Kluge-Ruhe Gift Shop Holiday Sale!
At this Holiday Sale, all items in the Kluge-Ruhe gift shop will be 20% off and we will have tables setup in our Breezeway space with much more merchandise than we typically have available:
- an array of cards and note card packs
- magnets, socks and Australian-made soaps (great as stocking stuffers!)
- tea towels in a variety of designs
- gorgeous throw pillows
- journals and sketchbooks
- quality bone china mugs in a variety of designs
- purses, clutches and totes made from hand silk-screened fabrics
- small bark paintings
- small wood and yarn sculptures
- handmade pandanus baskets
- handmade shell and seed jewelry
- children’s books (including our self-published coloring book of Australian animals!)
- adult fiction and non-fiction books centering around Indigenous Australian art and culture
- AND MUCH MORE!
Plus, our ethical trade policy (see below) means that you can feel good about shopping at Kluge-Ruhe, knowing that your gift supports both Indigenous communities and the museum!
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.