“a unionized workers co-operative with a mission to transform labour practices within the arts and cultural sector”
VALU CO-OP X Coming Together Mutual aid | Vancouver, Canada
VALU CO-OP and Coming Together Vancouver collaborated on a set of artist-designed and artist-produced specialty items in the summer of 2020, in order to support the needs of our communities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was an absolute pleasure collaborating with this hard-working team to fight for critical access to healthcare, housing, and workers’ rights within our community. Our artists got together, designed a line of beautiful and powerful shirts/totes/buttons/stickers that spoke to living through the pandemic, the labour movement, worker solidarity, and more. Each item was then made by our unionized co-operative workers in our Chinatown Studio and contributed directly to mutual aid initiatives in the Vancouver community.
BIO
The Vancouver Artists Labour Union Co-operative 溫哥華藝文工會合作社 (VALU CO-OP) is a unionized workers co-operative with a mission to transform labour practices within the arts and cultural sector. We produce high quality, sustainably made campaign materials and creative services at our Chinatown Studio. VALU CO-OP’s founding team are also the founding members of the union which represents them: The Arts and Cultural Workers Union (ACWU), IATSE Local B-778, established in January 2020. Democratically operated by our artist-members, we are value driven and believe in empowering artists and cultural workers through fair, secure, and flexible employment that supports artists to do what they do best — make art.
Shira Anisman is a proud worker-owner of the Vancouver Artists Labour Union Co-operative, where she co-leads production of union made goods. She is also an illustrator, working primarily in digital mediums with an interest in hands on practices as well. She received a BFA in Illustration at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2020.