Patronage isn't a new concept at all and they are websites who specialize especially in the subject such as Patreon or Kickstarter. Here we are targetting only people we've been helping for the last 17 years such as Artists, Art teachers, Students and Life models so quite a narrow field. The technology simply didn't exist then. We only invite or approve people who deserve and who work really hard with honnesty, Passion and compassion.
People who spend their time jumping from one gun to the next, copying ideas, using dishonest, up to illegal, methods to succeed temporarly or try/have tried to destroy who they decided are/were their competitor are asked to forget about joining this Program. We also want to know of any malpractice and will exercise absolute silence and moderation but will ask those at fault to leave or will close their program without letting their patrons know the facts.
People who get your support simply offer what you need in exchange that is rational and artistic. Simply join his/her group, ask and see what the rply is but usually creatives do say what they can offer in exchange. Muted responses means that the person is busy for another day or two or that he/she is not interested. You can leave the group at anytime. Messages may get moderated at anytime so please make sure you are nice and courteous when conversing. By making our good intentions public we know that anything we do or say gets used or copied and this is our way we've changed everything for the last 10 years and the same will apply to this concept... Until then please show your own Passion, compassion and humanity...
We reserve the right to keep 20% of what you pay to help us keep helping our creative world for a few more years to come... You'll need a goal to reach, financial or not withing a particular amount of time but won't loose anything if you don't. It's only to help Patrons understand the urgency. A Paypal me account is also ready to be used for one off donations, which are mentioned in the group description with the actual total donated to date.
Here are a few examples of what to expect using people's fictitious names:
Artist: Henry Dune decided to ask for £2/week to raise money so that he can next year raise £1000 to be able to build a temporary Building to accomodate his group exhibition but they all need little help with rent and food during that time so they can fully concentrate on their Art and we can fully appreciate what they've done. I's their 3 rd time with great success and sold a few pieces and gave big discounts to their fan Patreons.
Art teacher: Anna Prokovic is an extremely talented Artist from Slovekia originally, who tried to start her own classes twice already, but could not gather enough people, because she is not on a tube line with easy link to Central London such as Overground or Circle line and because Kching classes are pushing up to 60 artists together in the biggest hall/room possible, run by people who don't draw or paint at all. Anna is not alone in this situation and decided to ask for £1.50/week so she can afford to pay for a Medium size Hall locally and find a few good volunteer models we help her with so she live her passion to the full and keep developping while others who cash in don't. In exchange she look at her patreon's drawing and give them the best possible advice they will ever get because of her extremely formal/Academic, 5 years,Art studies.
Student: Susan Gwent is in her third year of Uni Studies and had to borrow about £25K to be able to just do that that she just about managed to pay back but her MA year, the fourth year is coming next and she again will have to borough £10K but won't be able to succeed if she has to work in cafes and hotel as much as she did in the past so she decided to ask for £5/week and offers all sorts of services in exchange for the next years from Baby sitting, to Private lessons, Language lessons, etc... and try to keep her Patreons content and without owing too much. Susan, let's say, found enough patreons, about 50 who are now invited to her wedding where she can then show plenty of gratitude and happiness...
Life model: Paul rodger is a Student in his second year at Uni and he really wants to keep going up to Masters. He read somewhere about all the many celebrities of today who did work as Life models to pay for their acting or dance schools and was positively surprised, so he applied to work as a life model when he could hardly buy himself bread and water. What they said to him is that people have to pay with good money to work, enough to buy food for a month, every year, but also with their time or no one could help him. They would also never offer any garantee. Luckily he found a few good honnest and reasonable Art teachers, from a list we gave him but this wasn't enough, he even spent his time trying to get in touch with the Kching busy West end and Bethnal green classes but was offered at the time less than anywhere else, which doesn't happen any longer :). So he decided to become as good as possible at it and decided to offer himself to be drawn online for up to an hour/year and would take other jobs as long as his patreons would donate £1/week. He then spent 100s of hours rehearsing hard to keep poses in front of a mirror until he became really amazing, his body also improved, his health and his finances. His Patreons grew constantly and 5 years later now are about 1000 of them. Now he can finally study, be fit, happy, be reasonably wealthy and even thinking about starting a family with his Girlfriend. Artists /Patreons who follow him have produced hundreds of paintings/drawing they sold, some here on this website, others all around the world.
I hope you enjoyed those stories and now understand the power one patreon x 100 or x1000 can have on someone's life while always getting something in return... Could this be the way our World should function in general? Let's talk about this...
Patronage groups don't have to be started by those who need the support but can also be started by people who believe they can be helped that way as long as they let the world know about it. We'll just need to talk to that individual the group was created for, by phone or even using zoom to verify /approve the group. So if you happen to know a really good Artist, Art teacher, Student, Life model who deserves to be helped then start a Patronage group and start donating yourself that way.
Tony