Creating new ways of working – together

Smart is a solidarity economy cooperative for freelancers, creatives and artists. We pool entrepreneurial resources and risks to establish sustainable working conditions for us all.

Smart facilitates regular employment for people struggling with complex, short-term and changing work conditions, or helps restructuring their self-employment in a sustainable manner. Smart also takes on the greater part of administrative work. Members and users benefit from the coop through:

• Full integration in the social security system
• More freedom for their core work activities
• Protection in major risk areas
• Long term planning security

Lastly, Smart creates a network of communities sharing knowledge and skills. Our services

We are an open cooperative striving for an efficient, self-sustaining and solidarity-based structure. All coop members are co-owners and participate in democratic decision-making regarding structures and processes. This growing community makes possible a wide range of services for its members, at cost. Future profit will be fully reinvested in broadening services offered.

Smart is here for everyone whose working life has little to do with so called standard employment. We are not limited to any specific branch. Members and users of our cooperative are artists, cultural professionals, creatives and ‘new’ self-employed, for instance, in science, research, and the health sector. Increasingly, Smart is an alternative for licensed practioners such as professionals in IT and photography.

We are rooted in the independent arts and culture sectors. Founded in 1998 in Belgium (Smart = société mutuelle pour artistes), Smart has rapidly succeeded in winning a broad target audience. Eight countries have established independent Smart coop offices with support from Smart Belgium. Smart Austria was initiated in 2011 and is an active cooperative since May 4th, 2015. Since then we are integrated into a network of knowledge and solidarity with Smart partners throughout Europe, discovering and developing new ways of working together.

Interested? We’d love to hear from you via email or phone call, or meet us in person.