Money raised from selling the MyLondon calendar has helped us employ James Gray. James frames and hangs art in cafes around London.
The profits from the sale of the photos and the annual MyLondon calendar goes to the photographers and also pays for the other art projects run by Cafe Art.
Photographers, artists and calendar sellers affected by homelessness have earned more than £150,000 from selling photos and calendars since 2012. Cafe Art has paid out more money to the artists and photographers than paid staff.
We don’t have office overhead costs, as we are given free storage near Spitalfields market and we use free wifi in cafes. Cafe Art’s paid staff are director Paul Ryan and development manager Sarah Caldwell Watson. James Gray, a formerly homeless artist, began working regularly for Cafe Art this year on the Art in Cafes programme. He works two days a week and we are working on building up his hours. Cafe Art has hundreds of unpaid volunteers.
Profits from this project helps us fund:
- our art in cafes programme (this is where we get our name!): we hang art by people affected by homelessness in many independent London cafes
- This Is Where I Live, an annual exchange of paintings between homelessness-sector art groups in London, New York, Berlin, Mumbai, Auckland and Melbourne
- the mentoring programme of artists in Spitalfields Arts Market. We have been able to help artists set up a pod to sell their art this week
- the Artist in Residence programme at Old Diorama Art Centre. We buy art materials for artists who have been homeless during the residency.
Our main fundraiser is the annual MyLondon Kickstarter campaign which runs for 30 days - this year it ended on Saturday 15 September and we were successful in raising more than the goal of £7,500 to pay for the printing of the calendar.
You can now pre-order the calendar online from our shop here: 2019 MyLondon calendar We are not a charity - we don't ask for donations. We are a Community Interest Company, and our assets are "locked" to a nominated charity (in our case Homeless Link). We can't sell the company and we have to be very transparent about the money we earn! If we close the company we have to give all our assets to Homeless Link.
If you miss the Kickstarter deadline, don't worry. Either find us in Spitalfields after Monday 15 October, or order the calendar and photos on our website.