News
07/03/2009 - Cattle farmers put their art into diversification of business: Yorkshire Post
AS farmers, Andrew and Angela Kay are used to rearing beef cattle on their 100-acre farm.
Now however, the Kays are helping to rear artistic talent as well after establishing a new business to support budding artists looking for an audience.
The couple have set up an online gallery that allows self-taught and recreational artists like themselves to exhibit and sell their work to the world.
The couple have a suckler herd of 45 cows at Home Farm in Colton, near Tadcaster, and supply Hereford beef to Waitrose supermarkets.
However Mr Kay has also had a long-standing hobby as an artist, having had his work exhibited in the past at local galleries.
Like many farmers, he and his wife decided they wanted to diversify and hit upon the idea of the online gallery.
The couple now exhibit a wide range of artworks, from the traditional to the modern and the decorative to the wearable, from their business Cowbyre Artworks.
The Kays believe that their new venture will also appeal to self-taught artists who have lost their jobs and main source of income in the recession and are thrown back on their hobby to make a living.
They launched the business thanks to the organisers of the Great Yorkshire Show, the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, who provided them with £5,000-worth of set-up funding from Growing Routes, a scheme backed by Yorkshire Forward which is aimed at helping young people in agriculture to diversify.
Mr Kay, a self-taught artist who works in a range of mediums said: "I wanted to create an online gallery to display and sell my own work but, because I am busy with the farm, I could not justify setting it up based only on my output and together we came up with the idea of inviting others in a similar position to join us in this venture."
Click onto the couple's online gallery at www.cowbyreartworks.co.uk.
The couple have set up an online gallery that allows self-taught and recreational artists like themselves to exhibit and sell their work to the world.
The couple have a suckler herd of 45 cows at Home Farm in Colton, near Tadcaster, and supply Hereford beef to Waitrose supermarkets.
However Mr Kay has also had a long-standing hobby as an artist, having had his work exhibited in the past at local galleries.
Like many farmers, he and his wife decided they wanted to diversify and hit upon the idea of the online gallery.
The couple now exhibit a wide range of artworks, from the traditional to the modern and the decorative to the wearable, from their business Cowbyre Artworks.
The Kays believe that their new venture will also appeal to self-taught artists who have lost their jobs and main source of income in the recession and are thrown back on their hobby to make a living.
They launched the business thanks to the organisers of the Great Yorkshire Show, the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, who provided them with £5,000-worth of set-up funding from Growing Routes, a scheme backed by Yorkshire Forward which is aimed at helping young people in agriculture to diversify.
Mr Kay, a self-taught artist who works in a range of mediums said: "I wanted to create an online gallery to display and sell my own work but, because I am busy with the farm, I could not justify setting it up based only on my output and together we came up with the idea of inviting others in a similar position to join us in this venture."
Click onto the couple's online gallery at www.cowbyreartworks.co.uk.