Iasi inspires you! A ZF/BT project. Atelier Poteca, a center where…

♦ Those who want to learn skills come to Atelier Poteca with the belief that you have to be born with talent to know how to paint. Dan Ursu says, however, that he does not agree with this principle, believing rather that skills are acquired.

A group of painters passionate about portraits made to order joined forces about five years ago to open Atelier Poteca in Iasi, a place where they teach painting enthusiasts that talent is not indispensable in creative work.

“The name comes from a path at the entrance to our workshop. We want to touch various fields, such as ceramics, painting or other artistic areas. We are several painters who make portraits to order. Basically, anyone who wants to be creative needs a mentor, a teacher, and we can help. If you don’t want to make a mess in your living room, our workshop is the right place”, said Dan Ursu on the online show ZF Iasi inspires you!

In 2018-2019, he and other painters realized that they wanted to do such a workshop, but in the end it was Dan Ursu who assumed the role of founder, and the painters he works with are employed. In total, it is about six artists, to whom are added other collaborators from the country. “We are still looking to develop the activity, there are not many businesses in the field of creativity. Until now, the funding sources have been our own, we have not applied to other funds, we are caught up in the field of creativity, we have many orders and we don’t really manage to leave the workshop and look for other sources.”

Those who want to learn skills come to Atelier Poteca with the belief that you have to be born with talent to know how to paint. Dan Ursu says, however, that he does not agree with this principle, believing rather that skills are acquired.

“We all have our inclinations, someone just needs to observe them and offer guidance.”

Atelier Poteca operates on the basis of subscriptions of four or eight sessions. In four meetings, a major change can already be seen, says Dan Ursu. A four-session subscription for adults costs 550 lei, and an eight-session subscription costs 750 lei. Prices are lower for children.

“The most frequent customers are children, but we also have 15-20 adults who come to us regularly. Our longest-serving student has been coming for three or four years and is already doing her own portraits, it’s like a second job for her. Our youngest student was three years old, and our oldest – 93 years old. There is no age limit.”

The founder of Atelier Poteca remembers that, in the beginning, people were not very open to such activities, but slowly similar workshops began to appear. Atelier Poteca was the first, and later several more opened in Iasi. Now, the next objective is franchising the concept and opening more such places in Iasi, but also in other cities.

“We have opened a second location in Iasi, where we are experimenting with the franchise, and we want to encourage other people to join this concept. There were people from the country who told us that there are no such workshops in their city, so it would be a good idea for us to arrive in their cities. We realized that you don’t have to be talented to have a franchise of this type, but you have to have some logistical skills. At the moment we want to find collaborators.”

The goal of the Atelier Poteca team is to form communities, because, notes Dan Ursu, the idea of ​​”city center” has disappeared and everything now happens in communities.

“So far, more than 100 people have reached us, if we include here only the adult students. Last year we had a turnover of 60,000-70,000 euros. There is potential for growth. We want to expand in the Moldova area, in cities like Suceava, Botoşani, Vaslui.”