Community Arts Council online shop showcases local unique artwork

Amazing artwork created in Prince George is being showcased to the world through the Community Arts Council of Prince George & District website.

Christina Watts, feature gallery and gift shop co-ordinator, created the online store by taking multiple photographs of about a thousand items and counting.

“Every day we’re putting on more and more,” Watts said.

The idea was spurred by a recent renovation to the Artisan Gift Shoppe.

Watts was looking at streamlining the electronically tracked inventory and found a platform that synced in-store and online items.

“We’ve got all of our artisans online and you can search them by name and find out what they have here, so if you like a person’s collection then you can drill into that,” Watts said.

“And it’s good for all of our artisans, too, because they can see what stock they have left.”

The process to upload inventory into the online shop took some work.

“It took a bit to load it all up,” Watts said. “We have a photo box set up so that I can take the photos and then the website is within our main website. It's a Shopify platform but I still had to build it, design it and think about what categories we need, what makes sense, how it can be searched. The platform also has AI built into it so all those descriptions that are included are created when I input a few keywords and then it puts out a blurb about the piece and then I just have to make sure it makes sense.”

And as far as the images to go with it, Watts explained she can take a photo and the background can be replaced for a more professional view of the piece.

“Like Elmer Gunderson’s woodwork – some of them are so tall and so heavy they can’t be moved to a photo box – I have to take a picture of each piece on the floor and then change the background in the system so that’s really nice to be able to do that.”

The online shop is already seeing sales from all over Canada and next will hopefully make a splash into international waters.

“The artists seem to really love it,” Watts said. “There are so many really amazing artisans and we can help get them out into the world so that’s where this whole thing really shines. These are artists with one-of-a-kind products that need to be showcased so it’s a constant turn over that keeps it fresh.”

To have a look at some of the artwork produced by talented Prince George and area artists visit https://studio2880.myshopify.com/.