Help Save Galeria Namu and Costa Rican Artists

My name is Aisling French. I established a fair-trade gallery in 1998 and this gallery is now owned and operated by my son, Conall (with his wife Jessica). We founded Galeria Namu with the goal to help indigenous and folk artists in Costa Rica and neighboring regions.  Heartbreakingly, our gallery has been forced to close due to the pandemic, and there is no way of knowing when this might end. Conservatively it could easily be in two to three years' time. This is a devastating situation for our operation which, in turn, has a profound trickle-down effect on the livelihood of dozens of artists, some of whom wholly depend on the revenue provided by the sale of their art work.
Since tourism to Costa Rica has been totally suspended indefinitely, there is no way that sales can continue on the ground here in San Jose, thus we are forced to rely exclusively on our website for sales. Historically the website has not necessarily been a huge sales generator - it has served however as a nice reminder of our vision as a unique art gallery and a showcase for the work we do: fair-trade selling while emphasizing a didactic approach to the culture which created the art. For that reason, we are reaching out for help, for the benefit of all the artists and our love for the local culture and creative expression,  to keep the gallery alive. This will necessitate revamping the website making it more optimised for selling to on-line patrons as well as boosting the selection of artwork available to those supporters.

The goal quite simply is to raise $30,000 to fund both the upgrading of the website and to replenish inventory (of which it is in dire need). Our presence on TripAdvisor and Facebook is all well and good with a thriving tourist economy but lacking tourists the physical gallery has absolutely no impact.  Although Costa Rica has been exceedingly pro-active in its reaction to the COVID-19 virus – which has been excellent for public health, the current crisis has been an unmitigated disaster for tourism. Hotels, resorts, beaches, National Parks, restaurants etc. of course are casualties, but for the marginalised people who live on the benefits of tourism as it relates to the purchase of their artwork, this truly has been a catastrophic turn of events.


What we hope to accomplish through the awareness GoFundMe brings, is to help so many of these people who, in the best of times, struggle, yet whose lives were improved since the inception of Galeria Namu. We do not know for how long this crisis will continue, but we do know that the gallery is a life force for dozens of artists and if we have the means to continue supporting them it will be thanks to you making a huge difference.  Any contribution, no matter how small, will have a direct and positive  effect towards supporting tribal cultural expression and folk arts here in lower Central America. Additionally, it will allow us to continue enlightening and delighting the fans of the compelling artwork that is relatively unknown around the world, but very much vital in Costa Rica. One can get a glimpse of our work by looking at our current website at www.galerianamu.com

¡Pura vida!

Aisling and Conall