Dear Friends and Supporters of the Hive,
For the past year, the Beehive Design Collective has been operating with few active bees dispersed around the Americas and even fewer bees tending to our Maine headquarters in Machias. As a result, we have been unable to maintain the webstore responsibly as our volunteer capacity has been minimal, suffering personal tragedies, navigating challenges from external forces, and trying to keep up with bills beyond our means in a financial climate that has prevented us from successfully downsizing our commitments. In order to give proper attention to the backlog of webstore orders and other urgent matters, we have temporarily shut down our online sales component of the collective. The store will reopen with improvements to its supply chain that offer off-site shipping and fulfillment, allowing us to focus on the production of materials rather than every step of the self-publishing process. We are looking forward to this necessary evolution of our art distribution methods.
We have also made the decision to begin the search for a new owner of the Historic Clark Perry House, our main base of operations in Machias, as our current formation as a group makes it unable for us to make payments at the rate that continues to be demanded of us after two years of intense efforts to refinance the property. Passing on this incredible building to a new entity will allow us to further focus on our art and its distribution, as well as the ongoing stewardship of the Machias Valley Grange. Here’s a link to the sale opportunity: 101 Court St, Machias, ME. Please be in contact if you are interested! There’s lots of wiggle room on the price, and we would love to sell this resource to someone in our networks!
We want to emphasize that the struggle with our webstore comes from our dire circumstances in Machias, not with the entire collective of decentralized educators, illustrators, and researchers doing work elsewhere in the world. It is our collective intention that the pause of our online store will give us time to reflect on building up the long-term health of our organization, support our sustained efforts to nurture movements in this challenging political time, and continue to create graphics campaign posters that inspire and strengthen our resistance to corporate globalization and oppressive conditions now more than ever. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work through these difficulties.
If you have ordered from our webstore and have not received your order, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and please know that we are committed to filling out your order in the coming weeks and months. Because things have been slightly chaotic, we ask that you fill out this form if you have not gotten your order from us: Beehive Distro Accountability.
With sadness and gratitude,
the bees 
