The Barter Collective

The Barter Collective

2009 - Present


The bARTer collective is a collective of artists, designers, educators, thought provokers, dreamers, service workers, and citizens who host a mobile exchange space. we trade ___________ for _____________. once we fill in the blankety blanks, we adapt our systemic platform to suit each happening.

The bARTer collective believes in reImagining the contemporary notion of exchange of currency for product or service. our action-based inquiries originate in a belief of every human needs to be actively creative and actively involved in their community.

Our motivation is driven by citizenship and the need to vitalize and contribute to our local community. our approach is to create dynamic situations that present alternative means of exchange where active creation gives way to goods and services. We would gladly trade the mass produced for blowing kisses and hand written notes.

dialogue + creative voice + action + social change = bARTer.

The bARTer collective has employed several tactics and strategies to produce exchange. Some examples are the Recipe Exchange, the Seed Ball Exchange, the Street Coat Exchange, The Public Reading Exchange, The Stencil Exchange, The Image Transfer Exchange, The Personal History Exchange, and The Kissing Exchange.

Most recently, the bARTer collective was invited to perform at the Denver Art Museum in their exhibition Bloom where the team initiated Voices of the Plains. The collective also took a huge role in the memorialization of the Floods of 2013 through a social healing exchange in collaboration with the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art called The Flood Project. The collective has also performed across the country in St. Louis and Chicago at Version Fest 2010. The collective also received a grant from the Urban Art Fund offered by the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs.