Visiting Santa Fe International Folk Art Market
Recently, I asked my employees if they would like to contribute photos and captions from any of their trips or vacations for me to post on my blog, as I hear of so many exciting travels. Kate Lewis, a long-time employee, was the first to respond. Kate, who travels frequently, is passionate about empowering women around the globe and I hope you’ll enjoy this guest blog as much as I did.
Hi, I’m Kate, an employee who loves folk art and recently, I went to New Mexico to attend the amazing Santa Fe International Folk Art Market with several girlfriends. This event, which has been held for the past eight years, is the largest market of its kind in the world. This year, more than 150 master folk artists representing 50 different countries, were selected to participate in this colorful, creative, and fun gathering, attended by more than 25,000 people! What is of particular interest to me is that nearly half of the artists, who exhibit, represent women’s cooperatives. The enormous impact of women’s cooperatives, throughout the world, is affording women an opportunity to rise out of poverty and have a market for their crafts. Listening to their stories, as they proudly display their wares, is always truly inspiring and touching. By the way, did you know that 2012 has been proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Year of Cooperatives?
1 This is the entrance to the International Fold Art market.
2 The market is decorated with colorful banners.
3 A really great banner
4 And another
5 There are also colorful flowers throughout.
6 This is the Children's Passport booth. Carrying a passport, kids can talk with artists from around the globe, and receive Passport “stamps” that show the flag of the artist’s nation.
7 Carmen with her passport - In addition, the children can see maps pinpointing where the artists live. This is a wonderful culture and geography lesson!
8 Janet Nkubanaw, from Rwanda, and my friends, Joyce and Judy - Janet and her sister founded the Gahaya Links Cooperatives,using basket weaving as a source of income for rural women.
9 Janet and her niece, Sarah - The Gahaya Links has helped more than 4,000 women, enabling them to rise from poverty and to feed and educate their children.
10 These are some of the amazing baskets, which are available at Macy's. http://www1.macys.com/shop/for-the-home/special-shops/shop-for-a-better-world/rwanda-baskets?id=39173
11 Rebecca Lolosoli of Kenya - She founded the women's group, Umoja, which means 'unity.' They make gorgeous traditional hand-strung beaded necklaces, like this one.
12 Another necklace - Rebecca was featured in Newsweek magazine as one of the 150 Women Who Would Change the World. www.umojabeadedjewelry.com
13 My friend, Willa Shalit and Amina Yabis of Morocco. She founded Golden Buttons, where women make jewelry out of handwoven buttons.
14 This is a basketful of those Moroccan buttons. Amina has enlisted the help of more than 400 women from her province.
15 Ana Victoria Saragno of Ecuador - The Saraguro women of highland southern Ecuador have been beading colorful colors, like this one, for many years.
16 Ana learned this fine craft of bead weaving by apprenticing with an older woman in her village.
17 Chantha Nguon of Cambodia - She started Stung Women's Development Center and teaches local women the art of Ikat silk weaving to break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy.
18 Rangina Hamidi of Afghanistan - She and Fareba Durrani started Kandahar Treasure, where women do fine needle embroidery on clothing, called khamak, to generate income.
19 Rangina was selling beautifully embroidered scarves with unique geometric designs.
20 Kadyrkul and Farzana Sharshenbieva of Kyrgyzstan - 2 of 7 sisters that presented their beautiful silk and wool scarves made in the ancient ala-kiyiz felting technique
21 Bertha Medina of Peru (on right) - I am awed by the fine detail of her hand carved designs on dried gourds.
22 Bertha demonstrated her carving techniques - such talent!
23 Bertha is from a small village high in the Andes and learned her craft from her father.
24 Fatima Mohammed Al Musheiki of Oman, Joyce, and Judy - Fatima makes traditional Omani baskets using the fronds of a wild desert palm, called qadaf.
25 The fronds are coiled together and have leather bottoms. They carry both dry goods and liquid, such as camel and goat milk.
26 Serge Jolimaeu of Haiti - It was good to see Haitian art on display because the massive earthquake affected the entire artist community there.
27 Inspired by blacksmiths in his neighborhood, Serge is a master artist who creates metal art from steel drums. He has trained many of the best metal artisans in Haiti.
28 Elhadji Koumama of Niger - A Tuareg silversmith, wearing the elegant dress of his Tuareg culture
29 Elhadji is from a family of famous Tuareg silversmiths and his father was one of the most celebrated. www.tuaregjewelry.com
30 Rustan Usmanou and his son, Damir of Uzbekistan - Rustan produces handsome blue ceramics from the village of Rishtan, the oldest center of ceramic art in Central Asia.
31 The designs are hand painted in beautiful shades of turquoise, dark blue, and brown.
32 We were also invited to a cocktail party. This is Dr. Madeline 'Migs' Muldrow, who is celebrating the opening of the Village Health Partnership in rural Ethiopia, one of the poorest nations in the world.
33 Mig's program will bring much needed pre and post-natal care to the many women who live in the remote areas of the country, where medical care is non-existent.
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Facinating!!!
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | July 22nd, 2011 at 12:12 am
Love that metal art!
Posted by: BluBabesCreate | July 22nd, 2011 at 12:41 am
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful post. It's all so inspiring and beautiful.
Posted by: Burndett Andres | July 22nd, 2011 at 6:52 am
This was a very interesting and informative contribution to Martha's Blog. I saw so many talented people, and beautiful handmade art from so many different parts of our world. I am in awe of what these people can create!
Posted by: Susie Poss | July 22nd, 2011 at 7:52 am
EXCELLENT BLOG...thanks so much.
