Ankitha Gantasala, Painted Hope

Painted Hope is a multifaceted platform dedicated to assisting rare disease foundations in gaining exposure and generating funds. The platform comprises two integral components. Firstly, we facilitate fundraising by selling art prints of original landscape artwork and university art prints for wall decor. We will also dedicate a set of prints to the rare disease organizations that we work with. The target market for the product is primarily the youth population, especially college students, but also families who love art and the rare disease community. The second portion of the platform is a storytelling podcast that offers families within these foundations a platform to share their inspirational journeys.

These stories capture the struggles and joys of raising a child with a rare disease. The target market for podcast listens is the same as the art prints, but the podcast aims to resonate with families going through similar journeys to provide them with hope. This also helps spread awareness of rare disease organizations, a historically underrepresented patient group in the healthcare field, to the younger population, particularly college students since many are interested in going into the healthcare space. We’ve already achieved several goals with Painted Hope. Firstly, we have released three episodes and represented two foundations: Jordan’s Guardian Angels and Families for Hope. Secondly, we’ve created some model prints that can be sold for profit. Through proof of concept testing, we know that individuals are interested in buying the original artwork that we created.