Collaboration Corner: We Have A New Partner!
We’re excited to announce a new Collaboration Partner, Beeyonder, which is taking groups to explore many corners of the world through live, interactive virtual travel tours.
If your organization visits the Beeyonder website and books a virtual tour (tour prices start at $225 for groups of up to 15 viewers) using the link on the HoonArts website, Beeyonder will pay HoonArts a small referral fee which helps support all our activities as we work to build the HoonArts audience and customer base. To learn more about the many tours currently available, just visit the Beeyonder website.
We’re also talking to Munira Akilova and Aziz Murtazaev, the stars of our 4-session Silk Road Design Encounter virtual programs, about getting new Tajikistan and Uzbekistan experiences up on the Beeyonder platform to grow our virtual travel audience. We’ll let you know as soon as that happens!
For those of you who may not understand the purpose of our Collaboration Corner, I wanted to explain a little bit more. These days, it’s very challenging to build a new social impact business, especially when you’re a small enterprise like HoonArts. It’s especially difficult when most people in the US don’t know where the ‘Stans are, and draw a blank when I say “Central Asia.” No one is searching for “handicrafts from Tajikistan.”
So I need to get the word out about HoonArts and all the magic of the Silk Road that we're bringing to the Western market. We need a bigger audience and a bigger customer base to increase our social impact, which is the whole reason behind HoonArts.
Our social impact mission is why we are members of the Fair Trade Federation and Catalyst Market, both organizations committed to reducing poverty, empowering women and girls, protecting the environment, and achieving other related goals that will help us build the world we want to leave to our children and their children. Collaboration partners can help us in that effort.
I also believe that to solve the global problems that threaten all of us and the planet, we must begin to collaborate more effectively to build an alternative global business eco-system that values people and the planet as much as profits. I have declared that Collaboration is one of my fundamental business and personal values.
So I’m out to create new relationships with other people, businesses and organizations whose values align with ours, in order to work on building that alternative eco-system. I am a firm believer that when we work together, and bring diverse and creative perspectives to bear on our collective problems, we can achieve so much more than when we all work alone in our little silos.
If you want to learn about all our Collaboration Partners, visit our Collaboration Corner page on our website. And please reach out to me if you know of an organization that you think might be a good fit as a Collaboration Partner for HoonArts.
Just Where Is Tajikistan?
Have you ever heard someone talk about "the 'Stans," and not been sure where (or what) they are? Does your mind go blank when you see "Tajikistan" or "Uzbekistan"? Don't feel bad. You're not alone.
One of the participants in the HoonArts Fair Trade virtual Silk Road Design Encounter programs last fall reported at the end of the series that she really loved exploring the geography of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as part of the program. Being able to pinpoint the places the artists Munira Akilova (suzani embroidery master from Tajikistan) and Aziz Murtazaev (ikat weaving master from Uzbekistan) talked about on a map made their stories even more exciting. And it’s still true that the first question I’m asked when I say I started HoonArts working with artisans from Tajikistan is: “Where is Tajikistan?”
Since we’re about to start the next Tajikistan series of the Silk Road Design Encounter next Saturday, March 4, I thought you would enjoy a little bit of map geography, created with the help of my wonderful virtual assistant Michelle and Google Earth.
So the next time someone mentions Tajikistan, you'll now have a clearer picture in your mind.
And it's not too late to journey with us to Tajikistan on our next Silk Road Design Encounter-Tajikistan series. You'll get to meet Munira Akilova up close and personal and view her Silk Road world through the lens of art, especially suzani embroidery. Just click here to register.
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