Art of 502 is built on the concept that the art of community is the core of the human experience. We believe communities flourish by creating spaces for connection and cooperative life. We aim to cultivate connected neighborhoods through sharing of community skills, resources and spaces.
But what does that mean? What is the Art of Community? What is a Connected Neighborhood?
We believe the Art of Community is the way people live, work, and enjoy their lives cooperatively, sharing spaces, engaging with their neighbors, learning from each other and growing as people and neighborhoods to create a better environment to live our lives, raise our children, and leave for future generations to enjoy.
Connected Neighborhoods are not simply places – they’re places where we live in contact with each other, seeing each other as we, not us-and-them, turning strangers into neighbors and friends who see how living together in community makes our families, neighborhoods and city a better place to live.
What skills and resources does my community have? How can I share my skills with my neighbors? How will they share them with me?
Do you have hobbies or make crafts? Did your family teach you to make things from wood or change brake pads or fix a sink? Maybe they taught you to knit, or spin wool into yarn. Can you grow a garden in your backyard? Did you learn to cook healthy meals when a loved one was diagnosed with diabetes or heart disease? Come show your neighbors how to do and make for themselves, and how we can have everything we need, right in our own neighborhoods.
It’s more than that. Do you work in a profession that encourages you to give back? Need CE or pro bono hours? Is your field of expertise one that may not be accessible to everybody for reasons of expense, location or time? What seems like a small amount legal, financial or healthcare advice might go a long way toward making someone’s life better. Come give back by helping the people who live where you live.
If you’ve ever been grateful for a skill someone taught to you, there is someone in your neighborhood who would be grateful to be taught. Our neighborhoods are full of people with skills and people who would like to learn them. Art of 502 wants to help those people meet and flourish.
Our neighborhoods are better when we come out of our homes, share what we have, and teach each other what we know. We can live safer, eat better, breathe more freely, and thrive economically if we do those things together.
That’s what we believe. That’s our mission. That’s the Art of 502.