a thriving artist community, The Reliquarium has obtained all required local permits including building (construction), zoning, and occupancy, inherently passing fire, electrical, and building code enforcement inspections throughout the process. The Reliquarium has maintained excellent channels of communication with the property owner and the local municipality and has the support of the local community to establish and expand without operating in a clandestine capacity.



Sustained, stable growth of The Reliquarium network is a comfortable consequence of increasing project demands. Discovering that it is serving as a foundation and catalyst to the formation of a thriving collaborative artist community that expands far beyond the extent of its conceived margins, The Reliquarium has become the beating heart of a new organism which is outgrowing its confines and seeking expansion into a new shell. Attracting talented, visionary, motivated individuals from all walks of life and locations across the globe to participate in the internal process has consistently been a major contributor to the successes of each project. Champions of seemingly separate arenas find solace in collaborating with a group of intrinsically motivated individuals that maintain the highest standard of excellence and uphold an unwavering work ethic in dedication to the creation of universally accessible and inspirational artistic creations. Without the contribution from new collaborators, no project would have been completed with such an adept level of intricacy, detail, and quality that the brand has begun to represent. It is this phenomenon that has inspired the current emphasis on expanding the community network and ergo, the provision of additional facilities and amenities essential to endure this evolution.


OUR GOALS

The  members of The Reliquarium have an innate desire to transform from creators of aesthetics to curators of a community; to transcend conventional business paradigms and transition from managers to facilitators of expression of the creative impulse. The Reliquarium will challenge the archetypes of traditional DIY maker space or residential art communities to formulate a cohesive, integrated residential and commercial community for professional artists, creators, engineers, designers, musicians, dancers, healers, educators and all who can subscribe to the notion that the combined energy and potential present within a community is greater than the sum of its individual contributors. The vision involves an expansion of internal organization with designated roles and responsibilities for management and operation, acquisition of appropriate facilities for accommodating both personal and professional growth, and generation of revenue streams that provide adequate resources to achieve palpability of the latter.

With the acquisition of the adjacent rental space, The Reliquarium could clearly establish two locations, dedicating the original 3,500 sf rental unit to artist residences, gallery, event, exhibition, performance, community outreach, workshop, education, presentation, client meeting space. Therefore, the new 16,000 sf rental unit would be appropriate for relocation of the existing workshop to better accommodate activities such as woodworking, metalworking, casting, ceramics, fabric, painting and finish coatings, electrical, lighting, photography and video acquisition, computer animated drafting, robotics, projection, etc.. Additionally, this provides an opening for the immediate addition of the revenue generating public access program, ie. DIY/workshop space and equipment rental. It is also inclusive of enhanced shipping and handling capabilities for greater in-house project capacity due to the inclusion of two private loading docks.

In order to pursue this exciting opportunity, The Reliquarium will first need to recuperate some of the cost of its initial investment in the creation of the HQ. Leveraging strong credit, The Reliquarium financed the acquisition of building materials needed for the phase 1 buildout of the HQ. Currently, the account is in good standing, but the business has accrued a fairly significant level of debt to its creditors, totaling $9,450. Taking into account these circumstances, the funding strategy has become a phased piecemeal approach and split into three separate requests for a total of $30,000

BUDGET BREAKDOWN

A) $10,000 – Recuperation of Investment in Phase 1:  
With the first investment of $10,000 The Reliquarium would be able to recuperate the initial debts incurred by the build-out of our primary headquarters space.  These costs include materials used to create the first 5 live/work studio, zoning compliance and fees, as well as electrical, heating, and sprinkler system installations.  By recovering these costs, The Reliquarium collective will be in a much more stable position to once again take up the challange of purpose based warehouse renovation.


B)$10,000 – Administration and Marketing for Phase 2: With the second installment of $10,000 The Reliquarium organization would be able to afford the initial startup costs associated with the expansion of the collective, including the aquisition of additional insurance coverage, administrative fees, and a backup fund for the rental.


C)$10,000 – Capital Improvements for Phase 2:  
With the third investment of $10,000 The Reliquarium organization would have the financial mobility to invest in the shop and safety equipment necessary for opperating a safe and productive workshop that offers the widest possible range of equipment.  Investments in ventilation, power, and safety for shops such as welding and woodshop will be included here. 



OUR THANKS

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have shown us support in the past and we appreciate your patronage as we take up this endevour.   We are using this funding campaign not only as an opportunity to market our organization and prepair for the growing demand for Reliquarium works, but also to share our skills and knowledgebase with our community.  This is our chance to offer a haven for creative minds to develop thier unique practice and to be a part of seeding the next generation of artistic expression. Much respect. Thank YOU.


***REWARDS***

All doners who choose rewards will recieve personalizd emails regarding their patronage.  Additionally, any questions regarding reward options are welcome and additional media for any product may be requested at any time.  For more information find us on etsy or visit the reliquarium facebook page!  Keep in mind that all proceeds for these options go directly to the budget outlined above.  These artists are donating their time and products to make this dream a reality.  Help us manifest this future together!