Arts Council hosts annual Christmas craft fair virtually

The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri held the 50th annual Christmas Arts and Crafts Extravaganza this past weekend, marking the first year the event was held virtually.

The craft fair was held from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on www.boothcentral.com and featured one-of-a-kind, handcrafted items from 26 vendors located all over the United States, including Catapult Creative House, Mistletoe Memories, Russian Winter and more.

The Arts Council also had a booth at the craft fair featuring their new product line and artworks available for purchase by current members, but also to serve as a sort of "command center," said Kelly Downes, director at the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri.

Participants were able to jump in and out of the chat rooms with different vendors, otherwise known as their "booths," where they could live chat with the vendor and find videos about the products being offered and tutorials.

Downes said with this being the first year the event was held virtually, she expected there to be some bumps in the road.

"Even if this craft fair is not the most perfect thing that's ever been created, it was created to give people an opportunity to show their work, to honor that work, to put it out there and to remind people to shop locally and support each other, especially during this time of the year," Downes said.

However, Downes said she was pleasantly surprised when she checked the page statistics Sunday afternoon and saw around 400 people had tuned in since the start of the event Saturday.

This year also marks the first year the Christmas Arts and Crafts Extravaganza was opened up to artists outside of the Midwest, which the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri serves.

Downes said as long as the business was selling handmade products, and followed all the other criteria for the craft fair, they were able to enter. As a result, Downes said there were vendors from Cape Girardeau to New York to Portland.

Rejane Pratelli, who is from Virginia, rented a booth at the craft fair for her jewelry business, Anvil Fire and Time.

Pratelli said she has been looking for ways to expand her business outside of Virginia, and since the coronavirus pandemic began, many new resources for expanding and building connections are available, such as the virtual craft fair.

"In a way, [attending virtual events] is a form of traveling," Pratelli said. "I got to see a lot of artists that I would have never met in person, and discover new crafts at this show."

Downes said the Arts Council made the decision to convert the event to a virtual format in August, and since there has been a spike in coronavirus cases over the past few weeks in the area, she said she's glad they did. She added she feels it's been "the best and worst time to try something new."

"On the one hand, I feel like nobody knows what's going on, so you can do a lot of weird, experimental things while you're trying things out — there's this playfulness in that regard and you can also work really hard to kind of streamline all the kinks in your business and your plans," Downes said. "But, it has also been so stressful in the world, that to constantly be productive and create new things has been really difficult for a lot of people."

Downes said she has a high level of respect for the vendors who were willing to jump into something new this year and give them the ability to still host the event, which she said was important to the Arts Council.

"Art is what gets us through trying times," Downes said. "We need to believe in things: we need to believe that togetherness is still possible, that we can still find beautiful things and appreciate this season and support each other. We need to shift our focus to more positive things, and I think the Arts Council is great for always going forward with that mission."

Downes added while she understands some vendors had to cancel, she has a deep appreciation for the vendors who couldn't keep their spots in the fair this year, but chose to rollover to next year, which Downes said was about 90% of the vendors.

For more information on upcoming events, visit www.capearts.org.