Throughout the year, at the studio and in the community, we fundraise by selling various products and services to help us sustain regular arts programs at the studio and events in the community. If you have followed or been involved with us long enough, you will have noticed that we sell everything from Poinsettias during the Winter Holidays, Valentine’s Day Chocolates, Spring Flower & Vegetable Starters, to products like Coastal Imagination Masks, Accessories and even Painting Classes throughout the year!

We try to be as creative as possible with all our fundraising in order to keep classes, camps and events going! With the generous support of our studio patrons, volunteers, social media followers and sponsors, we have been able to continue to survive while so many galleries and venues close down. Just today, we found out that The Railway Club, a popular music venue, is closing due to high rents and low profits. In addition to today’s announcement, the popular Silk Purse Gallery and Music Box in West Vancouver is also set to be demolished and replaced with waterfront development. Read more about the Silk Purse story published in the North Shore News here: http://www.nsnews.com/news/west-vancouver-artists-decry-ambleside-studio-loss-1.2217067

There are others whose galleries and centres buzz to be closing and packing it in. As an arts and culture lover, I can’t help but feel sad not only for the communities and the lovely people who live and work here, but also for the future generations of children who each year, lose more and more of a connect to arts and culture with the lack of cultural organizations succeeding.

As a young girl growing up as an immigrant in Canada, my family and the people who immigrated with us made it a priority for us to learn, do, see and experience as much as possible in the name of multiculturalism and cultural education. Being part of the community and doing as much as we could even when it was at times difficult for our families to make it, was and continues to be a key ingredient in why so many people want to come here to live.

My question today is why are we allowing our own community to shun the thought of such greatness, cultural diversity and talent by failing to support our own local economies? Living in Vancouver makes our money-consciousness, in particular our spending and earning, a high priority that simply seems to weigh us down rather than empower us as a community. I can’t help but urge everyone in our community to really assess what we are spending our hard-earned money on. If we can shift our spending to support local BC based business owners; artists, designers, builders, farmers, we truly can make a difference in our cultural fabric.

Spring is always a busy time for us fundraising in our operations, and with the news of so many closures, I can help but write and give my two cents on the issues surrounding ‘shopping local’ and supporting local arts based initiatives. Since opening this business and studio in 2010, I have seen so many positive things come to fruition as a direct result of camps, classes, and exhibits that my heart really does ache when I think about a future without art and artisans.

At our studio, we truly do appreciate your support and if all you do is share this email with someone who you know cares about arts and culture, then that helps all of us spread awareness about the importance of community.

If you can help us with our fundraising initiatives this Spring, be sure to consider our offers below. We have some great local products and services that directly support the studio classes, kids art camps and events such as Art World Expo and Painting Dreams International Art Tours. We are also on the look out forVOLUNTEERS for Art World Expo as well as studio and gallery volunteers to help with the studio and ongoing fundraising campaigns. Please email or call us directly to join our team and help us keep our community creative.

We are also running our spring bottle drive for April and we would appreciate your help there too! Proceeds from fundraising initiatives this month will be helping with summer arts programs for kids art camps

as well as Art World Expo.