Patron of the Artists

In this fast-paced, high tech world, there are a lot of forces that work against the creation of traditional handicrafts. A variety of practical and economic factors make the modern world less conducive to the slow, painstaking creation of artful things. This is a particular concern for gift and decorative accessories professionals, whose customers demand creative, distinctive merchandise. It is an even more serious matter for traditional artisans in poor regions around the world, for whom successful craft production can be the key to subsistence.

Fortunately, an organization called Aid to Artisans is attacking the problem from all sides. The Hartford, Connecticut-based nonprofit was founded in 1976 by the late Jim and Mary Plaut. At a time when Americans were arriving at a new appreciation of handicrafts, Jim Plaut traveled the world with the goal of marketing the work of traditional artisans to U.S. museum stores. After a few years of this, he decided to broaden the focus beyond museum stores. "He charted the course for Aid to Artisans to become a much deeper, full-service kind of group," explained executive director Keith Recker, a former catalog and department store executive who joined the organization in October 2000. "Instead of merely going and working with artisans to develop assortments for one customer, we now go with broader market input. We hire consultants who have wonderful merchandising experience … to go and work on the ground with artisans, to design product from scratch that's suitable for the U.S. market." For example, the consultants might work with weavers of ceremonial cloaks to apply their techniques to the creation of pillows and throws, "taking traditional patterns, colors, and materials, and working them into a use that the U.S. market is familiar with." In addition to sending product designers overseas, the group sends consultants who advise the artisans on technical issues like rendering natural dyes colorfast or developing lead-free ceramic glazes. The consultants also teach important business skills, such as how to develop a five-year plan and how to set prices that will yield decent profits.

Another important initiative of Aid to Artisans is the Market Readiness Training Program. Craftspeople from around the world travel to the major gift shows, in some cases paying their own way, and are then treated to an intensive lesson in the opportunities and challenges of the international retail market. The artisans observe the business of a trade show such as the New York International Gift Fair; the International Home Furnishings Market in High Point, North Carolina; or Ambiente in Frankfurt, Germany. They learn about order taking, product trends, customs regulations, quality control, and publicity and marketing, on the floor and sometimes at seminars held in Hartford. "A lot of the topics are very, very practical," Recker explained. "For example: How do you do display, for the local market as well as for the export market? How do you tell a story with eight products or less, as opposed to 800 products?" The craftspeople are also led on tours of nearby specialty stores, galleries, craft workshops, and importers' warehouses. Taken together, these experiences provide invaluable firsthand insight into the world gift market, for people whose frame of reference has often been limited to their own remote, impoverished region. The artisans bring samples of their work with them to the Market Readiness Training Program, and sometimes make instant and lucrative connections with interested retailers, distributors, or manufacturers.

Aid to Artisans maintains a booth at each of the markets, from which it publicizes and distributes traditional handicrafts. "We do this in an effort to explore new markets. We try to find customers that the artisan would otherwise have no access to," Recker noted. "Aid to Artisans sells goods at wholesale directly to retailers of any size. … That's really a terrific way for any business to support us, because they're making use of us, they're helping us make the connections for the artisans, they're helping us achieve our mission."

Another important facet of the organization's mission is outright grants. However, these grants are a classic example of a little investment going a long way. Every year, Aid to Artisans distributes roughly 30 to 50 gifts of money ranging from $500 to $1,500 each. In the past, these seemingly nominal sums have helped Bhutanese refugee women in Nepal purchase sewing machines and yarn for their weaving program, helped a group of unemployed Bolivian youths buy a bandsaw and burning tools for a wood inlay and parquetry workshop, and helped a women's cooperative in Mali build a workshop in which to dye locally made cotton cloth. Entrenched in what is basically a luxury industry, American gift executives may find it difficult to imagine $500 having enough impact to spell self-sufficiency for an impoverished group, but it is with just such subtle strokes that Aid to Artisans achieves its success.

