Artistic assistance

• By HAD CALDER
• Advocate business writer
• Published: May 25, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Standing behind the new Tipitina’s Music Co-op on Government Street during its recent grand opening, Clay Achee likes what he sees.

Not literally, though that’s no offense to the concrete building or the pleasant Midcity neighborhood into which it reaches, just a few blocks east of the Garden District.

But figuratively speaking, since he began using the co-op a few months ago, Achee can actually see his company, The Building Studios LLC, knocking out enough video and music production projects to get more of a name in the market.

“Then maybe people will call you and you don’t have to call them,” he explained.

Looking a little further, he can see Building Studios, which he runs with three friends out of an apartment near Chimes Street, making enough money to cover its costs.

And from there, perhaps most importantly, he said, “I can see actually being able to pay myself.” 

“As a small business owner,” he notes, “you’re always the last person to get paid.”

Achee, who came back to Baton Rouge after five years at Savannah College of Art and Design, is just one of the 1,200 members the Tipitina’s Foundation has helped in the five years since it established the co-op.

The locations in New Orleans, Shreveport, Alexandria and now Baton Rouge provide workspace and office and production equipment for musicians and digital artists to help them make more money and fuel the state’s culture industry.

“It’s a job-skills training and economic development project,” said Todd Souvignier, technical director of the Tipitina’s Foundation who has spearheaded the opening of the co-ops.

For $10 a month, the co-ops give members access to technology — from conventional office machines to software such as Pro Tools and Final Cut Pro, “the kind of stuff real musicians need to get their hands on to do some real work.”

Souvignier said 1,200 musicians and digital artists use the various co-ops 12,000 times a year to check e-mail and make phone calls or faxes to book tours or use computers to make press kits, Web sites or MySpace pages.

Souvignier said the co-ops serve “people ranging from 12 to 82 years old, with income levels from basically zero to a half-million a year.”