They see art as more than just a hobby or something they do to distract themselves now, they see it as something they can do to improve their situation.
FOR SEAN O’RAWE, Scott Buckley, Hanna, Jadson de Oliveira and John Adams, art is more than a hobby – it could be a step to improving their lives.
Four of these artists are experiencing homelessness, while O’Rawe has fibromalgyia, and all of them have had their challenges in life. But thanks to a new website, ArtCraft.ie, set up by Dublin-based Antonia Caravateanu, they are getting the chance to use their skills to make money and help themselves.
It was while working at Google on various fundraising projects for charities that Caraveteanu came up with the idea for ArtCraft. She wanted to step outside of the traditional charity system and empower people to earn money for themselves.
“While working on that I started thinking of a way we could empower people directly and not necessarily go to charities,” she explained.
Obviously charities do amazing work. But what I was trying to do was a project where people who need money get the money directly through something they do, so they earn [the money].
From there, she had to come up with the item that people could sell in order to make an income: “I knew from working with Focus and the Simon Community there are quite a lot of homeless artists, so that’s why I came up with painting.”
She then developed ArtCraft, which enables artists to sell their work as original pieces, printed on canvas or even on phone cases.
For Caravateanu, ArtCraft accomplishes two goals: “It allows [people] to make an income and allows them to gain some self confidence that they would lack when they end up in this situation where they find themselves homeless.”
The remit was expanded to people living with a disability, as this may affect their ability to work.
“For all of them it’s their main outlet either for expressing themselves or coping with a difficult situation that they are in, and all of them were painting before going on ArtCraft,” said Caravateanu.
“But what this gives them in addition to what art gave them before is they are working towards a goal and it might give them income. For each of them, income means something different. For homeless people, it might mean renting out their own place or paying for treatment, being able to afford things without being given things for charity.”
“They weren’t told before that they were talented”
For Caravateanu, ArtCraft is essentially a platform for disadvantaged artists to help themselves. She reached out to homeless charities across Ireland – some services offer art classes for clients - to recruit artists, and later was contacted by artists herself.
“They liked that they were approached as artists and not charity cases,” said Caravateanu. “They were told ‘you are very talented and I think your paintings can sell’, which wasn’t really something they had heard before. The second thing is this would allow them to make money.”
“You can create a website in a few days but then nobody comes to it,” pointed out Caravateanu. With ArtCraft, the promotion and setup is taken care of.
Some of them had never thought about selling their art. They thought it wasn’t good enough. This also helps them have a bit more confidence in their art. It creates a community – the artists have a Facebook group where they all talk to each other and send inspiration tips. It’s about them supporting each other.
Transparent
Caravateanu ensures that the process is “very transparent” and that the artists all know how many items they have sold.
The artists and ArtCraft split the cost of materials 50/50. Then, for each sale, the income is split 60/40 in favour of the artists. The money for ArtCraft is used mainly for marketing or events such as markets.
“I am very clear from the start what our prices are for each of the products and what their share would be,” said Caravateanu. “I pay them once a month based on what sales we had. I share with them fully.”
Currently there are five artists on the site, four based in Dublin and one in Northern Ireland, and most are affected by homelessness.
The artists all get to share their story on the ArtCraft website, and Caravateanu shared with TheJournal.ie two of the artists’ experiences.
“Scott is only 22 and he is currently living in Dublin in accommodation provided by a local charity,” she said. “He is also working with Focus Ireland on what he is going to do. He is one example of a person who is very talented.” She explained that if Scott was able to make money from his painting, it would help him in paying for new accommodation in a few months.
The oldest artist is John Adams. “He’s in his late 60s and he’s become homeless a couple of years ago after he had worked his entire life. Unfortunately things happened and he became ill and couldn’t work. He lost his apartment. All these things happened very quickly and now he is officially homeless and Dublin Simon Community is helping him by providing accommodation,” explained Caravateanu.
“The goal is to change people’s perception of who is homeless and who can become homeless,” she went on. “They are people you can relate to – they are not maybe what you have in mind about a homeless person.”
She gives the artists freedom in what and how much they say about themselves on the website: “It’s important their story is theirs.”
Caravateanu is on the lookout for more artists for ArtCraft. “The main criteria is they are good at what they do, that they can paint well,” said Caravateanu, who can be contacted through the website.
ArtCraft is currently offering 10% off each purchase with the code ‘ARTCRAFT10′
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