Fifty Years of Roycroft: East Aurora Summer Festival This Weekend

by Kate Nixon

 

Roycroft Summer Festival

June 27 & 28

Classic Rink, East Aurora, NY

Presented by the Roycrofters-At-Large Association

This weekend, the return of the Roycroft Summer Festival is set to attract collectors and Roycroft supporters to the Classic Rink in East Aurora to celebrate 50 years with this Western New York tradition.

The annual festival runs from 10 a.m until 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 27 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 28 at the Classic Rink, located at 41 Riley Street in the Village of East Aurora.
Those that visit the juried festival will see handcrafted art in wood, metal, fabric, jewelry, clay, glass, book arts, prints, drawing, painting, and photography. Roycrofters at Large Artisans have earned the right to use the “double R” mark of the Roycroft Renaissance and represent the very strongest in quality workmanship and design.
In addition to rigorously Juried Roycroft Artisans and Masters, the Roycroft Summer Festival also includes a selective pool of non-juried artists and Roycroft Emerging Artists fellows, totaling nearly 60 booths and non-profit community partners. See images below of a selection of Roycroft Artisans who will sell their wares this weekend!
The Emerging Artists program provides opportunities for rising local artists who exhibit a quality of work in keeping with the Roycroft standards in their chosen mediums and advances RALA’s express mission to serve as an organization to further the revitalization and evolution of the Arts & Crafts Movement, in both craft and fine art.
This weekend also marks an unofficial festival of arts weekend for East Aurora; the Historic Roycroft Campus will host its Campus Arts & Antiques Show on South Grove Street and the East Aurora Art Society will host their annual show at the East Aurora Middle School.

 

Brian Brace Fine Furniture via Instagram

 

CJ Hurley Century Arts via Instagram

 

 

Description of the 50th Anniversary Goodie Box via Instagram

 

 

Mission Guild Gallery via Facebook.

 

Michael A Cancilla Jr. artist via Instagram

This past February, the Roycrofters were featured in the “American Utopia” educational display at the National Arts and Crafts Conference and Shows at the Grove Park Inn. In a special article for the conference catalog, Tami Fuller of the Roycrofters At Large Association, explained the legacy of the Roycrofters as an essential product that come from the social reform of the Early 20th Century movement.

“It is helpful in understanding Roycroft as a utopian community to recall that the Arts & Crafts Movement has its roots in late 19th century labor reform movements. It is, at its heart, an art protest against conformity. Hubbard’s Roycroft encouraged the young to further their education in any way possible and to find their own path. It provided a safe harbor for those that wished to live life in a different way, and through education and higher philosophy provided the means and opportunities to do so on their own terms.”

Those in attendance for the Roycroft Summer Festival are sure to see the continuing legacy in modern day Roycroft artists.

 

For more information on the Roycrofters At Large Association and their shows, please visit the RALA website at

https://www.ralaweb.com/

 

 

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