Made in Greenwich has had a bumper Christmas taking almost £8000 in sales during December. That means we've managed to put more than £5000 directly in the pockets of local artists and craftspeople from across the borough.
Staff and volunteers worked flat out to open MIG on Sundays and during the evenings to help encourage Christmas shopping. The longer opening hours really paid off with both visitors and locals enjoying the wide range of gifts on offer. Ceramics continue to be best sellers with local potters Madeleine Herbert, Jonquil Cook, Fiona Veacock and Caroline Nuttall-Smith at the top of the tree.
Also reaping the rewards for their hard work were a group of students from The Autism Project (TAP), which is run by CareTrade, a Southwark-based charity for young neuro diverse adults. The students put on two pop up shop events at Made in Greenwich before Christmas, the culmination of a retail training programme run in conjunction with GCDA.
During the four month venture, TAP students learned about the wide variety of roles that retail can offer. They took on PR and social media tasks, helped dress the Made in Greenwich window, and even created a product range of beautiful votive tealight holders in partnership with ceramicist Fiona Veacock.
The pop ups enabled them to try out their newly acquired customer service skills. They obviously did a good job as they made £283 from their hand crafted Christmas tree decorations and also sold ten handmade votives too!
The GCDA/CareTrade partnership has recently caught the attention of the press, with a fantastic double spread in this month’s edition of Careermag for Inclusion. The magazine’s goal is to encourage more employers to work with young people who have a wide range of differing abilities. To subscribe for free please click here. Huge congratulations to CareTrade!
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