Giving back feels great.
This summer was a rough one and I had to do some soul searching around all the injustices happening in the world. I was talking to my friend Marja of MGG Studio about how we could give back to our community as creators. We wanted to shine a light on BIPOC Bay Area artists and raise money to give back to our local community. We came up with Craft Gives Back, an auction for justice.
100% of the proceeds went to a local non-profit called Planting Justice in Oakland. They help communities build food gardens, educate around food resilence and give healthy food to low income families. Our little auction ended up raising over $1,000! Not bad for the first time out.
The auction ran from Sept 18 - 20th, 2020 on the Instagram feed @craftgivesback. We had 10+ BIPOC artists on board and some beautiful handmade pieces to bid on ranging from jewelry, apparel, apothecary, home goods, illustrations and more.
Craft Gives Back was featured on Berkeleyside's blog as a Sit List weekend experience !, on the Sustainable Fashion Alliance's social media feeds, and Bay Area Made.
All in all it was a very fun, successful and enriching experience. Marja and I have talked about doing another auction in the future. Watch this space and @craftgivesback for an announcement.
I had donated a linen scarf, valued at $160.
