Jalsuri Foundation for Handcrafts, Bolivia

Founder, President & Executive Director

Design Director

Creating a non-profit cultural entity that serves artisans in a comprehensive way.

Daniela Viscarra, created and perfected a model of work for the Artisan Sector through her career, and in 2007, together with two partners founded the Jalsuri Foundation in Bolivia.

The methodology was based on the precept that each association, community or individual artisan has its own particular needs, therefore each requires a personalized approach that comprises cultural research, product design & development, personalized training and marketing planning.

New collections were developed in a product development process that delivers contemporary and authentic designs, a signature collection in different medias that portraits a strong country personality with high-quality beautiful products.

Creating a cultural department for historical research in handmade production.

Jalsuri created a cultural department lead by prestigious historian Silvia Arze that sought to preserve Bolivia’s important heritage information and use it as a source of inspiration for the product development process while highlighting the origins and value of the country’s historical skills through labeling and organized into a core cultural compendium.

Daniela invited Bolivian designers Andres Palacios and Lidia Macaya to be part of the Design & Creative Development team. Together they created 138 product lines generating more than 500 new products subsequently sold in Jalsuri Stores benefiting 46 artisan groups. Another 28 groups were selected to be sold with the Jalsuri Collection.

Creating opportunities for all sizes of artisan groups through retail marketing. Jalsuri Stores.

The Jalsuri chain of stores benefited these artisan groups with more than $140,000 yearly sales in a country where by that time 80% of the population lived with less than two dollars a day.

Several design disciplines were applied within the organization line of work in order to achieve the best sales: textiles, product, graphic, exhibition and museum design. Exhibition design portrayed the quality standards of the products as well as providing the customer with a unique buying experience.

Jalsuri worked to improve the products and sales of talented artisans from seventy-four groups representing nearly 3,500 participants (89% women), in four departments of the country.

During 2010 Jalsuri had an exhibition in New York City, as part of a support program for artisans from Ushpa Ushpa Organization and Jodi Arnold Boutique.

Jalsuri means "spring, fountain, source" in the Quechua language and it refers to a mythic place, usually associated with water, from where "creation emerges".