Head, Heart, and Hand

 

If the widespread Covid-19 restrictions we have endured these past two years have demonstrated anything, it is that collectors crave social connections. Facebook and Zoom have helped to ease our longing to meet other Arts and Crafts collectors face to face, but they have also made us yearn that much more to share our discoveries with those who appreciate our passion for the pottery, furniture, metalware, art, books, and textiles we live with daily.

 

 

We were all heartened by the enthusiastic response for the recent 21^st Annual Twin Cities Arts and Crafts Show held in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Like our own show and conference, the Twin Cities’ show could not be held in person last year, but Brian Smith and Cam Quintal, along with their loyal exhibitors, were willing to roll the dice to see if people were ready to venture out to the first Arts and Crafts show in 18 months.

And they were.

 

 

As has been the case all year, we are continuing to make plans for our in-person celebration marking the 35^th National Arts and Crafts Conference to be held February 18-20 at the historic Grove Park Inn. Kate continues to make almost weekly updates to our conference website (Arts-CraftsConference.com) and I am at work transferring information from each of our exhibitor contracts to the three over-sized floor plans we use during setup to make sure each booth has the correct number and sizes of tables, pegboards, and display cases.

And while auction print catalogs seem to have been replaced by digital versions, I continue to hold onto this tradition. In addition to serving as your guidebook during the three days of the conference, it also exists as an historical document, one which may help future researchers three or four generations from now who are tracking down any of our exhibitors whose works will continue to be sought after decades from now.

 

 

Coming up on our monthly lists of what needs to be done will be selecting topics for our daily Small Group Discussions. We make it a point of repeating some of the most popular topics, especially those designed to give advice to new collectors, but we also like to add fresh topics of interest to you. If you have a suggestion, now is the time to email it to us, for our printer’s deadline for our conference catalog is already in sight.

And for those of you who long to use your hands as well as your head and heart, we are already taking reservations for the limited number of seats available in our Pre-Conference workshops. Held Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, these workshops have almost always sold out well in advance of the conference, so be sure to check them out HERE.

 

Until next week,

 

“The man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.”  ― Elbert Hubbard

 

Bruce