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About this project
A.Refuge is a project I launched in 2005, with the goal of inspiring and educating people about art as both a craft and a business.
It is a website that functions as a magazine and as an online community. The magazine has four channels of focus; music, art, fashion, and entertainment. The community allows people to easily share what they create and find other people with similar interests. The site is built upon architecture, that links all content on the site together and allows customized delivery of information to our users. It makes it very easy to discover new artists of any medium.
It's more than just that though. The A.Refuge business model is one that puts respect for others and the value of collaboration first. As a freelance photographer, I have dealt with too many people trying to take advantage of me and my artwork. I want to give new journalists and photographers a safe place to hone their craft and build a reputation for themselves. A.Refuge is a for-profit company, but giving back to the community is a part of what we do from the beginning as well. Donating 33% of merchandise and event profits to charity is part of our business plan. I hope our success leads to many new start-ups following in our footsteps.
I always wanted A.Refuge to be a platform for anyone to use in order to share their artwork, their voice, and their love for another person's work. I realized to do this correctly I needed to merge the magazine and community sections of the website together. This will be done by allowing users to submit articles, rate articles, and eventually be published in the magazine section of the website.
We are asking for pledges because there are more components needed to be worked on with the website. The funds raised from your pledge will pay for the final programming alterations and additions, needed to complete the system that adds this functionality to A.Refuge.
A team of programmers will take the established back end CMS, for creating and publishing articles and refit it for front-end usability by all users of the site. These programmers will also make it so our editors can quickly interact with the writers and photographers submitting articles, in order to help them understand what A.Refuge is looking for in an article. Additionally, a system will be put in place to track the traffic of articles created by our users and published to the magazine channels, in order to appropriately compensate them for contributing to the magazine.
With your pledge it will help give artists of all mediums a safe place to develop their craft. Your pledge gives others the vehicle to amplify their voice, to inspire others, and to educate them. Your pledge gives me the ability to take A.Refuge to the next level and see my dream come to life.
I think the most inspiring part about all of this is you will give me the ability to help many other people with fulfilling their own dreams.
You can explore what has been completed so far at www.aRefuge.com. It will help to give you an idea of what it will become.
Thank you for your time in learning about A. Refuge and for your consideration in making a pledge. Please spread this page to anyone you think may want to help or find it interesting.
Project location: Los Angeles, CA
5
Backers
$259
pledged of $3,000 goal
53
days to go
Back This Project
or simply learn more
$1.00 MINIMUM PLEDGE
Pledge $10 or more
Have your name listed in a special "Thank You" message found on the site's "About Us" page.
0 BACKERs
Pledge $15 or more
Have your name listed in a special "Thank You" message found on the site's "About Us" page. Your name will also link to your own website or your organization's website.
0 BACKERs
Pledge $20 or more
Receive an A.Refuge t-shirt (designed by Reilly Stroope and screen printed on an American Apparel standard tee). AND you’ll have your name listed in a special "Thank You" message found on the site's "About Us" page. Your name will also link to your own website or your organization's website.
1 BACKER
Pledge $25 or more
Gary will give you a thirty minute lesson about photography, photoshop, or color management specific to what you would like more insight about. This also includes information on setting up photo passes or interviews, and researching contacts. The lesson would be conducted over iChat, Skype, Microsoft Messenger, Aim, uStream, or Stickam. AND you’ll have your name listed in a special "Thank You" message found on the site's "About Us" page. Your name will also link to your own website or your organization's website.
0 BACKERs
Pledge $35 or more
Receive an A.Refuge hoodie (designed by Reilly Stroope and screen printed on an American Apparel standard hoodie). AND you’ll have your name listed in a special "Thank You" message found on the site's "About Us" page. Your name will also link to your own website or your organization's website.
0 BACKERs
Pledge $50 or more
If you contribute to A.Refuge you will receive priority screening for the first year of the system being in place. Your contributed articles will be reviewed regardless of its rating and published to the magazine section, as long as it follows our guidelines and passes our quality control measures. If it does not fulfill the requirements you will be given a critique explaining why, and have the opportunity to resubmit your article. AND you’ll have your name listed in a special "Thank You" message found on the site's "About Us" page. Your name will also link to your own website or your organization's website.
0 BACKERs
Pledge $50 or more
Receive an 8x12 or 8x10 Gary Livingston photographic print. You can request a full list of musicians and other subjects photographed by Gary Livingston. After you choose your musician or subject, a photo gallery will be sent to you. Then you can choose your favorite available photograph to be printed. Every print is numbered and signed. No image will be printed more than 25 times. AND you’ll have your name listed in a special "Thank You" message found on the site's "About Us" page. Your name will also link to your own website or your organization's website.
1 BACKER
Pledge $250 or more
Receive an 11x14 Gary Livingston photographic print. You can request a full list of musicians and other subjects photographed by Gary Livingston. After you choose your musician or subject, a photo gallery will be sent to you. Then you can choose your favorite available photograph to be printed. Every print is numbered and signed. No image will be printed more than 25 times. AND you’ll have your name listed in a special "Thank You" message found on the site's "About Us" page. Your name will also link to your own website or your organization's website.
0 BACKERs
Pledge $500 or more
Receive a 12x18 Gary Livingston photographic print. You can request a full list of musicians and other subjects photographed by Gary Livingston. After you choose your musician or subject, a photo gallery will be sent to you. Then you can choose your favorite available photograph to be printed. Every print is numbered and signed. No image will be printed more than 25 times. AND you’ll have your name listed in a special "Thank You" message found on the site's "About Us" page. Your name will also link to your own website or your organization's website.
0 BACKERs
Pledge $500 or more
Commission Gary Livingston to photograph one of your favorite musical groups in concert. Gary will do his best to set up photo passes to photograph your favorite musical group when they come to the Southern California area. After the assignment, he will send you a gallery of images to choose your favorite one from. You'll receive an 11x14 print signed and numbered with a special note just for you. This is limited to external factors such as touring routes, manager/publicist restrictions, guest list capacity, and more. Providing Gary with a clear list of your favorite bands will expedite the delivery of this request. AND you’ll have your name listed in a special "Thank You" message found on the site's "About Us" page. Your name will also link to your own website or your organization's website.
0 BACKERs
Project By
Gary Livingston
Los Angeles, CA
Send MessageGary Livingston has been a freelance photographer since 2000. His journey started when he managed bands for about four years. With an interest in photography and music, this led him to shoot bands and live concerts. Gary’s experience working with the industries in music, photography, publishing, and sports, has given him the drive and motivation to start A. Refuge.
A.Refuge's main goals are inspiring and educating people. Tied to that is the mission of raising awareness and funds for charities. We have the intention of changing the world in a positive way.
In 2006, a short time after A. Refuge started up, Gary became very sick. The illness lasted a couple years and it caused production and funding to come to a halt. After undergoing surgery and waiting through a lengthy recovery process, Gary had a lot of time to reflect on the direction of this project. Now that Gary is in good health, he has perfected his vision of A.Refuge and is ready to continue on his journey.
It's a HUGE project and he hopes to get a chance to utilize Kick Starter, to fund the final components needed to get this dream of his off the ground finally.
