Local artist collective launches collaborative community
Forworld Studios, a newly founded artist collective, includes six artists from the Kingston community: Francisco (Fran) Corbett, William Carroll, Hayden Frasso, 4CiD R4BBiT (Browz), Michaela Zinsmeister, and Constance Intounas.
The Journal discussed the collective’s launch with Forworld Studio members Constance Intounas, ConEd ’23, and William Carroll.
The idea to form the collective originated after Carroll and Corbett, sharing an art space at the time, expressed their dissatisfaction with what they perceived as traditional artist collectives and how they often function in self-serving ways.
The two hoped to form collectives around the values of inclusivity and collaboration, offering an encouraging, connected space where artists could interact.
“As a collective, we are mandated to building a better, more inclusive, more accessible, creative community,” Carroll said.
“[An inclusive community] is really important—to me specifically because I am on the spectrum,” Carroll added.
“I don’t find that there’s a huge place for disabled artists necessarily in the city all the time, at least in terms of breaking into the creative community. I found it very difficult.”
Carroll and Corbett’s collective began welcoming other members in July, with
their final member, Intounas, added in September. While each member is an independent artist, the collective aims to establish a space for collaboration.
Forworld Studios’ first major collaborative project is set for a November release—a zine discussing issues within the creative community and how they can be repaired.
Carroll said the collective intends to promote more interaction within the Kingston scene. This may be accomplished through future events where artists can gather and engage with each other.
“There is a number of collectives in town, but they all kind of just do things independently,” Carroll said. “To properly foster community, you have to interact with everybody.”
The skills each artist within Forworld Studios possesses are unique to themselves, which offers all kinds of possibilities for future collaborations.
“The best part about it is that we’re all making very unique, diverse types of artwork,” Intounas said.
“There’s someone working with oil paints, then acrylics, then spray paint. There are just so many different mediums that we use.”
While the collective is a recent development, it has already started to establish a welcoming community among its members where they can expand their talents in a workspace designated for creative exploration.
“It’s providing me a new opportunity to use different mediums,” Intounas said.
“It’s also a different kind of push because I’m surrounded by artists who inspire and motivate me.”
