VERCI

Verci’s new space now has 10x more accessible outlets. Gone are the days of hunting for awkwardly placed outlets at coffee shops. Apply for the next cohort at our link in bio (Closing Saturday) Directed, Produced, And Filmed By @jooelyoon Starring: @katepittard @amiyoshimura_ Gaffer: @weezy_says PA: @williamhigbie

as we’re opening new chapters at @verci.la and our global community @artifexcommunity people have been asking us, once again... wtf is verci? more at verci.com

pov: you wake up and realize you live across the street from @vercinyc welcome to the new cohort: the fall renaissance directed, produced, and filmed by @jooelyoon

in 1978, the neighborhood below canal street didn’t have a name. just empty manufacturing lofts that artists were quietly turning into studios. there was nowhere downtown to go. studio 54 was in full swing uptown — velvet ropes, disco glamour, the most famous people in the world. downtown, three people were planning the opposite. steve mass, a filmmaker. diego cortez, an artist. anya phillips, the scene’s queen. they found a building at 77 white street for $15,000 and called it the mudd club. mass made it for the artists. he let them in for free, paid keith haring to hang out, and eventually gave him the fourth floor to curate as a gallery. the crowd was the décor. basquiat before he was basquiat, painting on napkins at the bar. madonna before she was madonna. debbie harry, david byrne, klaus nomi, lydia lunch, the ramones. the scene was small enough that the painters knew the bands knew the filmmakers knew the poets. people magazine called it the closest thing to 1920s berlin. it closed in 1983 — five years. by then area was opening. then danceteria. then limelight. then every downtown space that ever tried to put a painter, a dj, and a filmmaker in the same room. third spaces: a series exploring creative communities of the past to build new ones today. @vercinyc

new york’s beautiful people & energy are concentrated in little rooms. here’s some of our favorites to check out (: part 2. coming soon let us know where else to go!

Valentin is a member at Verci, and has invited us for a look in the beautiful family-owned hotel he grew up in. After the wonderful tour, he welcomed the Verci community and we brought 30 founders and creatives there for our Austria Summit in March. The trip was full of love and Liquid Death and sauna and skiing, and we got a taste of the magic Valentin grew up surrounded by. Thank you Chris Duncan for filming and telling this story of a beautiful place. @chris_dunc Thank you Valentin and family for your hospitality and reminding us how simple life can be. @vleosch @beimaxpitztal

we hosted a week long retreat for 30 founders and creatives in the austrian alps. throughout the time we’ve been building this community, international retreats have been some of the most impactful and fulfilling experiences. it’s been a catalyst for the beginning of fruitful relationships, lifelong memories, and life-changing moments. so we’ll be back.

verci poconos retreat we’re hosting our next retreat next week in the pocono mountains on april 24th-27th 3 nights, 4 days a curated group of founders + creatives a few days outside the city a private lodge on open land with a pond, shared spaces, yoga, hiking, lake time, and unstructured space throughout the day chef-made meals by Chef Julian @heirloomsupperclub register at link in bio

are we in a new renaissance? the renaissance is remembered as an era of genius. art and science intertwined. beautiful objects, radical ideas, people who seemed to operate at the edge of what a human being could do. but that flowering was a product of the environment. the plague swept through europe in the mid-1300s and killed roughly a third of the population. the church had no explanation. the frameworks people had organized their lives around lost a lot of power. when the ground of all understanding began to shake, smart people began exploring the human experience — turning to ancient greece and rome for wisdom, building a curriculum called humanism around the radical idea that human life and creativity were worth taking seriously on their own terms. then gutenberg built the printing press, and philosophy, art, mathematics, theology were all suddenly in conversation across borders and disciplines. it wasn’t magical genius. it was that the conditions existed for genius to emerge. we see similar conditions today. institutions are visibly losing authority. ai is restructuring how knowledge gets made. a pandemic left unresolved questions about how we work, gather, and relate to each other. but a renaissance doesn’t purely happen through circumstances. the work is in the reaction. what drove the original one were people who thought seriously about what their moment meant and led a vision others could build upon. artists willing to lead. thinkers with clear vision. people who take the energy of the era and point it toward beauty, toward meaning, toward some idea of what human flourishing looks like now. the conditions are here. we need creative minds to build the way forward. @vercinyc — a second home for the creative & curious

the invitations of nyc’s most peculiar nightclub. in 1983, four guys from California opened a nightclub in a former Tribeca stable and called it AREA. they regarded it not as a business but as an art project. every six weeks, a crew of 40 gutted the entire space and rebuilt it around a new theme — Confinement, Suburbia, Natural History, Science Fiction. Keith Haring painted on-site. Warhol ran a Polaroid studio in the corner. Basquiat DJ’d. by the mid-80s, AREA was the place where the art world and nightlife in downtown New York collapsed into each other most completely. Warhol, Basquiat, Grace Jones, Madonna, JFK Jr. were all regulars. but the experience didn’t start at the door. before each theme opened, an invitation arrived in the mail - made by the club’s graphic designer Fernando Natalici, built to match the theme, and strange enough to keep. a loaded mousetrap inside an envelope. a communion wafer attached to a card. an acid tab. a dollar bill screen-printed. they were the first room of the exhibit. AREA closed in 1987. The invitations sell today at Sotheby’s. third spaces: a series exploring creative communities of the past to build new ones today. @vercinyc

our second event next thursday! la founders, join us for a curated dinner in west hollywood with @fwb.help & @patronfund . join the waitlist at the link in bio:)

hi la:) we’re hosting our first *official* event for verci los angeles next wednesday at @slowjamzgallery with @fwb.help ! we have an incredible lineup of creatives and culture makers who will be sharing some of their works-in-progress. tea & wine will be served. friends will be spinning vinyl. ~ link in bio to rsvp…see you there:)