Kickstarter

Habitable Spaces is an arts and agricultural project whose goal is to build a sustainable farm and artist residency program in Kingsbury, Texas. During their residencies, artists will create their own unique living structures that they will inhabit for the duration of their 3 month residency. The farm will pilot sustainable farming techniques and reach out to local and mainstream agricultural communities in Texas. It will be an artist run sustainable research facility, and will include public hands-on training sessions about grey water systems, creative and sustainable small home constructions, vertical farming, and drip irrigation techniques. We began the process of clearing the land in February 2011, with the goal of having the basic infrastructure complete and ready to receive its first artists in September of 2012. We will be raising money for the basic tools we need to build kitchen, bathroom and workshop structures.

Habitable Spaces is founded on a non-profit basis by New York City based artists Alison Ward and Shane Heinemeier and is fiscally sponsored by the Flux Factory in New York . As artists Alison and Shane are interested in living a life in which everyday actions such as gardening, communication, cooking and building become artistic actions. Moving beyond traditional notions of art-as object, the community created at Habitable Spaces will consider the art in interpersonal interactions, methods and spaces. Alison and Shane decided to create this new model of living after extensive research and experience in like-minded sustainable community experiments (e.g. The Waterpod Project, Flux Factory) and a desire to create an alternative to the predominant, wasteful and often unfulfilling service economies that many individuals are subjected to. This new vision will support artists in the production of large-scale interactive art works while exploring alternative forms of living. Since acquiring this land, they have been working to make Habitable Spaces a reality.