An Arts and Crafts Tradition Returns to St. Paul

by Kate Nixon

 

The 21st Annual Twin Cities Arts & Crafts 20th Century Design Show and Sale

Saturday, September 25th from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM 
Sunday, September 26th 11:00 AM through 3:00 PM
The Fine Arts Building at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds (1265 N. Snelling Ave., St. Paul, MN)
Admission: $7.00

 

The Annual Twin Cities Arts & Crafts 20th Century Design Show and Sale remains the largest event in the Midwest region featuring mission furniture and accessories of the American Arts and Crafts Movement; among the selections are metalwork, pottery, textiles, art, and lighting. With at least twenty exhibitors from across the Midwest and West Coast participating, the show in its 21st year will carefully return to St. Paul, Minnesota on Saturday, September 25th and continue through the 26th.

The show originated from the minds of four friends returning from the National Arts and Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn in February of 2000. The very first show amassed an exhibitor show of 30 exhibitors and attracted over 900 attendees to its concentration of the Arts and Crafts style — and two decades later, show runners Brian Smith and Cameron Quintal of Eastwood Gallery hope to keep the momentum going. We spoke to Brian Smith and explored what attendees should expect for the late September show and how his business survived in 2020.

 

Arts and Crafts Collector.com: How tough was the decision to have the show indoors given the delta variant news everywhere? Was there pressure to go virtual or simply cancel? 

Brian Smith: For us, we would have cancelled rather than gone virtual. It’s a show, we’re not set up for a conference. So if we had to, we’d cancel and just re-evaluate for the next year. Ultimately in order to decide, we had to reach out to all the exhibitors who had done and just said ‘Hey, are you interested in doing it?’ and the response was an overwhelming ‘Yes.’ So once they decided they wanted to do it, then we decided to proceed. We also had to work with the fairgrounds and they had some restrictions in place. Last year they of course cancelled the fair, but this year, the fair is actually going on as we speak. So a lot of things had to play into it, but when all was said and done, we had to make a choice a couple months ago whether or not to do it.

 

 

ACC: Given our community’s penchant for enjoying a sensory experience of seeing and/or touching a work firsthand, it’s important to have that available to your clients and supporters. Is that something you’ve allowed for in your own gallery? 

B: Absolutely. We’ve actually had a really good year and it’s because of what you said. Collectors have been pent up in their houses. They are working from home. They’re asking themselves, how can I decorate my home in such a way that I like it better, so we’ve been doing really well in the gallery in terms of selling furniture and accessories, so I think that just rings true to the show part too. People are looking for that option to get out and touch things and see things and make that experience tactile.

 

ACC: What protocols do you have in place to keep both attendees and exhibitors safe? Will there be any special processes? 

B: A lot of it will depend on what happens in the next couple of weeks up to our show. Minnesota does not have a mask mandate right now but that could certainly change. A lot of businesses are requesting masks, so we will have to play it by ear and see what happens when the time comes, the state of Minnesota or the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.  If a dealer wants to wear a mask, they definitely can do that. The building is large enough in such a way that we will encourage people to stand six feet apart and we are putting up signs that will say that, but in terms of mandating, we are not able to do that. We’ve had some mask mandates in our shop and everyone has been super cool about that. So I think people just know by now, if they make a choice not to come because of it, that’s their choice. But I think people have been good about following those mandates.

 

ACC: Given the protocols, what steps are you going to take to ensure that the social aspects of a show still stays intact? 

B: Well, I think that’s just from 20 years of doing the show. The dealers that have come to participate in the show are our regular Midwest dealers and a lot of people come from all over the Midwest to see them. We try to make it a very casual show in the sense of encouraging the dealers to educate the public on what they are looking at. For the most part, these are customers who keep coming to the show for a long time. They make it a regular yearly journey here. It’s mostly Midwest people that come, mostly from the five state area. They don’t have anything like this in their towns and cities and states. It’s weird to say that there isn’t an Arts and Crafts shop in Wisconsin or North and South Dakota or to say we’re the only Arts and Crafts-focused shop in Minnesota. So I think in general, people are looking for works of the Arts and Crafts style and this is the place to do it. That’s why it becomes a social event because this is the one place you come to all year that has everything in this venue.

 

ACC: Will there be any special demonstrations or presentations this year? 

B: This year, we aren’t doing anything like that, simply because we’re unsure about what it holds in terms of scheduling a speaker and if we have to cancel. A lot of times, people come specifically to the show for a specific speaker and this year, it just wasn’t in the cards for us to try to organize that. So we’re putting our whole focus into the show and people will come for that. To be fair, in past years, a lot of times there would be presentations put on by exhibitors to help the public or if folks felt nervous going into an exhibitors booth, we’d have our exhibitors give a presentation about what their specialty is and folks would hopefully feel more comfortable going into their booth afterwards. I think that just naturally happens now that our exhibitors are experienced in making the customer’s experience an educational one.

 

ACC: Anything else the public should know about before walking into the building? 

B: We’ve switched buildings. We are right next door from the building we were in in previous years. The building is slightly smaller, but it’s unique in that it has a wall so dealers can now bring artwork like they have in the past. We’ve got some new dealers that have never done this show before, we’ve got dealers that are returning after taking a few years off. This year, I’m optimistic about meeting people’s expectations. Also, while this is an Arts and Crafts show, we’ve got another 20th Century design aspect to it, where there will be some mid century things there as well. Lots of art glass and local Minnesota made art will be there.

 

For more information, please click here to see Eastwood Gallery’s website.

The show will start Saturday, September 25th from 10:00 AM to 5 PM in the Fine Arts Building at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and will continue Sunday through 3:00 PM.