Posted by: Judy Ware | July 22nd, 2011 at 8:04 am
I loved this post! I hope you have lots of employees participate as I can imagine your whole staff is creative and interesting. I think every art fair should steal the idea of teaching kids geography by having them collect a stamp from the artist so they learn countries and states. Brilliant! And what a non-intimidating way for a child to initiate a conversation with someone who looks completely different and dresses in unfamiliar clothes.
Posted by: Karen | July 22nd, 2011 at 8:35 am
Thanks Kate for sharing this beautiful and inspiring blog. This is one of my fav things to do in summer, didn't make it this year so the blog brought it right to me. The art is beautiful but its the artisans especially the women who make this event are success.
Posted by: Faith Mbabazi | July 22nd, 2011 at 9:58 am
Hi Martha, Once again, it's great to see a wonderful blog post by one of your delightful employees! Kate Lewis certainly did a great job photographing her visit to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market event in New Mexico! Her photos and comments were fantastic and very informative! What a great place for people to visit and help others all over the world! My favorite photos were #5,23,27,29,&31-stunning! Thank you Kate for sharing! Martha, it was absolutely wonderful to see you and Alex for 6 to 7 hours on HSN yesterday and ALL of your fabulous craft products are outstanding!!! I had never purchased anything on HSN before, but I fell in love with your craft products you showed and ordered 11 items! Will get them on August 1st and can't wait to open those packages! My favorite item was the Knitting and Weaving Loom-I got 3 of those because I'm giving some of those terrific items to my two young nieces! Was so happy to see sweet little Sharkey on The Daily Wag today-she says she is doing much better and I'm so relieved about that! Hope you have a great day and a wonderful weekend! Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | July 22nd, 2011 at 9:58 am
Martha, thanks for letting Kate share this blog.
Posted by: KLBrown | July 22nd, 2011 at 10:13 am
what a beautiful , beautiful, blog. Thank you Martha for sharing it with us. So much talent and the most gorgous colors! I would love to enjoy this open air market!
Posted by: Dee | July 22nd, 2011 at 10:29 am
My vacation pictures never turn out like this as these are marvelous. Thanks so much for sharing. Every been to Georgia O-Keefe museum there? Didn't she come from Amarillo TX as seems that I owed money to O'Keefe's finance company. Thanks, Kate, you have inspired many of us to learn more.
Posted by: ann | July 22nd, 2011 at 10:40 am
Hi Kate and thanks for your heartwarming contribution to Martha’s blog. One just never knows what might happen if they decide to reach out to help another person. I think it is wonderful that next year will be the year of the cooperatives. It is so nice to see happy smiles on people who once lived in poverty and now they are sharing their artistic talents with the world. I bet Bertha who was busy carving away on her gourds high up in the Andes never dreamed her hard work would one day benefit her and her people. Or maybe she did dream about it and God answered her prayers! Either way, I was touched by this blog. The Santa Fe International Folk Art Market seems to be a pretty special place! Thanks again Kate for sharing. Trish
Posted by: Trish | July 22nd, 2011 at 10:48 am
Dear Katie,
Thank you so much for sharing. What wonderful items for sale.
Posted by: Sharon | July 22nd, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Hi, Martha and Kate,
Absolutely stunning artwork and very important back stories!
Thank you!
Posted by: Bobbie | July 22nd, 2011 at 1:50 pm
I found photo #24 to be particularly striking with the contrast of face covering and sunglasses.
Posted by: jw | July 22nd, 2011 at 3:58 pm
I'm from Brazil, but I see your blog every day ... I love! When you have time come to see mine, will be a pleasure!
http://chouchoupetit.blogspot.com/
Love, Kika
Posted by: Kika Junqueira | July 22nd, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Martha!
When will you be visiting Northern California? As a huge fan of yours and a manager for the Army & Air Force Exchange Service store at Travis AFB, we would love to host you at our store as a meet & greet event for all of our customers that absolutely love you! We love that we're able to shop your kitchen, craft, and linen product lines on base and at a special price for our military members! We would love and appreciate if you were able to visit and help spread the word for your brand and the support of our military members and their family!
Posted by: Courtney Girard | July 23rd, 2011 at 1:06 am
Thank you so much for this blog. I could not make it to the Festival this year, so the photos were fabulous. I collect the Tuareg jeweley and it was nice to see Ehaji was there. I understand the Tuareg men make the jewelry, but this is a matriarchal society. So this fits with the theme of empowering women. Great job.
Posted by: Paulette | July 23rd, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Thank you for the blog. We also participate in Santa Fe Folk Art Market. Our booth no was 72.
Posted by: Suviii | July 24th, 2011 at 2:37 am
Thank you for sharing the works of these wonderfully talented artists. It is amazing to see how these women have become empowered to help their own communities, in spiritual growth, as well. I am looking forward to the opportunity to visit the Festival in the future. Is it held in Santa Fe each year, or different locations? Appreciate a response to next year's location and date.
Posted by: Teresa Emrich | July 24th, 2011 at 10:30 pm
I live in Albuquerque, which is 60min.south of Santa Fe. This event is amazing and i try to make it every year...The talent of these artist is simply awesome.. Thanks for your visit and also for sharing the pixs
Posted by: M Sheridan | July 26th, 2011 at 12:14 am
Beautiful things, I liked them all!
I have been studying at Santa Fe University last winter and I have the best memories.
Posted by: Paola | June 26th, 2012 at 3:48 pm
Kate - this was a wonderful blog. I was a volunteer at the market (my fourth year), and this is one of my favorite events of the year. I also wanted to add - Kudos to the folk art market organizers. They do an amazing job in putting on this market. The only dissapointment is with the American government that in the past couple of years has denied visas to some of the visiting artists.
Posted by: Jabeen Vagh | July 16th, 2012 at 11:52 pm
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based writing.
Posted by: Donna | November 2nd, 2012 at 5:17 am