About ArtEmpower
This is ArtEmpower, a member of the Fair Trade Federation providing a unique global exchange of fine craft traditions and inspiring accounts of female ascendancy in the most poverty- and discrimination-ridden cultures. We want this to be far more than a marketplace of exquisite and useful homewares. The program aspires to promote true cultural commerce, uplifting all involved, with aesthetics and education, and most importantly, financial power for those women most in need in our global society.
Yes, we invite all virtual friends/visitors to enjoy these items in their own homes, and as such we facilitate a secure purchasing process via our partner PayPal. But here you can also access stories of healing and hope in the women artists who exhibit the ultimate triumph over adversity, in areas that seem written off by modern society. Additionally, we bring you educational content, where tribal and scholarly experts discuss early examples of selected crafts and patterns, some dating back centuries. ArtEmpower aims to instill in the artists a pride of and a link to ancestral craft, and in the purchasers and students of world cultures a wonder in the variety and longevity of themes and production. This program also ensures that all materials are provided for the artists, and that they are paid upon completion of their pieces, rather than after sale. With money raised from donations and gained from commerce of their crafts, these women have risen to become community leaders and sustainable providers for their families, in some cases after years of extreme poverty and nightmares of warfare. We encourage you to browse this site frequently as we continue to invite more communities for participation, updated information on the UN Millennium Development Goal to champion gender equality, and for great gifts with a conscience.
We accept donations as well, which are tax-deductible, also safely exercised through PayPal. Please consider leaving your own thoughts and spreading the word via Twitter and Facebook, and of course the old-fashioned way, by word-of-mouth!
