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York students win hat-trick in national enterprise competition

Posted on 23 June 2015

A University of York-run community interest company, Artistic Autistic, has scooped three awards in a national competition for social enterprises.

Uni Popshop (left to right - Nicole Hatton-Urey, Amy Wilson and Jack Hart)

Student businesses from around the country took part in ‘Uni Popshop’, a competition run by the University of Bath, challenging student entrepreneurs to test out their social enterprise ideas at a one day pop-up stall in Spitalfields Market, London.

Artistic Autistic took home three out of four prizes, including ‘Best Visual Merchandising’, ‘Best Social Impact’, sponsored by social enterprise organisation UnLtd, and ‘Best Digital Marketing Campaign’, sponsored by leading social media agency Born Social.

Artistic Autistic sells products displaying artwork created by Peter Myers, an amateur artist with autism who lives in York. Run by a team of student volunteers, the art is characterised by the incredible attention to detail reflecting what it might be like to view the world from an autistic person’s perspective. The aim of the company is to spotlight Peter’s talent and raise awareness of autism.

Nicole Hatton-Urey, a second year Psychology student and Student Managing Director of Artistic Autistic, said: “The event was brought to our attention by the Careers team at York - they supported our application process and funded our attendance at the competition. Winning three out of a possible four prizes is an incredible achievement.

“As part of our prize we get to spend a day at the London offices of UnLtd and Born Social who will give us advice on how to expand and develop our company further. This will bring us closer to our goal of making enough money so Artistic Autistic could become Peter’s primary source of income. It also allows us to spread the positive message at the heart of our company through increasing the online presence of our digital marketing campaign #CelebrateYourDifferences.”

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