ArtLifting is a benefit corporation (B Corp) which empowers individuals living with disabilities and experiencing homelessness through the sale and licensing of their artwork.
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History
ArtLifting was founded in December 2013 by siblings Liz and Spencer Powers.
Liz Powers graduated from Harvard in 2010 with honors, where she concentrated in sociology. “While at Harvard, she volunteered to help homeless men and women secure housing, jobs, and food stamps. After graduation she used a postgraduate fellowship to blend her passions for art and helping others, creating art groups in local women’s shelters to help the residents connect...The project was a success, and Powers soon realized the artists needed a way to show off their ‘amazing artwork.’ In 2011 she created City Heart, an art show in Boston’s Prudential Center that brings together roughly 70 artists from eight local homeless shelters. Still, Powers wanted more." Liz’s brother Spencer, a 2007 graduate of Boston College and current student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, joined her to help with finances and logistics for the now-annual event. Realizing the tremendous impact that this event had on both its participating artists and its enthusiastic customers, the siblings brainstormed a way to "empower homeless and disabled individuals every single day of the year.” Together, Spencer and Liz decided to create ArtLifting - a scalable, sustainable, for-profit organization that could help countless disadvantaged individuals earn income and gain confidence every day.
In October 2015, ArtLifting announced that it raised $1.1 million in seed funding.
Artists
After the company he worked for closed in 2009, Scott Benner struggled to find work. Several years later Benner was diagnosed with Horner’s syndrome, making it nearly impossible for him to get and keep a job. Benner eventually lost his house in 2013 and became homeless. Benner had created intricate black and white ink drawings his whole life, but had never thought of selling them before his partnership with ArtLifting. Each individual piece can take up to 1,000 hours of work.
Allen Chamberland has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which prevented him from finishing his degree in social work. The disease makes it nearly impossible for Chamberland to obtain a traditional job since he “can’t walk 10 or 15 feet without getting out of breath.” Chamberland uses an exacto knife and black pieces of paper to create his intricate papercut masterpieces. Chamberland said, “I still wake up surprised some mornings that this is actually working… People like my work … And without the encouragement and opportunity provided by ArtLifting, I never would have found this out.”
David McCauley injured his spinal chord in a diving accident in 2008. McCauley is an artist himself and is the founder of Rise Up Gallery, “a nonprofit organization that provides free art therapy workshops to the community and a venue in which emerging artists can exhibit their work.” McCauley partnered with ArtLifting to allow him to allocate more time to the creation of various types of artwork.