Today we’d like to introduce you to Sunne East.
Hi Sunne, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
The economic impacts of the last few years re-routed many SLC locals with healing and wellness-centered livelihoods to seek alternative business models with new approaches. Bringing together collective talent and wisdom in an aggregate space holder group, we began to share expenses and networking tasks, allowing the design of a diverse program of classes and events hosted in a beautiful space in the heart of Sugar House.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Owners (East and Benedict) drew from previously explored models to create guidelines for culture development and customer care which came together smoothly, but not everything in the foundation building process has been a walk in the park! One of our challenges has been implementing pricing structures that reflect the needs of both business and clientele.
The Local Co-Op hosts a number of individuals and companies who lead a variety of classes both private and public. A large part of our studio instructor base consists of a devoted group of teachers from Mosaic Yoga, who implement a direct student-to-teacher payment method. Mosaic is an experienced circle of yoga instructors congealed as an entity as they worked together to serve their student’s needs through the onset of the pandemic and associated shutdowns and quarantines.
With the intent to make yoga available to everyone regardless of budget, Mosaic’s classes can all be attended by patrons making a donation within their means. Thus far this economic model yields both favorable and conflicting results. As a studio cooperative, we continue in the exploration of finding ways to be fiscally robust while living in alignment with our passions and convictions.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
The Local Co-Op is a healing arts cooperative in Sugar House (SLC) Utah, offering classes and special events centered on community connection and a wide array of healing practices.
TLC exists through the service and dedication of a Cooperative of healing-centered artists, teachers, facilitators, and space holders, committed to “enlivening connection through a contemporary set of healing arts that respond to the current needs of the community” as their mission states.
The studio space is a special place. Made possible through the contributions of a small handful of folks focused on community, it’s a humble, peaceful, and secure environment to be held in while engaging in practices designed for rest, recuperation, self-exploration, and self-expression.
The compounded stresses of the last few years and continuing societal impacts of economic uncertainty call for increased attention to self-care and recuperation. All studio offerings are fashioned to assist attendees in directing their own path of self-healing, through engaging community and regular practice of somatic (Within, Communion, Reverie, Wild Flow), breath, and sound therapies (RE-BIRTH, Frequency, Prism Kundalini, Truth Ritual, Do Nothing).
Sunné is part owner and healing arts curator at The Local Co-Op. Her background is in wilderness therapy and leading groups. She is a corroborator of the unique gifts and expressions of the practitioners she works with, coordinating a program of meaningful and relevant offerings for the shifting needs of the community.
Sunné’s focus is integration services (medicine, transition) and exploring the question: “What do we want to experience?”. She finds inspiration for creating programs and offerings through the study of symbols and their meanings. Etymology, psychology, sociology, books on myth, creation of the cosmos, and evolution of consciousness are some of her areas of interest.
Pricing:
- $18-33 Various weekly and monthly Studio offerings
- $175-450 6-8 week in-person group series on shifting topics
- Mosaic Yoga classes – by donation
Contact Info:
- Website: thelocalcoopslc.com
- Instagram: @the_local_co_op
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/100752662077176/
Image Credits
Carrie Cox, Ember Foust, Marcia Whitney, Nicole Santos, and Rocky Lavoie
