September 2026
Move, meet, make visible
We bring the work to as many spaces as we can. People can try an instrument, encounter a piece of wearable art, book a service or become curious about the larger experiment behind the table.
Kilifi + Nairobi, Kenya · A living experiment
There is always an alternative.
A reciprocal network for people, practices and places finding another way to live, learn, make and belong.
01 Why The Alternatives
The Alternatives began less as an organisation than as a question.
How do we continue to live, create and support ourselves in ways that still feel connected to who we are, particularly in a world changing faster than many of the systems, cultures and communities around us can meaningfully respond to?
It is a question about artists, but it is not only about artists.
It is a question about cities, villages, work, money, culture, land, craft, education, tourism, technology, music, community and belonging.
It is also a question about what happens when systems that once emerged as alternatives eventually become institutions themselves.
Culture moves in cycles. Something begins underground as an experiment. People gather around it. A scene appears. Livelihoods form around it. Infrastructure develops. Eventually what was experimental becomes recognised, professionalised and perhaps mainstream.
There is nothing inherently wrong with this. It is part of how culture grows.
But something else must remain underneath.
There must continue to be places where people can experiment without immediately needing to turn the experiment into a product. Places where relationships can form before they become transactions. Places where people can try another way of working, exchanging, travelling, learning, listening or making.
The Alternatives is interested in this layer.
02 Where we begin
We are beginning with music, but the question is larger than music.
Music is the world we know from inside, so it is our first practical doorway into the experiment. We have seen what happens when the person making the music also needs that same music to carry almost the entire responsibility of keeping them alive.
We are asking whether different skills, relationships and exchanges can create enough support around a person that their creative practice has more room to move.
As the experiment has grown, we have met photographers, jewellers, builders, farmers, filmmakers, designers, sculptors, cooks, engineers and people who do not necessarily think of themselves as artists at all. Everybody knows something, needs something and has something they can potentially share.
Grow something.Make something.Repair something.Build something.Teach something.Host someone.Learn to exchange.Live with people.
Perhaps we also need places where we can learn how to live. Nobody needs to know everything. We can know different things together.
03 The experiment in motion
We are beginning with the things we already know how to make and do.
In September, we are moving through markets, gatherings and cultural spaces around Nairobi with recycled wood instruments, wearable art and ornaments, music, sound and collective experiences. Each encounter helps gather the relationships and resources needed for the next stage.
October 2026
Prepare the journey
We gather the sound system, confirm participating spaces, invite artists and begin building the profiles that reveal what each person does beyond music.
November 2026
Three weeks through Nairobi
We return with the sound system, moving through different rooms and inviting DJs to explore longer, freer journeys while their wider creative ecosystems share the space.
The person behind the performance
Hear the music. Meet the whole ecosystem.
The DJ may also be a designer, farmer, photographer, builder, guide, craftsperson, engineer or teacher. Their products can live on a table. Their services, projects and skills can be found through QR codes and visuals.
The performance becomes one entrance into a much larger relationship.
Join the November tour ↗04 How the exchange works
Built through real relationships.
Each exchange is matched, agreed and supported with care. The value is mutual and the terms are clear.
- 01
People
You bring a skill, a practice, useful hands or a genuine willingness to learn.
- 02
Nodes
A workshop, farm, studio, home or cultural space opens a door to what is already happening.
- 03
Match
We find where a person’s contribution and a Node’s needs meet.
- 04
Exchange
Contribution, learning, food, accommodation, access and personal time are agreed together.
- 05
Regeneration
Every good exchange leaves another possibility behind.
05 Beginning in Kilifi
The first Alternatives.
The pilot begins with musicians, artists, makers, educators, photographers, farmers, builders, writers and curious humans.
You might learn instrument making, contribute to a living project, create in a new place, share a meal, build a collaboration or meet people who are trying something different.
I’m interested ↘06 The nodes
Places where an alternative is already happening.
A node might be a farm, workshop, studio, kitchen, residency, regenerative build, listening space or a person willing to share a practice.
Grow and regenerate
Food, soil, planting, fermentation and ways of caring for land.
Make and repair
Wood, metal, instruments, tools and knowledge carried through the hands.
Create and exchange
Sound, images, performance, documentation and shared creative space.
Host and belong
Accommodation, meals, conversation and time inside a living community.
07 The invitation
Let’s find another way.
Tell us what you bring, what you are looking for, or what is already happening in your place.