Sunday 10 April 2011

: Fund: It

Fund:it is a new initiative from the people at Business to Arts, and is the first Irish-centred crowd funding platform. Fund:it works in a similar way to sites such as Kickstarter and Pledge Music, whereby many people donate a little money in order to help a creative idea they're into become a reality. Be it an album, a book, a series of artworks or even a feature-length documentary (such as Urbanized by Gary Hustwit, which I pledged a little towards, what with it being awesome and all), you can get behind a project you'd like to see materialise, and by pledging a little (or a lot for some rewards) you can potentially bring about some creative awesomeness.

One of the projects up on Fund:it is the Open House Dublin book. Possibly more coveted than a tour of the Provost's House in TCD, the Open House Dublin book is a fab little publication. At first it's a useful tool in planning your OHD weekend, but after that it's a brilliant mini architectural atlas for the city, and has a use and a value long after the festival is over. It's also in demand long after the festival is over, and there always seems to be twice as many people looking for a copy than there are copies available... The Irish Architecture Foundation, who present the Open House Dublin festival every year, have always produced thousands of copies of the book to be distributed for free around the city, but the cost of that is mounting, and with public funding becoming more and more scarce with every revisal of the government's budget, they can't produce it on their own anymore. Enter Fund:it and all of you! Watch the awesome video (though I would say that, as that's my hand in it...), drool over the rewards offered, and pledge - Open House Dublin needs you!