Apbp-Vmvsk Belgium

A.P.B.P- V.M.V.S.K. promotes the reproductions of artists' original paintings on greeting cards, calendars, bookmarks and gift tags. We only advertise in Belgium and Luxembourg. The history of The Mouth and Foot Painting Artists Association goes back to 1956, when Erich Stegmann, a polio-stricken mouth painter, gathered a small band of disabled artists from different European countries. Their ultimate goal was to make their living through their artistic efforts, and to obtain a sense of work security that until then had eluded them. To Stegmann, the word "charity" was as abhorrent as the word "pity." The Association maintains that it is not a charity and does not qualify for charitable assistance. The Association is run by mouth and foot painting artists deprived of the use of their hands by illness, injury or birth defect. Its members have learned to draw and paint with the brush held in the mouth or with their toes. The formation of the Association in 1956 gave all members the opportunity to completely support themselves through sales of their paintings, reproduced as cards and calendars. The Mouth and Foot Painting Artists Association is an international organization, owned and controlled by its artist members, whose purpose is also to offer moral and financial assistance to the disabled that are interested in becoming students, and offer students financial, practical and creative support to become fully developed artists and members of the Association. From the small group Erich Stegmann gathered for the inaugural meeting of the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists, the group has now grown to represent approximately 700 members, in over 70 countries around the world. The artists themselves elect a Management Board from the member artists to direct their organisation. Their work is selected on its artistic merit and potential sales from our location in Belgium.