Phoenix Light Rail Celebrations

Even though the Roosevelt Station wasn't one of the official 'celebration' stops, the Fair Trade Cafe was 'a buzzin'. Everyone had a great time and the Phoenix Light Rail was greeted by overwhelming enthusiasm by Cafe patrons. The new light rail system should prove to be a boon for downtown businesses and having the gateway to the arts district station right opposite should make the Fair Trade Cafe a premier stop for commuters and visitors alike.


Yesterday also saw the conclusion of our Christmas Fair Trade Art Exhibition and this week sees a return to our regular program of exhibitions of the works of local artists, this month with the work of Vav - see cafe website for details. We shall. of course have a selection of Fair Trade art and crafts on display at the Cafe and are looking forward to the imminent arrival of our first five limited edition prints of Luis Varela's 'Cascada'. Watch this space!

Fair Trade Cafe Joins Phoenix Light Rail Celebrations

On Saturday, 27th December, from 10am - 5pm, Phoenix celebrates the opening of its new light rail system - having put up with the disruptions over building the thing for the last couple of years! Station celebrations will occur along the entire 20-mile METRO alignment. There will be music, activities and exhibits at many park-n-ride and light rail station locations. Shuttle buses will be available to take you back to your car. Rides will run from 10am - 8pm and are totally free.

As the Fair Trade Cafe stands right outside the light rail station serving the downtown Arts District - Central/ 1st Ave and Roosevelt - we are taking part in the celebrations with pavement art and craft displays and, of course, plenty of Fair Trade coffee! I shall also be down there from approximately 10am - 2pm giving guided tours of our Fair Trade fine Art works. So, if you are heading downtown to check out the light rail - drop on by and see us at the Fair Trade Cafe!

October Sidewalk Art Sale Update

Just a quick update on the Sidewalk Art Sales for our October Fair Trade Month - due to outstanding commitments we shall not be holding an art sale on the 11th. Our next Sidewalk Art Sale will be on Saturday October 18th between 9am and midday. The Roosevelt Market is hosting the Harvest Festival celebrations just down the road from the cafe (there will be a Fair Trade Cafe stall serving coffee there as well). So once you have visited the market come on up and see our art and craft display. We will have new art from Guatemala, Peru and Vietnam for you to see and buy, so come by and see us then if you can.

Information on our final October Sidewalk Art Sale will be posted nearer the time, by which time we should have received even more new art! For details and a map check in with the Fair Trade Cafe website at http://azfairtrade.com

Karuna Village Moving Away From Online Sales

Much planning has been going on at the Fair Trade Cafe over Karuna Village over the last couple of months. The online art sales have been disappointing and with Michele's move to the cafe full time we want to place much more emphasis on sales of fair trade fine art and crafts from the cafe itself. We shall still host monthly exhibitions of local artist's work but Karuna Village art will be given much more wall space than was previously given.

In the end, people like to see the art they are buying. It is very difficult to get a real appreciation of the quality of a piece of art from a picture alone. As a consequence we shall be discontinuing the online art sales and selling exclusively from the Fair Trade Cafe. In place of the online shop we are going to upgrade this blog with a brand new, professionally designed blog, courtesy of Dave Kellett of dudeblogyourbusiness.com. The blog will then become the online presence for Karuna Village. We are hoping this transition will be completed by the beginning of November.

That is not to say that there won't be any online art for sale. Blogs are clever things these days and we are looking at one particular widget that will allow individual items to be sold. One line we think might be suitable for such online sale is the Limited Edition Print range we are currently negotiating for. More on that soon.

Plans for October's Fair Trade Month

As you may be aware by now, October is Fair Trade Month and Karuna Village and the Fair Trade Cafe are busy making plans to play our part in the proceedings. We are currently in the process of buying a variety of fair trade art pieces from around the world in readiness for our forthcoming pavement art sales, set to begin on Saturday October, 4th at the Fair Trade Cafe in downtown Phoenix (see http://azfairtrade.com for a map). The pavement art sales will be held every Saturday throughout the month and, if successful, we may well continue them on a regular basis. [Note: by "pavement art sale" I mean a sale of art on the pavement/sidewalk outside the cafe, not an exhibition of "pavement art" as in chalk drawings on the sidewalk! Just in case anyone gets confused with my British terminology!].

The art purchases will also go towards building up our stock in readiness for the exclusive Karuna Village exhibition which will run from First Friday in November (7th) through the Christmas period up to the last Sunday in December, when we shall return to the exhibitions of our local artists.
However, there will still be a substantial showing of Karuna Village art in the cafe for those looking to purchase something original and unique and which helps indigenous artists around the world. I will be highlighting some of the new art as it arrives, so watch this space!

Visit the Fair Trade Cafe

For those of you who happen to live in Phoenix or, indeed, are planning to visit the city, you can see a small selection of the fair trade fine art sold by Karuna Village at the Fair Trade Cafe, located at the junction of Roosevelt and 1st Ave. We are currently showing a selection of art from Vietnam.

Cafe owner, Michele White, who also founded Karuna Village, has done a wonderful job in creating a superb venue for local arts including both monthly wall art displays of local artists' work as well as poetry and music performances - see the Fair Trade Cafe website (azfairtrade.com) for details. Not only that but you also get a great cup of fair trade coffee and great food while you are there as well!

The cafe is also a participating venue of the monthly Phoenix Art Walk and Michele is very much part of the initiative to improve the Copper Square area of the city where the cafe is located.