Sponsor Spotlight: Southern Highland Craft Guild

A participant since the beginning of American Craft Week and now a 2^nd year sponsor – the Southern Highland Craft Guild represents 6 galleries and close to 1000 artists who reside in mountain counties in the 9 state region of the Appalachian Mountains.  The Guild dates back to 1930 and is headquartered at The Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville, NC.

  

For over 80 years the Guild has been “bringing together the crafts and craftspeople of the Southern Highlands for the shared benefit of education, conservation and marketing”. This mission is fulfilled through integrated educational craft demonstrations at retail outlets and expos, free educational community events, and an extensive public library located at The Folk Art Center.

The next community events are Clay Day on June 7, Wood Day on August 9, and Heritage Weekend on September 20-21.

The Guild’s newest gallery, The Southern Highland Craft Gallery, hosted American Craft Week’s filming of our Kickstarter video! 

We are thrilled to have the Southern Highland Craft Guild back this year as a Sponsor of American Craft Week!

Western North Carolina Joins Together for the 4th Year

Collaboration has been the key for the Western NC participants in American Craft Week. Since 2010, representatives of area galleries, studios and craft organizations meet monthly and work as a group to promote the whole regions’ ACW events.

Together WNC participants plan a kick-off event, invite a guest speaker to come to the area, highlight events on a regional postcard or rack card, and plan area media promotions.

Individual participants can represent a single gallery, an artist studio, or an organization comprised of over 900 artist members in the case of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. WNC proudly brings an average of 40+ participant listings to ACW every year…so many they’ve managed their own page of events on the ACW website and their own Facebook page!

Finally Western NC has seen the value of sponsoring ACW to strengthen the overall national effort and outreach. This year six of the national sponsors are Western NC participants! Thank you Western NC!