Who is H.E.X.?

History

Founded by J. M. Liles, our maker collective is a growing community of artists, builders, and dreamers who are working toward one shared goal— supporting fringe artists who struggle to fit into traditional art spaces or the financial brackets they set.

Mission Statement

H.E.X. Collective LLC is a non-religious, non-ritualistic coven of creatives; a queer and femme-led art collective with a shared interest in goth, dark, and fringe arts. More than an organization— we are a statement— addressing societal and communal disparities that continue to edit, censor, and dictate creativity, even in traditional artist spaces. 

Our Name

Hortus Est Xenodochium “The Garden Is a Refuge.”

H.E.X. is not just an acronym, but a declaration— that in the hidden, the foreign, the darkly, and the estranged, there is still beauty worth cultivating. This is the essence of our collective: we are fertile ground where the displaced, the divergent, and the alternative gather.

A sanctuary, not a gate to be kept.

Structure & Membership

This coven exists for artists that are queer, and/or queer-allied, leftist, punk, post punk, goth, and/or goth-adjacent. Artists who are drawn to subcultures of horror, irreligious and anti-establishment lifestyle— pushed to the dark fringes of creativity. Artists who have been misrepresented based on aesthetic and content rather than intent and, therefore, overlooked due to societal discomfort. Many of us have been made to feel like outsiders in traditional art spaces by those who still think black is the absence of color— while we understand it to be the totality of it.

  • COLLABORATIVE MODEL: Each member contributes to the sustainability of the collective through elected positions, shared dues, labor, and decision-making.
  • DIVERSITY OF PRACTICE: Members may work across mediums—painting, sculpture, writing, fashion, sound, and installation, and more.
  • ELECTED POSITIONS: We will use annual positions to keep our members focused and directly involved.

Vision

We are building something living— an ecosystem rooted in mutual support, accessibility, and collective growth. A space where our artists retain agency over their work, where their labor is respected, skill can be honed, and community is not a byproduct, but rather the ground from which we grow.

As a new collective, we promise to strive toward cultivating a safe, affirming community for our members to express themselves in ways that are both transformative and healing. 

 

 

Become a Member

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