The 2022 floods - what can we do to help our artists?

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Like many of you, I have been watching the absolute devastation and heartbreak caused by the recent floods in New South Wales and Queensland, knowing that once the headlines are over and the media has moved on it is going to take months if not years for people to recover - if they ever do!! I am so sorry for everyone impacted over the past few weeks and have been wondering what we can do to help. I then realised that there is something that we can do - albeit small, but never the less it will help some of our potters and their families get their businesses up and running again.

Whilst there are many talented potters all over NSW, the Northern Rivers area of NSW in particular is home to many many great potters, artists and other craftspeople so we have decided to do our little bit to help them recover their lives and their artisan businesses by helping with the purchase of kilns and other expensive equipment they need to get their studios up and running again. So today we are launching the Claymakers Flood Relief for Potters '22 campaign at both the Sydney and Brisbane Claymakers events in 2022. This is what we are going to do:

2 stallholder stands will be provided free of charge to potters who live and work in the flood affected areas of NSW and Queensland at both the Sydney and Brisbane Claymaker Expos in 2022. Selection will be based on need and expertise with a view to giving the two selected artists a kick start.

A small per person door entry fee will be charged to all buyer and viewer attendees wishing to visit the expo. This money will be donated to local potters who need help to purchase new equipment for their studios. In addition we will have donation collection boxes dotted throughout the expos in case people wish to contribute.

We will ask all participating potters at the events to donate a pot which we will raffle off on the Sunday of the 2 events. Proceeds will again raise money for this "potters helping potters" initiative

We will run a fund raising campaign by raising a GoFundMe page via our website immediately prior to and during each event.

We will also work with the local pottery clubs and associations to keep this as fair and equable as possible and to spread the word around to as many impacted potters as possible. It is only a small contribution but it will hopefully help a few talented people out there and lift the morale of others in the region. If we want our artists to make beautiful things we need to let them know that we care about them. I doubt this will be a multi million dollar fund-raising campaign - but it will hopefully help a few artists along the difficult road ahead. Lets see what we can do.

Over the next few weeks we will fine tune this campaign and let everyone know what we are doing, but in the meantime if you know anyone that could benefit from this please let them know. For further information please contact me at carole@livingclayaustralia.com.au.