Cortez Cultural Center Helps Local Artists Reach New Customers With E-Commerce

While artists in Cortez have long sold their works to residents and visitors, a lack of e-commerce has meant many artists miss out on selling to customers outside the area. Some artists don’t have the expertise to create their own websites and market their works online. So, in an effort to address this problem while also engaging the local Indigenous population, artists and staff at the Cortez Cultural Center brought forward a potential solution: Create a centralized online marketplace for local artists. With the support of funding from LOR, the Cultural Center will hire a web developer to create an e-commerce site where local artists can list their works and reach new customers. The Cultural Center also will train and pay local Indigenous high school students to create content for the website through a workforce development program.