Oakapple Art
Jodieanne English and Fabio De Rosa set up Oakapple Art in February 2004 in St Ives. The company originally hosted and sold the work of three local artists online but a year on the site has grown to host and support the work of over 70 local and international members.
The company acts as a broker for artists who pay a one off fee of £200 to host their work on a webpage. They can sell their original art online along with prints and Oakapple Art do not charge a commission on original works. Instead they take a percentage from producing prints on the artists behalf.
The whole business is run online and made possible by a broadband connection. Jodieanne says:
“We couldn’t run our business without broadband. Our interactive website can host anything from short films to hundreds of pieces of art. The content management system allows us to keep everything up to date and the online payment system is straightforward for our customers and our artists. The whole site is a reflection of a new era for the creative industry in Cornwall and we are just going from strength to strength.”
In 2004 an actnow Broadband Advisor visited Oakapple Art to give them advice on ICT developments for their business.
“The IT advice and support we received regarding developing a website that would increase our turnover was invaluable. The broadband advisor even talked us through how to network our MACs and PCs, it was a very worthwhile meeting.
“Now the Oakapple Art website has all sorts of valuable functionality that is really important to our business. At the moment we are showing a short film clip illustrating the plight of children in Brazil. The film is part of a fund-raising initiative in which we commissioned 12 artists to paint a section of a photograph of Brian May that he personally gave to us as a contribution for this project. The resulting portrait has been made into limited edition prints that will be sold to raise money for the ABC trust.”
