Citadel Arts

Our mission is to provide small artists, who are not in a position to find the right price for their masterpiece, with a global marketplace where it will be appreciated and priced at its true value.

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✨ Inspiration

Tvisha- The last time I visited my ancestral village in India, I saw beautiful works of pottery on my aunt's shelf. When I commented on them, my aunt replied, "Aren't they beautiful? I got them for only Rs.100!" I was shocked. I had seen similar masterpieces sold in California for $500. This was the first time I realized that artists can't always sell their work at its true value when their work isn't exposed to buyers who are able to pay its true value. When Rohit and I built Citadel Arts, we kept those small, remote artists in mind, with the purpose of giving them a global virtual marketplace, where they can sell their work at its true value, and get the credit they deserve.
Rohit- When I heard about this project, I was excited about making such a marketplace for all the artists who have yet to showcase their talent to the world. This project will not only encourage people to present their hidden talents but will also be an example to the world where such skills and talents are slowly degrading. As other topics capture the forefront of their mind and attention, people are not appreciating the artists who are working hard to fascinate others with their works of art. This project will be a platform or foreground where art and artists will be appreciated. I like to think about how art was the first form of written communication, and it allowed humans to evolve into the species we are now. We, as citizens of a rapidly evolving world, should ensure that ancient skills are not forgotten. I think this project is a small step toward ensuring our culture and heritage remain intact.

👩‍💻What it does

We built Citadel Arts with a single purpose in mind: providing talented artists who do not have access to a good market for their pieces with a marketplace where they can get a fair price for their work in the most efficient way, and this goal is reflected in our work.

  • Our Project starts with a beautiful Home page where you can find a brief description about our project. You can navigate to Log In and Sign In pages from there.
  • Our login and signup pages are simple, easy and secure. Since we are handling sensitive information, namely contact information, we took privacy seriously for this project and encrypted our passwords with Bcrypt.
  • After logging in, the user enters their dashboard. On this page, they can view their own submissions.
  • If the user wants to submit a piece, they can do so in the 'Post Art' tab. Here, there is a simple form, asking the user for a picture, the title, the description, and the sale type of their art. There are three different sale types: auction, spot sale, and not for sale.
    • If the user selects auction, the form extends and asks the user the floor price and the end date of the auction.
    • If the user selects spot sale, the form extends to ask the listing price of the piece.
    • If the user selects not for sale, then the form doesn't extend, and the user can click submit to post their art.
  • If the user wants to look at other posts, they can navigate to the Explore tab. There, the user can either browse through the entire selection of pieces, or filter the results by title, artist, and sale type. The actual posts show up as cards, with the image, title, artist, sale type, and description, as well as a view button.
  • The button takes the user to the Art page. Here, the user can view all the details of the piece, which are different based on sale type. All sale types have the image, title, description, likes, and comments.
    • The Art page for auctions also contains the floor price and the current price, which updates every time a new bid is made, your last bid, which updates every time the user makes a bid, and a place your bid section, which doesn't allow you to bid less than or equal to the current price or bid after the end date has passed. When placing a bid, a notification mail is sent to the Artist regarding the bid.
    • The Art page for spot-sale pieces includes the listing price, and a 'Want To Buy' button which sents a mail to the Artist regarding the user's interest in the art and provides means to contact the user for negotiation of the payment.
    • The Art page for a not-for-sale piece includes a 'Contact For Commissions' button which sends an email to Artist showing the user's interest in providing commissions.(For those of you that don't know, commissions are when the buyer tells the artist what to make.)

Using our knowledge of coding, web design, and Django, we were able to achieve our goal, and successfully connect artists and buyers from around the globe (we know, because we are on opposite sides of the world from each other, yet we were able to see each other's comments, posts, and likes)

🏗️ How we built it

  • Our team started by brainstorming topics that we were passionate about, and when the idea for an art market was thrown out, we both agreed that this was the project that we had to code.
  • But, we didn't start coding off the bat. First, we discussed the architecture of the website, the basic elements until we had a skeleton in our minds, of what Citadel Arts should be. After that, we got to work.
  • We took the project one step at a time.
  • First, we made the login and signup system
  • Then we created the frontend of all the different pages.
  • After that, we got to work on the backend. The first function we created in the backend was the one to view all the different posts on the Explore page.
  • Then, we created the Art page, where the user can really zoom in on the details.
  • After designing the Art page, we worked on actually including the information on the page, through the backend
  • Then, we coded the filters on the explore page, so the user could search for what they really wanted.
  • After the filters were done, we simultaneously worked on the dashboard and the bid section
  • With our most important functions done, we could focus on accessories like likes and comments

💀Challenges we ran into

  • One of the biggest challenges we ran into was collaborating.
    1. Tvisha lives in the US, and Rohit lives in India. Opposite sides of the world. But, We were able to turn this challenge into a strength. Since we live in different time zones, we were able to work 24 hours. Rohit worked while Tvisha slept, and Tvisha worked while Rohit slept, and in the middle time, when we both were awake, we briefed each other on our changes and discussed what to do next. In this way, we were able to save time, and be efficient.
    2. It was both of our first time collaborating on a Django project through Github, and Github was misbehaving terribly. Both of us could push our changes, but we were both having trouble pulling the other's changes. We were able to get around this, though. At first, we used makeshift solutions like copy/paste, but later we found the answer to our prayers in a Stack Overflow answer.

😁Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are unimaginably proud of the work we have done over these three days. This project turned out to be bigger than we'd initially imagined, but we believe we executed it better than flawlessly. Some of the things we're especially proud of are:

  • Finishing on time with everything working as it should
  • The bid function
  • Our efficient transfers from frontend to backend.
  • Our efficient system of collaboration.
  • A presentable frontend including a beautiful Home Page

📖What we learned

This hackathon was THE learning experience for us we learned so much about teamwork the Github, the part about being in different countries. Everything contributed to the end result, which is not just Citadel Arts, but also a new skillset. In addition, Tvisha learned about Ajax and Rohit learned the basics of Wevideo.

🔮What's next for Citadel Arts

We are planning on continuing to add features to Citadel Arts, after this hackathon. Some of the plans we have are :

  • A cart, so that users can save pieces that they like without having to buy them immediately.
  • A donate tab, where if artists want to, they can donate part of their profits to a charity of their choosing.
  • Improve on the overall functionality and design.
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