SchoolArts Room

Visit the World in a Weekend

By Nancy Walkup, posted on Jul 16, 2017

Do you want to travel around the world in a weekend? Meet the finest artists and artisans from 53 countries? Then come to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, now in its 14th year. It is the world's largest folk art festival in the world, this year featuring 160 artists. My husband Bill, as usual, got some fantastic portraits of the artists who are happy to pose with their work. 

Photo by Bill Yarborough
Photo by Bill Yarborough
 
Photo by Bill Yarborough
 
90% of every folk art purchase at the Market goes home with the individual artists, family enterprises, or community cooperatives, serving as a catalyst for economic activity and positive social change.
Photo by Bill Yarborough
Photo by Bill Yarborough 
Photo by Bill Yarborough
Photo by Bill Yarborough
 
With our friends Agustin and his father Manuel. They are master artists from Oaxaca who carve and paint fanciful figures. Photo by Bill Yarborough

 

I think I have only missed one market in 14 years. It is always a delight to see treasured friends again.

Photo by Bill Yarborough
Photo by Bill Yarborough
 
Cilau Valdez was featured again this year in SchoolArts Magazine, concerning a joint workshop we did in Kansas with Trina Harlow and Augustin Prudencio Cruz. Photo by Bill Yarborough
 
Photo by Bill Yarborough
 
This photo was taken of the participants of a talk given in the Gallery of Conscience in the Museum of International Folk Art on Museum Hill during the market. Cilau Valdez (Mexico) and Manisha Mishra (India) spoke on addressing social concerns in their art.
Photo by Bill Yarborough
 
Judith Espinar, a co-founder of the Market, says "Seeing these cultural treasures and meeting the artists creates a connectivity that stirs the heart, opens the mind, and invites us to speak a single language. Through folk art, hope grows and understanding spreads across the world."
 
You can visit the Market online at https://www.folkartalliance.org or join us next year. The Market is always the second weekend in July.