Artists' Co-op not typical business

Sometimes a business is exactly what it says it is, no matter its legal structure. That is That’s Knot All Artists Co-Op’s story, in the Pier 7 building on First Street. The store sells a variety of art by the 13 artists renting space and sharing in the store’s management and decision making. The artists rotate staffing the store; each is responsible for a thirteenth of the shifts monthly. Lisa Judy, not the artists, own the business.

Karin Silvernale, a mixed media artist emphasizing monoprinting, was working last Saturday. She prefers Judy’s structure, saying “I like the whole co-operative spirit, working with other artists. It is that support you get working with others.” This is Silvernale’s second stint at the Co-op, having returned in April.

Silvernale pays a membership fee, rents space and participates in consensus decision making with the other 12. While Judy owns the business, the place is “all about the artists and the artists having a voice in the decision making process. [Judy] wants a place for the artists to work and grow. She is very supportive and active,” Silvernale said.

Judy’s philosophy and values are a direct extension of her grandparents, especially her maternal grandparents, Jerry and Donna Blades, who originally ran an auto parts business at the Pier 7 site. “The co-op is an extension of their giving back to the community,” says Judy.

Taking a 2011 Town of La Conner exploration for shared artists’ space into her own hands, Judy and her grandfather opened That’s Knot All Artists’ Co-Operative in their space in early 2012. As Judy emphasizes, there is “no other space that an artist can display and sell works and take home 80 percent of the sale.”

Silvernale echoes that: “We have a place to sell artwork, be part of the community and talk to customers. There is no middle man. We get to know them and interact with them.”

Judy’s mantra: “Life is what you make it. Plant something positive. If you can’t find something positive, start pulling weeds.”

Silvernale’s experience: “The spirit of the co-op is really here. We don’t worry too much about the legal structure. It is a true co-op with every artist having an equal voice and an equal say.”

Judy will be changing the business to a two partner LLC by year’s end. Her intent is to stabilize the budget, increase profits and have those funds return to the artists and into a scholarship fund for young artists.

That will fulfill a dream she hatched with her grandfather when they first opened That’s Knot All Artists’ Co-Operative. That’s co-operative teamwork first to last, even if it doesn’t meet the legal business structure of a co-op.\

That’s Knot All Artists Co-Op

128 South First Street

La Conner, WA 98257

(360) 399-1660