Network with them artists

Move over Orkut and FaceBook there’s a new social networking website for artists only. Called the International Artists Network, the site was started by artist Ajit Vahadane.

Move over Orkut and FaceBook there’s a new social networking website in town and it’s for artists only. Called the International Artists Network, the site was started by artist Ajit Vahadane on Ning.com, an online platform that allows people to create their own social networks. The site has blogs by artists, forums discussing folk art, upcoming exhibitions, profile pages, friends lists and a whole lot more.

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Vahadane says, “The International artists network brings together over 1000 artists from the world.” Currently there are members from all over India, US, Barcelona, Italy, Canada, Romania, Brazil and several other countries.

The aim is not simply to bring artists in touch with each other, but to promote self-sufficiency among them. “This is a dream project to widen horizons of artists to be independent and avoid their exploitation by art galleries.” Furthermore, Vahadane says the exhibitions promoted on this site will be organised by the artists themselves, as will be the prices.

But that is not a thumb rule; Frank Shifreen is currently promoting an exhibition in Luxemburg co-organised by Cultureinside.com and Galerie Clairefontaine; while Michael Pilath is inviting people for Why a Man Meets a Woman, a literary brunch in Germany on May 10.

There are also 31 groups on subjects like Realistic Figurative Artists, Textile and Fibre, Rangoli Artists, Global Photographers, Pure Drawings and so on. Another section allows artists to put up photographs of their drawings [with or without prices] while other can choose them as favourites.

On the home page viewers are informed each time an artist updates his profile, and people can leave messages for each other. A recently added application is ‘Friends Interaction’ that allows users to see which of their friends they have in common with others.

Renowned Kerala based artist, KA Somji, Ankur Khare, Harshvardhan and Ajay Zharotia are among the members of this website.

Check it out at http://internationalartistsnetwork.ning.com