Within the historic silk village of Van Phuc, textile artists with disabilities are preserving conventional artwork kinds and saving the planet whereas making cool t-shirts with scraps of discarded material. Vun Artwork co-founder Le Viet Cuong confirmed us across the workshop.
Van Phuc village is called the oldest silk village in Vietnam. Its popularity stretches again to the thirteenth century and its title continues to be synonymous with high quality weaving.
Simply 10 kilometres from central Hanoi, it’s an excellent place for a daytrip in case you’re within the capital. Its laneways are festooned with vibrant umbrellas and its shopfronts are good with silk merchandise of all types. However whereas Van Phuc is a spot that’s steeped in custom, it’s additionally a hub of creativity and innovation due to the staff at Vun Artwork.
Utilizing the leftover material helps the surroundings and helps our college students and employees right here additionally.
Co-founded by Le Viet Cuong in 2017, Vun Artwork is a social enterprise that trains and employs individuals with disabilities to make handicrafts and attire utilizing discarded fragments of Van Phuc silk. And there’s no scarcity of fragments. It’s estimated that Van Phuc village discards round 10,000 kilograms of silk scraps every month.
‘It’s an issue with the village right here, how one can use all this leftover silk,’ says Mr Cuong. ‘Utilizing the leftover material helps the surroundings and helps our college students and employees right here additionally.’
The signature Vun Artwork type sees Vietnamese folk-painting designs reimagined and repurposed with silk fragments utilizing collage methods. The artists make handicrafts, postcards, work, t-shirts, wallets, purses and extra.
The staff is happy with the work they’re doing to protect Vietnamese folks designs within the twenty first century. ‘It’s one of many issues that makes Vun Artwork a hit,’ says Mr Cuong with delight. ‘It’s the creativity and the individuals. One among our artistic concepts is our t-shirt, with this conventional image on the again.’
It’s one of many issues that makes Vun Artwork a hit … It’s the creativity and the individuals.
Above all, for Mr Cuong, the non-profit Vun Artwork mannequin is about enabling individuals with disabilities to improve their abilities, reside independently, discover inventive expression, make buddies and have interaction in significant work. In Vietnam – as elsewhere on the planet – there are nonetheless too many limitations for disabled individuals looking for jobs.
Mr Cuong lives with incapacity himself and says the battle to search out employment can actually have an effect on individuals’s confidence and high quality of life. ‘It makes individuals actually shy,’ he says. ‘With this venture, it helps to have a job, construct confidence, and have an revenue so disabled individuals might be residing by themselves and don’t have to at all times depend on help from household.’
Vun Artwork has come a good distance in a short while. Within the earliest days, Mr Cuong personally walked round neighbourhoods, knocking on doorways, making an attempt to persuade individuals to return to coach or work with him.
Vun Artwork now has two workshops they usually’ve enhanced the vary and high quality of their merchandise, too. With the help of shoppers, group and companions – together with the Intrepid Basis – the proficient Vun Artwork staff have been capable of construct a thriving upcycling enterprise that breaks down stereotypes.
‘It’s a win-win,’ says Mr Cuong.
Properly, Vun Artwork is a thriving upcycling enterprise that breaks down stereotypes and celebrates Vietnamese inventive traditions. So technically, it’s a win-win-win.
Vun Artwork is a companion of The Intrepid Basis. You’ll be able to be taught extra about this organisation and their efforts right here.
