After some folks in my local furry community were struggling to find a venue to organize a meetup, someone floated an idea: what if furries in my city had their own venue? A space where they could host events, workshops, and classes, socialize, and collaborate on projects? An art and maker space where folks would have access to equipment and storage for their projects.

The crazy thing is that I think it might actually happen.

I'm excited by the idea of having a "third place"--someplace I can escape to to get out of the house, meet new people, work on projects, and feel a sense of community. I think that's something I've been lacking: a broader sense of community beyond just my extended friend network. I get some of that in kink, but I'm not actually particularly active in the local scene these days. The kink community is a context that frames most of my relationships and social interactions, but it's not necessarily something I feel like I'm "part of" beyond the people I am personally or transitively acquainted with.

I think having this third space will be particularly impactful for me because I work from home, and so don't really have a "second place" either. I spend most of my time either in my home or those of my friends; I don't spend much time out in the world unless there's a specific activity attached, and there aren't really any communal spaces I frequent.

The part of the process of planning and creating this space that has just absolutely blown me away is how well-connected these folks are, along with the range of impressive accomplishments they each personally bring to the table.

Within a few days they've assembled a team of local furries with experience in leadership positions, community organizing, running art studios and maker spaces, fundraising and applying for grants, and even an CPA accountant. They've self-organized into working groups, established a membership model, and collected pledges for membership fees totaling a few thousands dollars a month.

And this is all just from word of mouth over the span of about a week. I am amazed by how much talent is concentrated in this community and how quickly they've been able to mobilize to make this dream a reality.

The timeline is long; they're not expecting to be ready to move in until Spring 2026 at the earliest.

Still, I'm excited to see what happens.