Canadian Crafts
East Coast ACTS show attracts American buyers as well as homegrown retailers.
Quinn Halford -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 5/1/2003
The 26th annual Atlantic Craft Trade Show (ACTS) took place in the comfortable convention facilities of Halifax, Nova Scotia, during the first week of February 2003. A cooperative project of the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, the event featured 160 exhibitors and drew close to 1,500 buyers, some 5 percent of them American.
The selection of showcased crafts included pottery, glassware, ironwork, pewter, soaps, candles, apparel, and gourmet foods. Design styles ranged from the folksy to the sophisticated. Among the latter were the hand-wrought pewter of Delia Pewter (St. Philips, NL), the framed cast paper fish of Ballfield Farm (Ketch Harbor, NS), and pottery from Kim Kirkpatrick (Riverview, NB) and Janet Doble (Halifax). Kiln Art (Chester, NS) featured fused glass dinnerware that is highly sought after by upscale restaurants and country clubs on both sides of the border. The glass works, which also has a retail store in its hometown, exhibits at the New York Restaurant & Foodservice Show, where it won the best new product award in 2002.
ACTS also handed out awards at an evening ceremony held in a local hotel. Among the winners was Abel's Canes Co. (River John, NS), which won best product award for its handcrafted walking sticks.
While the ACTS show primarily serves many of the several thousand seasonal shops in Atlantic Canada, American buyers from New England and Midwest border states also shop there. In order to attract more south-of-the-border buyers, show manager Bernie Burton runs a program that will pay participants' return airfare (and sometimes hotel and meal expenses). For more information, contact Bernie at (902) 424-8609 or e-mail burtonb@gov.ns.ca.
A number of ACTS exhibitors have U.S. representation, including the Atlantic Trade Winds Agency located in The Center, Bedford, MA. Others exhibit in the By Hand Canadian artisan shows, two of which run concurrently with the Toronto International Gift Fair and the Vancouver Gift Show. The next Atlantic Craft Trade Show takes place February 7–9, 2004. (www.actshow.ca).
