Laura Aufrère has worked for 15 years in the cultural sector, including five years as coordinator of the union representing social economy initiatives in live/recorded performance and the visual arts in France (UFISC). She has defended a thesis on independent venues as cultural commons (CEPN - Paris 13, 2024), and works on the dynamics of the social/solidarity-based economy and the commons in the cultural sector (collectives and shared initiatives, cooperation processes, governance, plural economy and logics of reciprocity, social protection, social models of solidarity, etc.). She is now coordinator of research and development at the cooperative real estate company La Main.
She is now research and development coordinator for La Main, Foncièrement culturelle. Set up as a Société Coopérative d'Intérêt Collectif (SCIC) with ESUS accreditation, La Main is a specific kind of community landtrust acting as a support and research-action tool helping communites to organize the shared ownership of cultural and artistic venues. Based on the issues faced by these venues (non-renewed or precarious leases, difficulty of access a building to settle in, rehabilitation needs, etc.), La Main supports and assists cultural venues in their real-estate management, in order to protect them from speculation.