Helping to keep visual arts and artists in our communities
LFTA in brief:
LoveFromTheArtist (LFTA) is the invention of, and is managed by, social entrepreneurs Ian Lacey and Lynda Harvey. It is intended as a means to contribute to the visual arts in Britain and the UK through the development of a mini “economy” that allows artists to trade with the public and earn income to support their artistic works.
LFTA is based on fair trade, is non profit making, supports a wide range of artists and artistic styles and provides an open and fair opportunity for British artists, photographers and illustrators, for whom it is free to use.
LFTA focuses on helping small shops, often community organised ventures, to find and support artists in their local communities as well as allowing artists to sell work directly to the wider public through their pages on this website.
Ian Lacey and Lynda Harvey are both Fellows of The Royal Society of Arts (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).
Supporting British arts and crafts
Enabling the business of being an artist
LFTA aims to help visual artists in practical ways by providing access to products and technologies that help them make a living. Indeed, several contributing artists on this programme have stated that LFTA is the key factor in their ability to operate and develop as artists, and to make a living from their work.
LFTA enables artists to create saleable products, greetings cards, art prints, calendars and gift wrap, at cost price, so that they can sell these things at retail price and earn the full margin for their effort.
Artists starting out on their commercial enterprise are helped enormously by the very low minimum quantities of product they can buy through their LFTA membership, which enables them, in turn, to develop new business without high risk or large investment.
Shops subscribing to LFTA also benefit from our low minimum quantities – as low as just ten cards of any mix of designs they desire. This helps everyone by opening the fantastic LFTA content to even the smallest shops to stock, and by allowing shops to ‘test the water’ with small amounts of work they might not otherwise have tried out on their customers.
LFTA is a community company, serving an invited community of artist contributors. It is not and does not offer a ‘printing service’ and its creative facilities are solely for the use of its members. LFTA is a programme you should consider if you are a visual artist, illustrator or photographer and you are serious about developing your commercial presence through print based products. Go to our registration page if you would like to apply to join, or if you would like to open an account as a trading shop and access our artists’ creations at wholesale prices.
Find out more about our Love From The Artist programme here or read our mission statement.
There is more information about being a contributing artist on LFTA here: Joining LFTA
