Support Rural Arts

Support the dream of ARQ

We have been providing rural artists with affordable living and work studio spaces for over 25 years. Generating thousands of works, in dozens of creative mediums.

Above all ARQ is a dream and a goal. It’s difficult to keep in operations, and has relied heavily on under-compensated labor (mostly David’s, but definitely Scott, Chris, Alex, & Zoë as well) throughout its history.

Your support will go towards keeping costs low for current ARQtists, and investing in structural repairs.

Pictured are five electric heat pumps, installed in 2024 as part of our BlocPower project.

Unfortunately, donations to ARQ are not tax-deductible. We are not a non-profit entity.

What would my “support” go to?

  • All our structures are timber framed and 75 to over 100 years old. The list of broken windows, painting projects, and socket replacements is endless.

    Much of our work is completed by current ARQtists work-trading rent through sharing their skills. Your support helps us make progress on some of the more immediate needs.

    Our 2025 goals: repair dry-rot floor in the Grey Barn on the Goldenrod level. Replace broken window panes in storage area of ARQ Barn, build a composting toilet outhouse to lessen pressure on shared bathrooms.

  • Every time a studio is vacant we try to pursue improvements to the space. Sometimes this looks like adding a sink, replacing floor boards, or painting the walls.

    Our 2025 Goals: We are planning to add gutters to both Metal Shop buildings, to mitigate the ground-level flooding that has been a recent issue. Planning to repaint the windows on the first and second floors of the ARQ Barn to preserve the wooden frames.

  • We believe in sustainable reuse building practices, to that end we are regularly checking the current inventory at Finger Lakes ReUse, and local demolition sites, to use these items in upcoming ARQ repair and improvement builds. Funds go to help us build our inventory of necessary materials when they become available (eg. roofing, lumber, building materials), at a fraction of the regular cost.

    We are on a long-term goal of replacing all our heating and cooling in each studio with electric heat pumps. In 2024 we installed 15 heat pumps in the ARQ Barn (!!), which was a monumental leap forward in this effort! We still have 4 more living and work spaces we’d like to add heat pumps to.

    We are also pursuing better weatherization solutions in all our buildings, and swapping out appliances for energy sensitive models.

  • To support our ARQtists, we encourage you to buy directly from them!

    Any funds donated to ARQ would go towards ensuring we can keep our studios and structures affordable and safe. The continued existence of ARQ will generate more art!