CraftBoston Holiday 2020
Society of Arts + Crafts brightens the season with a fully digital event going on now through December 31, 2020.
As we approach the 2020 holidays, we enter a new phase of adjustment. How we engage with art continues to evolve as galleries, museums, and holiday events are impacted by COVID-19. Yet we still want a happy, colorful holiday season—and we want to decorate our home thoughtfully. The work of craft artists and makers represents the art we live and interact with most regularly— a notion integral to the Society of Arts +Crafts (SA+C), the country’s oldest nonprofit craft organization. The Boston-based SA+C, has been promoting and recognizing craft makers for nearly 125 years. SA + C champions craft’s in role in our culture — its ability to offer insight into both our present and future. This holiday season, as we envision what our relationship with art will look like in the new year, the SA+C is providing an opportunity to engage with, and be inspired by—and bring home—the enduring excellence and artistry of craft makers.
For the first time, SA+C will host its CraftBoston Holiday sale as a fully digital event going on now through December 31, 2020. Previously held in Boston, CraftBoston Holiday, the holiday edition of SA+C’s popular biannual fine contemporary craft and artistic design sale, has been an in-person, weekend-long event. This year, buyers worldwide can purchase finely crafted, unique items online. Shoppers have 24/7 access to the CraftBoston Holiday Online Store, where they can select from hundreds of curated items made by 75 juried craft artists from across New England and the U.S.
As in past years, the CraftBoston Holiday brings artists and passionate, knowledgeable appreciators together in dialogue about craft and design. This year CraftBoston Holiday Online has recreated those chances for connection (and elevated the holiday shopping experience), by providing patrons online special events. Many artists are offering virtual studio visits, live workshops, and interactive mix & mingle chats to discuss their work. Buyers everywhere have the opportunity to purchase high quality gifts — from jewelry and ceramics to woodcraft and wearable art — while learning about the artist, and the artistry behind the pieces. Among the participating artists are wearable art designer Queen Adeline from Lowell, MA; furniture-maker Duncan Gowdy from Holden, MA; New York-based jewelry maker Lori Kaplan; North Carolina jewelry and ceramics designer Cat Haus Designs; and potter Irina Okula of Clay Shards studio in Ipswich, MA.
In keeping with the SA+C’s mission to support and give visibility to craft makers, the new virtual platform offers CraftBoston Holiday artists the possibility to reach a global audience with their work. As art fairs and exhibitions continue to be cancelled due to COVID-19, craft events provide a crucial income opportunity for artists during the holiday season. Whether shopping for holiday gifts, or seeking items for your own collection, art lovers everywhere can join the SA+C in supporting and celebrating the creativity of craft makers.
Art New England spoke with Brigitte Martin, executive director of SA+C, to discuss CraftBoston Holiday moving online in 2020, what attendees can expect, and the role of craft in the current moment.
Tell us how you went about designing this event and the schedule of offerings.
CraftBoston Holiday Online follows the outline of our in-person craft shows. We show a great variety of craft media and associated free events. The good part about having the event currently online is that we can host it for a much longer period, seven weeks instead of three days, and that visitors are not tied to a schedule of events that they may or may not be able to attend. Many of our online workshops, for example, are video-recorded and posted on our YouTube channel for everyone to enjoy when they have time available. I think that’s a big plus and from what we have seen so far, people are taking good advantage of it.
How were the artists selected?
Our CraftBoston artists are selected annually by a panel of three jurors who are experts in their craft field and decide whose work is a good fit for our show. Our jurors come from a wide range of craft backgrounds. We always aim to have at least one working artist on the panel, and representation from the curatorial, museum, or gallery fields as well. These experts view the artwork via an online jurying app and have access to all the information they need for their decisions.
What have been some of the benefits of moving to an online format this year?
It is fair to say that the two biggest benefits are that it allows artists to participate and show their work for whom it usually is difficult to do so because their artwork is heavy (furniture) or extremely fragile (ceramic and glass sculpture). The other benefit clearly is on the side of the visitor. Travelling to Boston from out of state is often not a possibility for a buyer, so having artwork accessible online and having it shipped directly to someone’s home broadens the buyer base immensely. In the first week alone, half of our buyers were out of state, whereas usual attendance at the in-person show is more regional.
What can attendees expect when they log on?
A shop showcasing 75 artists with a variety of work, free mix & mingle cocktail hours (socially-distanced via Zoom, of course) as well as videos where artists walk us through their studios. What I like most is the opportunity for every visitor to book an online course in some sort of craft-making. Isn’t that a great gift idea this year?
Could you speak to the importance of buying from craft makers?
When you buy from craft makers you are supporting a small business in the most effective way. These are folks who have dedicated their lives to becoming experts in their craft and they bring artwork into the world that has soul, charm, and character. I couldn’t think of a better way to give a gift, and when you do, you create joy threefold: to the person receiving a very special gift, the maker whose small business you support, and of course yourself, because you just made a really good choice about how to spend your money.
Are there some specific pieces you have been particularly drawn to? Some standouts or favorites?
I really like it all. That’s the hard part, everything is my favorite.
Could you speak to craft’s place in society in 2020? Or, the potential of craft in this particular moment?
If the pandemic has shown us anything this year, it is that people greatly value craft. Who has not participated in some sort of craft-making this year to find enjoyment, distraction, and solace amidst the chaos that surrounded us? Baking was huge, that’s a craft. Or how about all the mask-sewing that went on once we found out that our first responders needed the equipment? I think craft’s ability to connect people with materials, community, and purpose has never been more apparent. And, quite frankly, it is also just plain fun!
Through your experiences working with and writing about craft artists, have you found there are particular qualities, or a shared trait that characterizes craft makers or the craft community?
I can say from my own experience that engaging with craft in any way, as a maker, a buyer, a writer, a collector opens you to a world of community and collaboration like no other. I always say, craft is a community sport. Nobody plays it alone. Making craft is a way to engage with the world that is joyful and easily accessible. It is a transformational experience working with materials and shaping them into something you dreamt up. There’s nothing quite like it.
Happy holiday shopping! For your home (your personal showroom), your friends, as well as yourself. The CraftBoston Holiday 2020 sale takes place through December 31, 2020. For more information, visit craftboston.org.