Detail of a tea towel for sale in the gift shop
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Detail of a tea towel for sale in the gift shop
Detail of a tea towel for sale in the gift shop

Gift Shop Holiday Sale!

Use your holiday shopping to support Indigenous artists and your favorite museum! Members will receive 25% off and nonmembers will receive 15% off! Our fair-trade gift shop has more merchandise than ever before:

– magnets, soaps, lip balms and lotions (perfect stocking stuffers!)
– bags, clutches and wallets made from hand-printed textiles
– earrings and necklaces
– Christmas tree ornaments
– pillows, tea towels, mugs, insulated mugs, salad servers
– bark paintings and small sculptures
– journals, children’s books and amazing coffee-table-worthy books about Aboriginal art    
AND MUCH MORE!

 

 

Plus, our ethical trade policy (see below) means that you can feel good about shopping at Kluge-Ruhe.

Ethical Trade and the Kluge-Ruhe Gift Shop

As part of our mission to respect Indigenous people as the authorities on their art and culture, the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of UVA is very selective about how it sources merchandise for its gift shop.

Whenever possible, we purchase goods and artwork directly from 100% Aboriginal-owned art centers within communities. Our paintings, jewelry, baskets and small sculptures are all acquired directly from art centers. Art centers assist in the production, marketing, distribution and sale of artworks internationally. Art center staff live in the community, have close relationships with artists and community members, help to organize exhibitions and opportunities for artists, and often employ Aboriginal community members as arts workers. Art centers are influential in communities where art sales are the main source of income. Kluge-Ruhe staff have visited many art centers in Australia and we work hard to maintain these ongoing relationships. We source merchandise from two vendors that are not Aboriginal-owned entities: Alperstein Designs and Better World Arts. Both of these vendors have signed and are audited by the Indigenous Art Code, a system to preserve and promote ethical trading in Indigenous art.

The majority of the sale price of an item in our gift shop goes directly to the artist via royalty payments or the art center. A small portion goes to covering the international shipping cost, and the rest goes to supporting Kluge-Ruhe. The profit from our gift shop is typically spent on bringing Indigenous artists to Kluge-Ruhe to advance the artist’s career and our mission, or it is spent on conserving artworks in our permanent collection for generations to come.

We are members of the Indigenous Art Code.