Julie-C on The Pop-Up!: Building Creative Solidarity
Watch Julie C on The Pop-Up! Show
Last night, The Pop-Up! hosted Julie-C, a prominent Seattle creator and community organizer, for a deep dive into the city's evolving creative landscape and the power of collective action. Julie-C, who describes her work as building "creative solidarity for collective liberation," shared profound insights into how art can serve as a tool for self-growth, healing, and unlearning systemic toxicities.
Cultivating a Local Creative Ecosystem
Julie-C highlighted her work with On the Block Seattle, a hyper-local creative ecosystem located on 11th Avenue in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood. This initiative operates across four distinct spaces—Blue Cone Studios, The Study at Crybaby, So Below Photo and Design, and their new street-level storefront, gallery, cafe, and all ages performance venue Eleven:Eleven, supporting over 50 resident artists.
Key features of this creative model include:
Reciprocity Over Rent: Unlike traditional studio shares or temporary residencies, participants do not pay rent; instead, access is based on authentic relationships and "symbiosis".
Community Programming: The ecosystem provided 7,000 hours of free art programming last year, including workshops, drop-ins, and marketplaces.
Mutual Aid Spirit: Julie-C noted that the community-driven care seen in these creative spaces draws from the same "giving a damn" spirit that fueled rapid-response mutual aid in Seattle during the 2020 protests.
Reimagining the Creative Economy
A major focus of the interview was Julie-C's perspective on the future of creative industries. She challenged upcoming artists to broaden their view of creativity beyond just making a "product" for monetization.
Her vision for a thriving local economy includes
Rejecting Corporate Metrics: She argued that the traditional metric of success—how much wealth an artist can generate for someone else—is unsustainable in a shifting technological landscape.
Building Independent Lanes: Julie-C emphasized that Seattle artists should stop emulating dying, corporate-dominated industries and instead focus on creating strategic, locally-based creative ecosystems together.
Collective Strategy: She urged creators to "collectivize what are very limited resources" to ensure survival and growth in a challenging economic climate.
For those looking to engage with this movement, Julie-C recommended visiting Eleven:Eleven, open weekdays daily, or their “digital front page” at www.elevenelevenontheblock.com.
Don't miss out on these essential community conversations! Tune in to The Pop-Up! every weeknight at 9:00 PM across all Converge Media streaming platforms.
