Online Peer-to-Peer Costume Artist Marketplace
In my last message, I teased the idea of an online marketplace. Now I want to share a little backstory on the project as well as next steps:
In 2021, Amy Sutton and I won the San Diego Opera Hack, an international online ideation summit that explored how technological innovations can enhance the production, presentation, and consumption of opera. At the time, this marketplace idea was called Performance Stock Exchange while we hunted for a better name and additional funding.
We had some great conversations with the Theatre Green Book in the UK and Canada Green Alliance for theatre about possibly launching outside of the US, where there might be more funding opportunities for technology, arts, and sustainability. Unfortunately, we were never able to get the budget for the web development necessary to bring our vision to life. Then in mid 2022, our other jobs got in the way of continuing to work on this project.
Flash forward to spring 2025 when I met with Maggie Whitaker, who organized an event on Sustainability in Design at the USA 829 NYC office and this idea of resource sharing came up over and over. So, I start resurrecting this idea that has been on a shelf for the past 3 years.
The initial idea was to roll out an exchange platform for all production areas at the same time. However, now I’m planning to start with costumes since it’s what I know best! I found a solution that will allow us to build this platform for WAY LESS money than what we originally thought. So I'm putting my all behind this idea! Once we have the bugs worked out, we’ll potentially expand to other production areas, likely starting with props. That said, there’s already an excellent platform for exchanging used light, sound, and other tech equipment and we’ll be using the same technology as GearSource currently uses.
Previously, I wasn’t into the idea of running a tech company, or a rentals company. I was deeply committed to getting back to being a full time designer after pandemic restrictions lifted. Over the last few years, I’ve realized that empowering other artists IS my calling; that running a rentals, recycling, and tech organization to ensure that other costume artists have the resources to be more equitable, sustainable, and accessible in their art is what I want to do most. Thank you for having my back while Conscious Costume finds its place in the costume arts ecosystem.
Sign up for the Tech Advisory Committee here
Linked here are some of the documents for CC’s next phases of development, I welcome any feedback or thoughts you might have:
Proposal Draft: The initial proposal that won San Diego Opera Hack 2.0
Roundtable #2: Feedback from community members to the initial proposal
CC Phase 3 Business Plan.docx: A draft of our business plan upon exiting AIBI and pivoting to include tech as a main component of CC’s business
