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Craftsmen pouring in: The 45th annual fair will give guild members an enviable chance to show their work to thousands
Tim Barnwell photos
Sandy Batton’s Pitcher (left) and Small Ram Vase are among the items he will show at the Piedmont Craftsmen’s Fair at Benton Convention Center.
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Published: November 9, 2008
Potters Ann and Alex "Sandy" Batton live in Asheville, widely known as a hotbed of contemporary crafts. Thanks to their skills and industriousness, they've been able to make a living in recent years exclusively through sales of their functional and decorative ceramic pieces.
Outlets for works by the couple, both in their mid-30s, include regional galleries and their own in-home studio in Asheville's Kenilworth neighborhood. But they derive the largest share of their annual sales income--65 to 70 per cent, according to Sandy--from participating in such large shows as next weekend's Piedmont Craftsmen's Fair.
In the past five years the Battons have sold and exhibited their works at 10 to 15 crafts fairs every year, Sandy said in a recent telephone interview. The Piedmont Craftsmen's Fair is one of their two or three favorite events of this kind, he said.
The Battons are among about 125 craft artists scheduled to show and sell their work at this year's Piedmont Craftsmen's Fair, to be held on Saturday and next Sunday at the Benton Convention Center. It will be the 45th installment of the fair, sponsored as always by the Winston-Salem's Piedmont Craftsmen guild, and for the first time, it will feature a free public light show on three successive nights.
The fair is a forum for works in a variety of craft mediums, including wood, glass, fiber, leather, metal, photography and printmaking. It's widely regarded as one of the top 10 crafts fairs in the country, said Deborah Britton, its coordinator.
This will be the Battons' second year as exhibitors at the fair, an exclusive event in which they showed for the first time last year. In order to participate last year, their work -- like that of all new applicants -- first had to be approved by the fair's 13-member standards committee. Clearing the latter hurdle meant that they were allowed to exhibit at last year's fair on a trial basis. Because the committee's members were impressed with the Battons' display, they were admitted as full-fledged exhibiting members of Piedmont Craftsmen, allowing them to sell their work on a year-round basis through the guild's shop at its headquarters in The Downtown Arts District, and to rent booths at subsequent fairs.
It was a significant accomplishment for the Battons, who didn't make the cut on their first try in 2006. Competition among craft artists aspiring to be first-time exhibitors is stiff, Britton said. Of the 95 artists who applied to participate as new exhibitors this year, only 27 were accepted. The committee's decisions are based on assessments of photographic images showing works by the applicants.
Once they're accepted, fair exhibitors are required to pay fees ranging from $560 to $1,150, depending on the sizes of their booths and the booths' locations in the convention center. The fair exposes exhibitors work to substantial numbers of potential buyers. About 4,600 people attended the fair last year, Britton said.
The history of Piedmont Craftsmen and its annual fairs dates to 1963, when a group of 11 craft artists and collectors from Winston-Salem and nearby communities set out to establish a crafts market here during the holiday gift-buying season. The first installment was held in mid-November 1964 in a rented building in Old Salem.
Today, Piedmont Craftsmen has 357 exhibiting members and about 700 supporting members from a 12-state region. The guild operates on an annual budget that now stands at about $605,000, according to its director, Jane Doub. A fiber artist herself, Doub has been an exhibiting member of the guild since 1992 and its director since 2005.
The fair is Piedmont Craftsmen's largest single undertaking in any given year, and Britton said that this year's installment will cost the guild about $92,500, about $2,000 more than last year's fair. To produce the fair, the guild's staff of two full-time and nine part-time employees will be assisted by about 100 volunteers, most of whom are supporting members.
A special feature that promises to help distinguish this year's fair from previous installments will be "The Winston-Salem Light Project," a free nighttime light show at the Millennium Center on Fifth Street.
"They're not just going to be lighting the building but creating a whole event around the lighting and the imagery," Doub said. "It sounds like it's going to be amazing."
■ The 45th annual Piedmont Craftsmen's Fair will be from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. next Sunday at the Benton Convention Center, 301 W. Fifth St. Daily tickets are $6, $5 for seniors and students; weekend tickets are $10. Children under 12 will be admitted free if accompanied by a paying adult. For more information, call 336-725-1516.
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