The clockwork of St. Albert’s cultural calendar means that every November the public gets treated to Guilded. A few weeks later the craftiest pre-Christmas sales event lands with a crowd waiting at the doors.
This is the 27th edition of the Country Craft Fair, an annual late fall tradition put on by the St. Albert Place Visual Arts Council. Established in 2003, SAPVAC is the liaison board that operates to connect the five arts guilds (painters, potters, quilters, floral arts and paper arts) that hold shop inside the curvy brick walls of St. Albert Place. It also works with the city’s community services department to organize funding for the Art in Public Places program as well as other public art projects throughout St. Albert.
Fair co-ordinator Donna Hillier calls it a staple event that mustn’t be missed.
“We started out small and it’s just growing bigger. We get about three to four thousand people coming through,” she began. “It’s packed. Saturday is crazy busy. We get a long line-up. We don’t open the doors to the studios until 10 o’clock, but the doors to the building are open. It’s the people’s building so we can’t lock them out. They come and they line the hallways waiting for [the studio] doors to open.”
The annual event gives local shoppers a wide and wondrous selection of handcrafted goods and artworks while helping to support local artists. Hillier said that the potters’ guild is immensely popular but added that everything else runs a close second.
At the same time, the fair supports the guilds and SAPVAC. That non-profit organization does more for the community than just offer guidance to all of the members; it also offers advice and assistance for other various art projects, programs and festivals throughout the city.
SAPVAC’s Country Craft Fair will be set up in the lobby of St. Albert next weekend. It runs on Saturday, Nov. 19 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 20 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be free parking and free admission to this much-anticipated event. Hillier reminds everyone to come as early as you can because the good stuff doesn’t last long.
For more information, email organizers at [email protected].
