The creative art of online shopping
ENTREPRENEUR: Founder of Guns & Rain Julie Taylor
Anthropologist who wanted to help artists from the continent has created a showcase that sells their works through the Internet and via Skype and Instagram
Julie Taylor - founder of online gallery www.gunsandrain.com.It was a roundabout path that brought entrepreneur Julie Taylor to her current role as founder of Guns & Rain, an online gallery and sales portal specialising in African art and showcasing emerging artists from the region. In many ways this project was the perfect fit for an Oxbridge-educated anthropologist who made her mark as the communications lead for sub-Saharan Africa at Google. Guns & Rain is Taylor’s way of combining her disparate spheres of knowledge and experience with her passion for art. She says she also saw in it an opportunity to support African artists. “In 2008 I visited Zimbabwe, where I grew up and where my family lives. It was a dark year in Zimbabwe’s history. I learnt that some artists were literally not eating for days at a time,” she says. “With a gallerist’s permission, I posted some images of artworks on a blog site — and three works sold overnight to international buyers. I realised then that the...
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