Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

Letters from Africa – Artists’ Feedback on their Market Experience

The days of the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market can fly by, for volunteers, artists and staff alike, and it’s only after things have returned to ‘normal’ that we can reflect on the experience of those few days in July.

Here are extracts from messages artists and organizers sent us when they got back to Africa which show how much the 2010 Market meant to them.

First, notes from Nozipho Zulu, Development Officer at The African Art Centre in Durban, South Africa, who travelled to New Mexico with several South African artists:

“It was on our return to South Africa that we realised the extent to which the market was an extraordinary experience. We have never sold that amount of stock in three days; the ceramic pots, the wire baskets, embroidered textiles… We always had cheerful customers in our booths, never did we encounter an unfriendly customer, they were all smiling.

 

Market Wrap Up

Hello Market Supporters,

Wow! There is so much to say and to tell you now that the 2010 Market is over, but I thought I should at least share some highlights with you.

This year’s Market saw some wonderful new developments and great success “by the numbers” (these are preliminary figures and subject to change):

• Collectively, artist sales totaled over $2 million, a 7% increase over last year
• Attendance is estimated at nearly 25,000, a increase of 6.1%

This year, for the first time, we inaugurated “International Folk Arts Week” in collaboration with the Museum of International Folk Art and many businesses around town.

The week kicked-off with a July 4th opening of a new exhibition Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives that Transform Communities.  An exciting panel discussion that day gave voice to women cooperative leaders from places a diverse as Kenya, India and Peru.

 

The World is Coming to Santa Fe!

The artists have begun to arrive. . .

From Swaziland, Peru, the Sultanate of Oman, Kenya, Nepal, and more.

Artists from across the globe are on their way to the Folk Art Market. 

Don’t miss this unique experience!

Tickets for the Market are still available for purchase.

We hope to see you there, July 9-11! 

 

Visit our Flickr Group, and share your images from this year’s Market

With the Market fast approaching, we’d like to get you in the mood with some great photographs from previous years’ Market.

Visitors from the last two years have been sharing their photographs on our Flickr Group, and there are some lovely images there. You can visit the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market’s Flickr Group here.

And of course, if you’re coming this year, we’d love to see your photographs added to the Group too.

Just a quick extra note: to illustrate this blog post we used one of the images from the pool, but got the photographer’s additional permission to post the photograph on this site (which wasn’t hard because it was me). We won’t use any images in the pool without express permission from the photographer. That said, some of the previous images have been so good that we have arranged with the photographer concerned to use them to promote the Market. So there’s a chance you’ll see an image of yours on the side of a bus, if that’s something you’d like.

- David Moore (I look after the Market’s website and contribute some of my photography, too).

 

UNESCO’s Award of Excellence Program at the Market

UNESCO has been involved with the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market since its inaugural year in 2004 and was the first international agency to recognize the importance of the Market and its impact on the preservation and continuation of traditional arts.  This year, UNESCO’s Division of Cultural Expressions and Creative Industries is again providing funding for the Market to promote the Award of Excellence program at the 2010 Market.

The Award of Excellence for Handicrafts Program was established to encourage craft-workers to use traditional skills and materials to ensure the perpetuation of traditional knowledge and preserve cultural diversity, while promoting innovations to keep the products relevant and competitive.

By setting quality standards for handicrafts and raising international awareness, the Award program aims to strengthen the interest for these products, and helps place culture at the core of development. Capacity-building and promotional activities help artisans sustain a more viable livelihood and long-term employment.

 

Market Featured in ‘O, The Oprah Magazine’

We’re delighted to announce that the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market is featured in the current (July 2010) issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.

Highlighting the work of seven women artisan groups, the article shows the beauty of their work, and outlines the beneficial impact these groups have on their communities.

Featuring great photographs and a compelling quote from Market Executive Director Charlene Cerny, the coverage is sure to raise awareness of the Market and the featured artisans.

You can read the O Magazine article here, or visit a special section of our website we’ve built to provide more information, including how to purchase directly from these artisans.

 

Patina Gallery’s Street Side 2010 opening and show to benefit Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

To launch their StreetSide 2010 exhibit, Santa Fe’s Patina Gallery is holding an opening reception that’s also a fundraiser for the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market.

The reception, one of the International Folk Arts Week events, will begin at 5pm on Thursday July 8th, to coincide with the Market’s opening event on the Plaza.

The StreetSide exhibit features travel-themed folk art from the collections of Peggy Gaustad and Stuart Ashman, Barbara and John Berkenfield, Julie Payne and Steve Luckman, and Maureen Russell. All the collectors will be attending the reception.

In addition, a percentage of all gallery sales at Patina from June 1 through July 30 will be donated to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market (be sure to mention the Market when you purchase).

Or you can support the Market by making an online purchase before August 1.

 

‘Helping Communities do Things for Themselves’ in South Africa

Maria Rengane is from the Tsonga tribe in Winterveldt, South Africa, and she works in the Mapula (Mother of Rain) Embroidery Project women’s cooperative.  The work of her cooperative will be featured in the Museum’s exhibition, Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives That Transform Communities.

The cooperative started when Maria began teaching women to do embroidery work that they could sell and make some money.  She now has a group of 14 women with whom she works, and they receive no outside assistance.

Maria learned embroidery from her mother.  With fine technical and visual artistry, Maria embroiders cloths that express village life and women’s personal experiences.

Her work in the community was inspired by Nkosi Johnson, a South African boy who died in 2001 of AIDS at age 12.  He spoke strongly about the stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS and addressed the International AIDS Conference in Durban in 2000.

Many people are suffering and dying from AIDS in Maria’s community, and Maria would like to see more efforts from those in power to fight the problem by providing cheaper medicine for the poor.

Asked if she would ever stop doing her embroidery work, Maria says, ‘Never! This is how I express myself. If I am sad I put it in my embroideries, if I am happy I put it in my embroideries.’
‘I would also like to spend my life helping communities to do things for themselves - that is how you build a strong successful nation’.

You can learn more about Maria here, and look forward to seeing her work at this year’s Market.

 

Colloquium to Explore Women’s Cooperatives-- Challenges and Opportunities

A two-day colloquium (open only to invited Market artists involved with cooperatives) will take place in the week before the Market.

Entitled “Women’s Cooperatives for Economic and Social Empowerment,” over 35 cooperatives from 23 countries will be taking part.  This international gathering will serve as a forum for participants to share their experiences about issues such as preservation of cultural traditions in the face of the global marketplace, tackling social issues, and expanding market access for artisan products to work towards economic sustainability. 

Some presentations will take place on a narrated stage, with these dynamic cooperative women leaders as the presenters, in order for more peer-to-peer knowledge exchange to take place.

As part of the event, a number of community-based, women’s arts organizations from New Mexico including members from the Ramah Navajo Weavers Association, Tierra Wools, and Española Valley Fiber Arts Center will share their experiences and artwork in this cross-cultural exchange.

Rebecca Lolosoli, from the Umoja Uaso Women’s Group in Kenya (shown right) says, “My goal is to learn as much as possible about all these topics and how we all share similar problems and difficulties. I want to learn about how other women’s cooperatives function and how they market their work internationally.”

“I will share the story of how our group has managed to survive much abuse, sabotage and many physical dangers in order to stay together as a group in a culture that is patriarchal and in which women have few rights.”

The colloquium is funded in part by UNESCO’s Division of Cultural Expressions and Creative Industries.