Toolshed was created by artist duo Susannah Sayler and Edward Morris (Sayler/Morris), founders of The Canary Project, a groundbreaking platform for deepening public understanding of climate change (2006 – 2020). Toolsehd is a platform working at the intersection of art, ecology, education and activism. Their tools are those that build a spirit of care, resilient communities, find joy and common cause. Toolshed believes in the generative power of poetry and the affirmative power of place—local knowledge and local collectivity.

Toolshed Exchange

As part of their residency at Basilica Hudson through the Hudson As Muse program, Toolshed has launched Toolshed Exchange: a tool lending library that provides Hudson-area residents access to tools and training, promoting a culture of collective stewardship and empowering neighbors to build and maintain more resilient and equitable communities. It is located on Basilica Hudson’s campus in the Green Trailer, 110 South Front Street in Hudson, New York.

It lends tools free-of-charge to members, including nonprofits, and membership is sliding scale.

Toolshed Exchange’s main goal is to become an infrastructure for sharing that supports the good work already happening in Hudson and the broader Hudson Valley. Like a multi-use tool, the tool library can do a variety of things, depending on what’s needed. Here are just some of the things Toolshed Exchange will be used for:

  • Education— supporting skillsharing and training in practical applications
  • Workforce development—offer support for small, independent entrepreneurs and cooperatives, or training that can lead to employment
  • Community empowerment—individuals and communities can accomplish more with shared assets, and things you didn’t know you could do until you had the tools to do it
  • Resilience—bank of quickly deployable tools to meet unexpected needs
  • Equity—makes tools affordable and accessible to those who need them most
Photos by Angelina Dreem

The Hudson As Muse Basilica Back Gallery Artist In Residence Series is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

The Hudson As Muse Basilica Back Gallery Artist In Residence Series is supported, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the New York State Governor and the New York State Legislature.