Handmade Arcade announces funding from the Richard King Mellon Foundation in support of its Virtual Marketplace
Handmade Arcade is honored to announce support from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to design and build a custom virtual marketplace and corresponding maker curriculum or e-commerce toolkit to help support regional makers, artists, and crafters.
The creation of the Handmade Arcade Virtual Marketplace and maker curriculum represents a significant organizational shift that allows Handmade Arcade to adapt and continue to support makers during disruptions in the creative sector.
"The Richard King Mellon Foundation has been strategically investing in Pittsburgh's maker community for years," said Sam Reiman, Director of the Foundation. "Our makers are successors to Southwestern Pennsylvania's proud manufacturing past. And they are more important than ever as we strive to ensure our collective recovery from the devastating economic impacts of COVID-19. Some makers are pivoting successfully to the production of personal protective equipment, while others are creating important new remote work opportunities. For all those reasons, the Foundation is pleased to support the important work of Handmade Arcade to advance our makers further still."
Pittsburgh-based website firm Imagebox, known for delivering compelling web-based products for nonprofit arts organizations, is currently building the virtual marketplace, which will recreate some of the same elements that make Handmade Arcade's in-person marketplaces so successful. More than just a search-and-shop e-commerce experience, the Handmade Arcade Virtual Marketplace will host live demonstrations, connect customers directly with makers, and preserve a shopper's sense of visual discovery.
In partnership with Bridgeway Capital's Creative Business Accelerator, Handmade Arcade has developed a maker curriculum that assists makers and the creative community as they pivot from relying solely on in-person events to building a robust and comprehensive online business model. The curriculum is free to all makers and includes webinars, videos, downloadable pdfs, and live panel discussions with the Pittsburgh region's top creatives. See below for upcoming webinars available to the public.
“Being able to reimagine the in-person event as a cohesive, compelling, virtual marketplace has the power to help keep the region's makers sustained during a time when their annual schedule of physical marketplaces (and chances for revenue and increased audiences) continues to disappear. The maker curriculum will instruct makers on how to increase their social media engagement, web traffic, and e-commerce sales. Both the virtual marketplace and the curriculum are renewable resources that will support the area's robust maker community well into the future,” says Tricia Brancolini-Foley, Handmade Arcade's Executive Director.
The virtual marketplace and maker curriculum will be re-offered well beyond 2020. Plans include several smaller themed online events throughout 2021 to help makers recoup lost revenue in 2020, and a virtual option will accompany all future in-person events.
