[MGSA-L] Historic art college turns to crowd funding site to survive

June Samaras june.samaras at gmail.com
Thu Jan 16 18:06:06 PST 2014


http://cyprus-mail.com/2014/01/12/historic-art-college-turns-to-crowd-funding-site-to-survive/

Historic art college turns to crowd funding site to survive

By Bejay Browne

A HISTORIC art college in Paphos has turned to a crowd funding website in a
desperate attempt to raise the thousands needed to redevelop the site.

The Cyprus College of art is one of the oldest cultural institutions in
Cyprus and was founded in Famagusta in 1969 by well known artist Stass
Paraskos with support from Archbishop Makarios.

Now the Cyprus College of Art artists’ studios in Lemba in Paphos urgently
need to raise a total of £50,000, for restoration and renovation of the
site. Initially they need to raise £10,000 by this summer.

They say their only option to raise vital funds to keep the college open
was to team up with Crowdfunder.

The Cyprus College of Art studios in Lemba have been home to thousands of
artists and art students from around the world.

“Over the years, so many people and organisations, including President
Nicos Anastasiades, have said how wonderful the college is and how proud
they are for all it has achieved, but they don’t want to know when we ask
for help,” Dr Michael Paraskos, director of the Cyprus College of Art, told
the Sunday Mail:

“The time has come for Cyprus to decide if they want to keep part of the
cultural heritage or to sit back and watch it disappear.”

Paraskos explained that a variety of ‘thank yous’ would be given for
donations made via the site, these include original etchings by Stass
Paraskos for donations of £100 or more, and if a generous benefactor
donates the entire amount needed, the college campus in Lemba may be named
after them.

“We are quoting everything in sterling, as most of our alumni are British.”

Paraskos said that the government originally promised to support a far more
ambitious project involving the art college close to a decade ago, but so
far no funds have been forthcoming.

“Obviously this help was offered well before the financial crisis and the
original plan was to turn Lemba into a cultural village. That was three
presidents ago, and not a cent has emerged. We are not expecting them to
cough up now.”

He said that, despite weekly phone calls from the village mukhtar to the
government, no progress to secure funds has been made.

“Our only hope now is to ask our friends around the world to help save this
wonderful place.’

Paraskos says that fund raising for stage one needs to hit a target of
£10,000 so that vital work can get underway this summer.

“We need to restore the studios, the kitchen and ancillary services. The
structures were initially built using ply wood and chip board which have
deteriorated, we need to use more durable materials.”

The studios were built by dozens of artists visiting Cyprus in the 1980s
and 90s, including some well known names such as English sculptors Sir
Anthony Caro and Rachel Whiteread and the painters Sir Terry Frost, Euan
Uglow, Bridget Riley, Clive Head, Mali Morris and HumphreyOcean.

According to Paraskos, a number of art students in the UK came up with the
idea to use crowd funding services to raise the cash.

“We already have volunteers from the School of Architecture at the
University of Creative Arts ready to do the work, so all the money raised
will be used to buy materials.”


Dr Michael Paraskos – Director of the CyprusCollege of Art. Cyprus +357
9918 3516   or   UK+44 7963 436943 http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/lemba2014/

---------------------------
June Samaras
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : june.samaras at gmail.com
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