Art Flare Program

Art (noun): the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.

Flare (noun): a temporary exacerbation of chronic illness symptoms.

Flare (verb): burn or shine with a sudden intensity.

Flair (noun): stylishness and originality.

Art Flare: a collaborative art program between Chronic Hope and chronically ill artists, designers, and creatives.

What is Art Flare?

The program aims to provide chronically ill artists with ongoing income by selling products featuring their designs through our Port of Hope store.

Initially, the products launched will be print-on-demand items (t-shirts, jumpers, tote bags, mugs) or small print items (stickers, bookmarks, greeting cards). In future, we hope to expand the available products.

Artists will receive 60% of the profit from each sale featuring their designs.

Why did we create this program?

Chronically ill people are often under-represented in the workforce, or have difficulty maintaining long-term employment due to their illness or lack of accommodations in the workplace. Consequently, many chronically ill people work casually, freelance, or in more flexible fields such as the creative arts.

Additionally, many chronically ill people find themselves drawn to creative pursuits to express themselves, tell stories about their experiences through art, or - just because they love it!

Art Flare is our way of acknowledging the important role that visual art and design plays in the lives of chronically ill people.

What are the long-term goals of the ArtFlare program?

We have three main long-term goals for this program:

  • Build a community of chronically ill creators/artists who will be able to connect with each other for peer support.

  • Connect participants with mentors who can assist them with their personal or professional goals.

  • Connect participants with paid work opportunities.

If you are interested in becoming a mentor, or industry partner supporting this program, please get in touch - we’d love to hear from you!

How it Works

Step 1

Artists can submit an expression of interest to be involved in Art Flare via the form below.

Step 2

Once an artist has been approved for the program we will work with them to design their products.

Step 3

Products will be listed for sale on our Port of Hope online store. Artists will receive 60% of the ongoing profits.

ArtFlare Application Form

 FAQs

  • Fill out the form on this page to express your interest in this program. We will review your details and be in touch.

  • We can print your designs on T-Shirts, jumpers, tote bags, mugs, and stickers. We can also investigate a range of other products if you have ideas for something you’d like to work on!

  • Print-on-demand is a service that allows us to only create products when someone places an order. This reduces up front costs as we do not have to place large bulk orders with suppliers to launch your products.

    When someone places an order, it will be sent to our supplier and they will print the products using the supplied art files and send them directly to our customers.

  • No! You do not have to pay anything to participate in this program.

  • You will receive 60% of the profit per product sold.

    The exact amount will vary depending on which products your design features on. We will provide a full breakdown of product costs and expected profits to accepted participants.

  • Yes, absolutely. It is incredibly important to us that the artists participating in this program maintain their intellectual property rights.

    You will receive a contract that outlines a licence agreement with us - essentially that means you are giving us permission to use your designs to print and sell products, for a period of time. Your contract will outline this in more detail.

  • Chronic Hope takes 40% of the profits. This money will be used to develop the program further, advertise the program and products, and to develop other resources and programs in future.

  • Yes! We will send you a selection of products as part of your involvement in the program.

  • No, it doesn’t have to be specific to chronic illness - but if you have designs that are, we’d love to see them!

    The goal of the project is to make and sell products with cool art, celebrating cool chronically ill people. So if your style is cute cartoon cats, abstract art, or something else entirely, we’d love to see it!

  • We will work with each artist to formulate a payment schedule that works for them. Initially, we expect this to be on a monthly basis but are happy to accommodate other schedules, particularly if you are a Centrelink recipient and have income reporting obligations.