Craft festivals devise new strategies to survive
By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Paradise Pottery products by Robbrecht Troost of Hale'iwa are among the offerings at Pacific Handcrafters Guild fairs. |
The Pacific Handcrafters Guild, at 27 years old the longest-lived major craft organization in Hawai'i, has lost almost half its members — down to 157 from a high of 300 in the 1980s. Past guild shows have been plagued by weather problems, which drove them indoors to the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall, which they couldn't fill. They then tried an Ala Moana Park fair, but that didn't do all that well, either. In addition, the guild has rather stringent membership requirements.
Meanwhile, Jenny Tamura of the Island Craft Bulletin said there has been a steady decline in the total number of craft fairs here since the newsletter started keeping statistics, down to 200 fairs last year from 300 in 1997. Among the problems: a lack of volunteers to put on smaller fund-raising fairs, difficulty finding venues and increasing competition.
But organizers of other fairs that have popped up in the past decade or so say their businesses are booming.
The Handcrafters and Artisans Alliance has gone from 25 to 140 members in the past couple of years, said Sheri Bentley, a fact that she attributes to the alliance fairs' location at popular Kapi'olani Park, as well as to aggressive promotion among visitors in Waikiki.
Caroline Infante, organizer of the Islandwide Crafts and Food Expo at the Blaisdell, said she already has 400 crafters signed up for the 15th annual Christmas show in November, and not one has called to cancel since the Sept. 11 terrorism. Last year, that show drew 29,000 attendees.
Pacific Handcrafters' Guild shows, in contrast, attract 7,000 to 10,000 people in a good year. This group, with its higher-priced, artsier fare and relatively narrow range of offerings, is trying to retool to regain its prominence.
It has renamed its fairs "festivals," because the events now include music, entertainment and food booths.
The next one, Oct. 13-14, will be at Kapi'olani Park and was timed to coincide with a George S. Kanahele tribute at the Waikiki Shell that Saturday and the Brunch on the Beach event that Sunday, each of which should draw local crowds. So far, the guild reports 55 booth sign-ups. In a normal year, by this date there would be 65.
What's driving guild members away? Some are simply retiring. Others — like wood turner Jerry Kermode — are moving to the Mainland in search of a better artistic climate. Still others have burned out trying to simultaneously maintain career and craft.
Profit margins on handmade crafts in Hawai'i can be demoralizing, so cost is a big factor.
Alliance membership costs $50 a year, compared to $200 for the guild. Islandwide has no membership organization.
And the guild requires that artists be present in their booths, selling their own wares, a hardship for Neighbor Island crafters who might otherwise get a friend or auntie to staff an O'ahu fair.
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| These brightly colored, handmade rag rugs are fashioned by guild member Linda Foley of Once Upon a Rug. |
The guild's 12-member board of artisans is not sitting back while membership falls. For the first time, the guild has hired an executive director, Cindy Adair, to focus on organizing the fairs, marketing and fund-raising efforts, leaving crafters more time to pursue their art.
At the heart of concerns about the guild's future is the strict screening process by which artists become guild members. Some perceive the process as uneven, and the guild is revamping its guidelines.
But the organization prides itself on its tradition of quality and on the fact that it's not easy to be accepted as a member. It holds four screenings a year. To date this year, 100 artists applied and 30 were accepted. In contrast, the alliance requires little more of participants than that they send in a picture of their work. Some other fairs do no screening at all. Some, like the Islandwide, prefer to include only items that are largely made in Hawai'i. Others prefer that fairs not have too much of any single category of item.
"We have to uphold what this group was built on," said Joanna Hernandez, a jewelry maker who heads the guild's screening committee. "We don't want to lower our standards just so we can survive. But it's getting harder and harder."
Building a guild member, she said, "is not about just popping up a tent and putting up a table and putting work out. It's a matter of presenting yourself professionally as an artist and a craftsman."
The guild wrote a standards handbook 25 years ago, with specific requirements within each category: ceramics, fine art, woodworking, fine jewelry, costume jewelry, clothing. The emphasis is on original, handmade work. For example, Hernandez said, a seamstress cannot use a commercial pattern. "The clothing must be unique, as compared to what you would find in a department store," she said.
A recent review of the standards for fine art resulted in a loosening of one rule: Fine artists can now sell limited-edition prints of their original work.
Adair said the screenings are held "blind": A jury of 12 volunteers, crafters from within and outside the guild, base their decisions strictly on the presentation and quality of the work. Crafts are identified only by number and their creators are not present or identified, she said.
One member, J.P. Kenrick of Forever Hawaiian Creations, remains unsatisfied with the screening criteria. "They need to be more even-handed," he said, acknowledging that the organization is going through what he called "growing pains."
Kim Coffee-Isaak, a former guild board member who is now executive director of the Hawai'i Craftsmen, said her organization's membership has remained steady for five years, between 275 and 350. Its mission, however, is one of education, not putting on fairs and sales.
Coffee-Isaak applauds the guild for maintaining high standards but says those standards make it difficult for younger, less-experienced artists to get a foothold. "I think their membership is down because of their structure, their screening standards and their not keeping up with the times," she said.
In addition, she said, young people aren't going into the arts end of crafting in the numbers they did in the '60s and '70s.
The guild has begun establishing partnerships with other arts organizations, such as the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
The organizations cross-promote through newsletters and advertising. Attendees at the festivals receive free passes to the academy. And the guild holds its meetings in the Academy Art Center at Linekona.
The guild has sought sponsors, receiving a grant of $1,500 from City Bank to help with a festival last year and another $1,500 for this year's Christmas Festival. Adair is seeking other corporate donors.
Among crafters who have left the guild is Kermode, the wood turner, who moved with his wife Debbie to Bodega Bay, Calif., last year. In a phone interview, Debbie Kermode said the couple left not because business was falling off but because they found the Islands "more artistically conservative" than the Mainland.
After one year and two craft fairs there, the Kermodes say they made the right move. "There's a broader appreciation of crafters here," Debbie Kermode said. And attitudes are better: "It's nice to be around people who are up. It feels more positive — the energy, the feeling. Even though people aren't doing as well because of the economy, we haven't seen the negativity and frustration we felt there."
