Listen to this post:

If you like buying art, you have to know about ArtLifting!

ArtLifting provides homeless and disabled artists the opportunity to earn their own income. The artists create works in shelters or art programs at disability-focused centers. ArtLifting then sells original paintings, art prints, and other products like phone cases, totes, and cards. The artists earn 55% of the profit from each sale, but they don’t have to invest money (that they might not even have) up front to get started. Since they started in 2013, five of their artists have gained stable housing. Since ArtLifting maintains the website and online galleries and does the outreach, artists stay focused on their work and their lives, not on admin.

There are so many things to like about this organization. It uses an anti-charity model. The artists create pieces to sell to individual collectors and companies they might not have been able to contact on their own, and then they get paid. And they don’t talk about their artists as people who need help, handouts, donations, or benefits. ArtLifting recognizes that these artists have talent and skill; what they lack is resources. Being represented by ArtLifting, artists from across the country may go on to teach art, sell their artwork to corporations, or be featured on the blog or their YouTube channel.

Here’s a captioned video of Liz Powers, one of the co-founders, talking about the organization.

And as a delightful teaser to get you to browse the online shop and the artist profiles: a couple of pieces from the website. This is Carnival Baby by Michal Baksh and Orb Clusters by Kenneth Williams.

I hope you’ll go check out ArtLifting right now!