After a few years now of running my art consultancy business and having lots of wonderful clients I have decided it is long overdue to give something back – at least more formally. And I am going to do this in three ways:
1. Give my advice generously and for free. Artists are the lifeblood of this business and I am often asked by them for advice about how to sell their work/approach galleries/develop their brand. Please contact me here, through my website and put in the opening sentence ‘I would like a free artist consultation’ and I will get in touch should I think I can help you.
2. Every year I will donate money to plant 1000 trees. OK, I am obviously not going to do the planting myself but I have researched the ‘tree planting charity market’ extensively and have decided to link with One Tree Planted. This brilliant charity has won a number of important accreditations and planted 52,000,000 trees in 2023. They crucially don’t just plant the trees and leave them – they work with the local communities and environment to ensure that that the trees survive until they are established. I have chosen to buy trees in the Amazon in 2023 And if anyone wants to learn more about this, then check out this fascinating article from Smithsonian Magazine about the incredibly important work world renowned photographer Sebastiao Salgado has been doing there. In 2024 I donated the trees to ‘where they are most needed in 2024’.
3. I am going to do everything in my power to refuse to use and avoid using non recyclable bubble wrap.
Update Jan 2025:
In 2024 I tried to have a zero tolerance policy to this, but I fell at the first hurdle. Artists often have paintings already wrapped in the ‘bad’ bubble wrap and I realised that if I made them effectively chuck that out and buy new stuff, then I was just causing more landfill. I am trying now the carrot approach and that is to only use framers (they only use new bubble wrap) who use the good stuff and I turn a blind eye with artists who may be selling works from the studio that are already wrapped.
Trees donated 2023:
Trees donated 2024
