Twenty-Four Years Later: The Original Pursuits Society
Founded in 2000, The Clasheerian Order (TCO) was dedicated to empowering creative individuals and promoting 'Quality Art.' Its initially declared ambition was overshadowed as fostering art creation and appreciation and making individuals creative became its de facto goal due to resource constraints, eventually leading to the organization's unsustainability. Asher Wolfstein believes that despite the lack of technological aids like social media at the time, TCO's reach was a result of its members' passion. Learning from TCO's experience, Wolfstein, with Maus Merryjest, has founded the Original Pursuits Society (OPS) to sustainably empower creatives. They also established Original Pursuits LLC, with the "Be Gay. Do Crime." initiative to use profits for philanthropic support of creative endeavors, rejecting traditional profit investment models in favor of open-source development and knowledge democratization. This new venture welcomes active participation to drive its mission of supporting individual creativity.