VirtuArte Vision

Our Mission...

Our Mission is to create an awareness of art, folk art, "fine" crafts and curios from the developing world and promote them to an international clientele, all the while helping artisans from these countries to generate a sustainable income that will support their families, improve the quality of their lives, continue their traditional craftsmanship and pass their skills on to the next generation.

It our belief that through the increased awareness of their art and the ability to generate an income, artisans will be encouraged and have the incentive to preserve their traditional weaving, carving, sculpting and painting and share their skills with the next generation.

Our Name...

Our Name was selected because it is short, simple, unique and memorable. It suggests the category of products to be promoted. According to Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, Virtu -- the root of VirtuArte -- is:

• a knowledge or love of, or taste for, artistic objects or curios;
• the quality of being artistic, beautiful, rare or otherwise such as to interest a collector;
• such as art objects and curios, collectively.

Our Guiding Principles...

In order to achieve our Mission we strive to operate our business by these Guiding Principles. We:

• offer high quality , handcrafted, commercially viable products
• offer products that support/preserve traditional arts and crafts
• work with artists/co-ops/business vendors who personally make the products or are closely involved in the creative process
• offer artisan produced products and never products mass produced in anonymous factories
• work with artists/co-ops/business vendors who provide or ensure fair prices, fair wages and good working conditions.
• provide as much product information as possible on each product page
• provide additional information on the artists/co-op/business vendors in order to promote them and their work
• never "private label" products or ask for exclusivity. It is important to us that the artists/co-ops/business vendors we work with receive the credit for their work and are successful.

VirtuArte is a "social business."

As defined by Muhammad Yunus, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and the founder of the Grameen Bank, VirtuArte is a "social business." That is, it has two motivations: maximizing profits and doing good for people and the world. Profits will be reinvested back into the company to expand its outreach and increase the number of artists and products promoted. Nonetheless, a percentage of the profits will be given back to the communities of the artists we work with to be invested in projects that will help in the economic development of those communities.