The organization also works to connect artisans with American manufacturers and retailers who are looking to develop merchandise that calls for traditional craft skills. For example, Franconia, New Hampshire-based catalog retailer Garnet Hill featured a decorative fabric wreath covered with buttons on the cover of one of its holiday catalogs, and the orders started pouring in; unfortunately, the wreath was only a display piece and hadn't been produced for sale. So the company turned to designer Gay Ellis. Ellis designed a prototype, which was then executed by tailors in Haiti who were desperately in need of work and having a hard time breaking into the export market. "Working with Aid to Artisans is amazing, because they always have projects going in a lot of countries that you might not necessarily have an opportunity to work in — but, because they have people there, they can sort of babysit the projects," Ellis pointed out. That babysitting proved invaluable when the 1,100 wreaths got stuck in customs, Ellis reported with a rueful chuckle. In the end, though, the retailer got a distinctive, popular product, and the tailors got much-needed work.

Ellis also relies on Aid to Artisans in the creation of merchandise for her home furnishings company, Samii Home, located in Sheffield, Vermont. Her decorative pillows and throws are built around the work of artisans in Hungary. "I'd seen Aid to Artisans at a gift show and liked what I saw," Ellis recalled of her first introduction to the organization. "This wonderful felt appliqué- it's finely done, two layers of felt that are sewn together and then cut away on one side … It makes this wonderfully decorative look."

Midwest of Cannon Falls, the Minnesota manufacturer of holiday merchandise, also turned to Aid to Artisans for help with product development. "We just found out that they work in several different countries, and at that point we were trying to broaden our base of sourcing opportunities globally. So they seemed like a very good resource who had projects going in Africa, in Russia, in Hungary, and lots of places around the world that might be interesting for us to connect with," said creative director Ingrid Liss. Liss traveled to Hungary in the company of an Aid to Artisans design consultant, and with that help developed a Christmas collection of cut felt appliqué ornaments, stockings, and tree skirts. "I enjoyed it tremendously," Liss said of her experience with Aid to Artisans. "They're just such a fabulously dynamic group of people. Very professional, very exciting to be around, because they do their work with zeal. … I really believed in their mission of [helping] small handicraft groups into economic development, to preserve not only the indigenous craft or ethnic craft, but also just to help cottage industries flourish."

Keith Recker stressed one benefit the group provides to manufacturers and retailers: the chance to mine fresh sources. "One of the exciting things about walking through the Aid to Artisans booth at the gift shows is that you know that if you see something good, you have a complete U.S. premiere of original stuff," he said. "So you're going to get something at a decent price, decently crafted, which people will never have seen before. And, if you have the time to devote to it, you can also design your own product so you can keep surprising your customers. I feel like it's a very good resource to help wholesalers as well as retailers be surprising, be fresh, be new."

The organization encourages people to speak up if they're interested in becoming the exclusive distributor for a product that Aid to Artisans has on display, or if they feel that a product could be adapted to their own needs. "You could come into the booth and see some beautiful turned wood products from Mozambique, and say, 'What I want is a series of turned blackwood bud vases,' and you can send us drawings and we'll work with the artisans to … produce the prototypes," Recker said. "Everybody should come and look, because there's a wealth of cultural stories and a wealth of possibilities. It just takes somebody with some imagination to kick it all into action."

According to Recker, the strength of Aid to Artisans lies in its unique strategy. "It's not just a charity, and it's not just a marketing organization; it's both things. We're always trying to do good and transfer knowledge and help people, but the way that we do that is by also being a successful marketing organization." Whether it's helping craftswomen in the nations of the former Soviet Union become economically self-sustaining or guiding a designer like Jonathan Adler through the process of sourcing ceramic and textile products, Aid to Artisans achieves its mission by orchestrating connections across its complex international web of retailers, manufacturers, consultants, and artisans. What emerges is a world that's a little more friendly to craftspeople, and a more likely to recognize the cultural wealth of traditional crafts.

Interested readers may contact Aid to Artisans at (860) 947-3344 or e-mail atausa@aol.com. The organization's Web site is www.aidtoartisans.org.