Te Henga Studios

Te Henga Studios Eco-Arts Retreat & Function Centre - Open Source Business Model Development Group.

This model of sustainable creative community enterprise is a start-up collaborative bringing together Permaculture principles and practices with the healing and creative arts for cross-pollination in a purpose-built creative retreat centre, studio gallery & sculpture park with a variety of seminar / performance / art / healing / workshop & maker spaces available*

Our core values are:
*Sustainability (Permaculture, Ecology, Conservation, Restoration)
*Creativity (the arts as a vehicle for personal expression & transformation, social change, community building, and to create a viable livelihood)
*Wellness (stress free living through body therapies, creative therapies, organic foods, herbal medicines and healthy engagement with the natural environment)

Te Henga Studios supports Social Enterprise, welcoming sustainable & creative groups from both the conscious corporate world and the general community. We seek to sponsor packages for charities, NGO's & associations by securing consistent revenue from corporate and tourism sectors.

We are happy to be working with Enspiral Accounting to develop our financial model and systems, and are grateful to ATEED out west for supporting us to begin the process of developing a clear business strategy. We hope to harness the collaborative decision making tools of Loomio to set our kaupapa and formulate our policies by creating an online space to share values and vision with our key collaborators.

We've spent the last year building the physical infrastructure of our living and producing environment - our main building was designed by sustainable architect Graham North and is powered by solar energy, with solar hot water for summer and an eco-woodburner & wetback for winter. Our zone one gardens are now offering daily harvests, and we have plans to develop the surrounding land with food forests and healing herbs.

This winter, we're shifting our energies to focus on developing our operational infrastructure, to create a way of living and working together that is harmonious and unique - a model where everyone contributes what they're good at, with skill sets & resources that can be shared with visiting groups and individuals to create a truly sustainable lifestyle that doesn't rely on daily commuting to the city.

We hope Loomio will help as we navigate this path together - and welcome input and guidance from those who have tried similar endeavours around the world.

We look at the year ahead as an income experiment where we test the market for our various offers to see which focus will become the best long term strategy for sustainability in our economic and operational capacities.

Ultimately, we hope to create a model of creative, collaborative sustainable living that can be easily replicated to help other groups become established, and to live, work & create income from the land they inhabit, and foster positive social change by supporting their communities and ecology.

To this end, we would like to partner and network with like-minded communities, groups & organisations both locally and globally. If our project resonates with you or your group / organisation, please contact us and become a part of this process.

Our goals are:
*To create a unique creative retreat centre with fully developed permaculture gardens, food forest, native medicinal herbs, restored wetlands, and showcase innovative models of sustainable practice
*To honour & celebrate the our place in the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area
*To offer space for groups to run creative retreats and to also make space for individuals to work on their own projects
*To develop local and international Artist & Writers in residency programmes, as well as Filmmaker / Permaculturalist / Technologist / Open-Source Ecologist in Residencies
*To hold regular workshops & offer internships in the Arts, Permaculture, Micro-housing, Creative Therapies, Rongoa Medicines...
*To host corporate and organisational retreats at sliding scale / complimentary rates, ie - 1 subsidized NFP group for every full paying corporate group
*To promote diverse & sustainable arts practice in the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area
*To create a community clinic with natural herbal products grown on the land, as well as offering a space for local wellbeing therapists to practice out of.
*To foster relationships with creative and social services, groups and organisations.

In summary, as a collaborative living collective with permaculture principles, we're committed solutions focused change-makers starting with ourselves, our vocations and our relationships with each other and the wider local and global community. We hope to document our iterative process of growth throughout the formative seasons and cycles that shape us - this is the beginning of the next stage of our development, & we would love you to share any resources, contacts or insights that may be helpful*

For more information about this process, or to get involved, contact [email protected] or visit our website: www.tehengastudios.com