Santa Fe Arts and Culture Magazine: View Article

The World is Coming to Santa Fe on July 12 & 13, 2008

By: Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

Photo: Judith Haden

Artist From India In Booth; Photo: Judith Haden

Photo: Judith Haden

Photo: Judith Haden

For the fifth consecutive year, more than 100 of the world’s finest folk artists - some famous, others new to the global market - will gather at Milner Plaza in Santa Fe, for the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. The Market, the largest of its kind in the world, brings together serious art collectors, tourists, delighted children, museum curators, and masterful folk artists from more than 40 different nations, to discuss, enjoy, covet, and, of course, purchase extraordinary, handmade works of art. 

This year, for the first time, artists from Rwanda, El Salvador, and Bhutan will join artists from Afghanistan, Botswana, China, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and dozens of other nations, showing work ranging from eye-catching, embroidered textiles to gorgeous, beaded, African animal sculptures. 

"The Market is the place to see, just by strolling from booth to booth, the cultural wealth and creativity that exist among the folk artists on this planet," says Judy Espinar, the co-founder of the market and an expert on collecting folk art."It would take a lifetime of travel to find and buy the exceptional folk art treasures that are readily available at the Market."

The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market also is the one place this summer where visitors can do good, just by showing up and enjoying themselves. Ninety-three percent of Market-sponsored artists’ sales remain with the artists, many of whom grapple daily with political, social, and environmental challenges in their home countries. Thanks to the training they receive during a free, two-day Training and Building Markets Program (funded by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation), a large number of the artists at the Market have become self-supporting. Many artists who originally were supported

financially by the Market now can finance their own return to the Market. The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market has improved standards of living and supported cultural traditions that might otherwise disappear.

And it’s done all of this while market-goers enjoy a flat-out great time. For two days in July, Milner Plaza on Museum Hill in Santa Fe will rollick with strolling mariachi players, Japanese Taiko drummers, and Chinese Dragon Dancers entertaining the tens of thousands of visitors who flock to the Market every year. Vendors will offer exotic foodstuffs from around the world. Children can sample their first Cameroonian meat pie, while their parents learn about beading or tinsmithing or embroidery from the very artists whose works they admire.

"The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market shows that you can have fun and use your dollars to make a palpable difference in the lives of people who are striving to maintain their cultural identities," says Charlene Cerny, executive director of the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market.

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The mission of the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market is to foster economic and cultural sustainability for folk artists and folk art worldwide and to create intercultural exchange opportunities uniting peoples of the world.

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THE DETAILS

Santa Fe International Folk Art Market