Please join us this Saturday, June 6th, as we celebrate 1 year of coworking and community, and welcome in our sophmore year. See you there. It wouldn’t be the same without ya.

An opening reception takes place on Saturday, August 16, from 7- 10 p.m., featuring live music by Houston-born, Berlin-based DJ Plank who will spin tracks ranging from Krautrock to Japanese new wave.

Click for: Press Release
Visit the artists’ websites: Kristy Peet, David McClain, Jennifer L.F. McNichols

We’re back at Beaver’s again this Wednesday, July 9th for another edition of Green Drinks!

Remember, 25% of all proceeds from the special green drinks and appetizer menu go back to Caroline!

If you enjoyed the Beaver’s Green Drinks station at the Caroline Collective Opening Party, they’re keeping the party going every Wednesday this summer with weekly happy hour featuring drink and appetizer specials from 5-10pm, $4 appetizers, $3.50 beer and $5 cocktails.

This week, Keep the Energy Flowing at Caroline Collective! Support local start-ups and small business ventures with Caroline Collective, Houston’s newest entrepreneurial location. This Wednesday 25% of all drink and appetizer specials will go towards keeping the lights and energy flowing at Caroline. Snack on refreshing bites and bevs while supporting local community initiatives!
Beaver’s Icehouse
2310 Decatur Street
Houston, TX, 77007
713.864. BEAV (2328)
www.beavershouston.com

Check out Houson Press’ HouStoned Blog’s online gallery of the Caroline Collective Opening Party.

Contributor Keith Plocek and photographer Mark Austin were in the house Saturday night to capture the symbiosis of the city’s creative and technological communities.

image: Mark Austin

If you didn’t make it out to the party, you missed a heck of a bash. Over 500 people streamed through the doors of Caroline to witness Houston’s first coworking space in action.

We’ll have many more photos and thank yous through out the week, but for now you can check out some of our Flickr favs here. Don’t forget to tag your photos with “caroline collective” and add them to the Flickr Photo Pool here.

Thanks again to EVERYONE who made this happen. It’s only just begun.

image: Ed Schipul

ArtStorm is proud to present the first solo exhibition of Galveston native Patrick Turk’s elaborate collages, titled Kaleidoscoptical Super Revolution!, Turk carefully manipulates photographic imagery into distorted patterns and shapes by cutting and assembling each piece by hand, resulting in a one-of-a-kind decoupaged relief of paper and resin. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, June 7, 2008 from 7- 10 PM, and the work will be on view through July 6, 2008.

‚ÄúMy goal is for the viewer to be gripped by a visceral and cathartic experience,‚Äù says Turk. ‚ÄúEach of my pieces exhibits intense detail–a reflection of humankind‚Äôs relationship to time and the processes of self-realization. I seek for the viewer to find some degree of illumination through his or her relationship to the fragmented, yet intricately ordered components of each piece.‚Äù

Patrick Turk is a self-taught artist from Galveston, TX. He has been working with paper and exploring the possibilities of collage since 1999 when he was looking for a medium that he could carry around with him during his travels. Initially the collages were fairly simple, but over time they have grown in size and evolved into complex and intense works of art. His work now comprises delicate hand-cut pieces of paper, pulled from source material that includes rare publications and original documents, as well as the occasional photocopy to accommodate the most repetitive of designs. Turk has shown at Lawndale, Houston; Retropolis, Los Angeles and The Mod Coffee Shop in Galveston.

ArtStorm is extremely proud to announce that, this summer, we are moving to an innovative new space in the Caroline Collective building, in the heart of Houston’s thriving Museum District. Beginning in June of 2008, ArtStorm will occupy two galleries in the newly renovated building on Caroline, just blocks away from Lawndale Art Center, the Center for Contemporary Craft, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, as well as the Metrorail’s Museum District station. ArtStorm’s new address is 4828 Caroline Street, Houston, TX, 77004. The gallery remains open every Saturday and Sunday from 12 Р5 p.m. or by appointment. ArtStorm can be reached on the web at www.artstormhouston.com or via email at artstorm.houston@gmail.com.

Additional information and images available by request.
For press inquiries, contact Megan Whitenton at meg.whit@gmail.com.

“We are (collectively) happy to announce the Grand Opening of the Caroline Collective, Houston’s first coworking venue! Please join us Saturday, June 7th from 7-10pm at the home of Caroline Collective for drinks, light refreshments and heavy celebration. The event will be co-hosted with ArtStorm featuring collage artist Patrick Turk and the esteemed tenants of Caroline. Your attendance is not only appreciated, it’s needed. After all, it’s all about all of us.”

Tasty hops provided by Houston’s Saint Arnold brewery

Check out the podcast here.

Thus inspired, Rice University graduate students Matthew Wettergreen and Ned Dodington are developing what they say will be the largest co-working space to date. The Caroline Collective is a planned 6,000-square-foot, two-building office and art studio space in the Museum District.

“I see it a lot as a product of our friendship and working relationship. He’s a bioengineer; I’m an architect,” said Dodington. “We started to collaborate on projects and are consistently wowed by the fact through a collaborative effort you can produce interesting results.”

Dodington said, fee-paying members as well as the public ‚Äî it’s seen as a magnet for freelancing or self-employed Web designers, programmers, artists, writers and other “creative types” ‚Äî will gather to work and hang out. (A Chronicle employee is among the investors.)

Wettergreen and Dodington, who are working to raise the $15,000 to $20,000 to renovate the space in time for a June opening, said they hope it becomes a community gathering spot. They plan to charge $300 per month for anytime access to a desk and facilities that will include a lounge, conference room and, if the members demand it, an administrative assistant. Occasional access will be available for $125 per month, or a private office ranging from $450 to $600 monthly. Five out of the seven offices available have already been committed.

Read the entire article here.