Esscre brings art into entrepreneurship

Esscre was founded two years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic, to create a talent ecosystem. When the idea was conceptualised, a team of like-minded young individuals began gathering knowledge about the industry and identify how their new endeavour could be impactful. With months of hard work and brainstorming, Esscre came into existence with a mission of curating creativity and making it accessible to everyone.

With each event, Esscre aims to provide artists with a platform to highlight their talent and earn some revenue in the process. While Esscre was being developed, the team looked at how people in general look for spaces that offer more than fast food or a cup of coffee to re-energise. In between the problems we face in current society and the chaos it comes with, we often seek out a safe space where we can sing and laugh. Hence, having a space dedicated to artists bringing their creativity to life and for others to witness it offers a peaceful break. Esscre allows all kinds of artists and everyone else to indulge in a creative outlet.

Moontasir Shahriar Bijoy, Founder and CEO of Esscre, believes that the platform is there to give space to inspiration. He says, "I do not have to inspire, it already exists. Artists just need a push, a stable source where they can grow and benefit from. A place to nurture their talent. Esscre serves to do just that by capitalising the talents around us, connecting them with the right consumer, and making them entrepreneurs in art."

Esscre held its second artists meet and first acoustic night on 13 and 14 January respectively. The meet was catered to bringing artists together and building a community that would help artists socialise and where Esscre could look closely to recruit artists as well to enhance their business. What sets this meet apart is that it was meant to be a creative hub where comedians, musicians, singers, filmmakers, photographers, and martial artists can be in the same room and socialise, acting as a networking platform as well. The meet also had Rotem Shneor, associate professor of Entrepreneurship from University of Agder from Norway.

Photo: Esscre

The acoustic night had winter-themed food, along with a superb line-up of artists including Masha, Aseer Arman, Shubro, and Gonje Fereshta. The audience was provided with entertainment and the opportunity to meet who they admire with tears of joy, to laugh at the stories and share the same space in harmony.

Esscre's first project "The Strongest One" authored by Muhit Rahman is available at Bengal Boi, with their second project "The Boogie to be" authored by Tahira Goldson and illustrated by Sarah Rahman to be released in the United States of America soon. The platform itself offers a marketplace for artists (space to keep their work for sale), exhibition halls open for booking, commission work, and project management along with an open-for-all art studio that requires booking and an exhibition space also used for performing arts. Additionally, there are training rooms to train artists in portfolio management, art marketing, digital marketing, and so on.

Moving forward, Esscre plans is to introduce 'creative tech' as a category in the start-up scenario of Bangladesh, keep the space engaging, build goodwill, hunt talents, and build a sustainable and scalable model. For now, the long-term plan is to introduce all the different forms of art and create a structured system for them. Once that is done, they will add a research wing and take Esscre globally.