Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands

Entering its seventh decade this July, the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands offers the public the opportunity to cultivate craft in their daily life. Presented by Asheville Color and Imaging and Asheville Citizen-Times, this fine craft event will return to the U.S. Cellular Center. Doors open at the downtown Asheville venue on Friday, July 21 at 10:00am and will last until Sunday, July 23 at 5:00pm. Transitioning to a three-day show, the Fair is bringing new, dynamic elements that celebrate the Southern Highland Craft Guild's creative community.

Design vignettes will demonstrate how one can utilize craft in both form and function for the home, and are made possible by local interior designers, architects and builders. Combining the talents of Guild makers with spacial creatives allows for building a stronger trade community. Collaborating sponsors include Alchemy Design Studio, ID.ology Interiors & Design, Rusticks, Platt Architecture, Samsel Architects, and Living Stone Design + Build.

Additionally, there will be more craft demonstrations with interactive activities for visitors. Through Asheville Convention and Visitor's Bureau the Buncombe County Festival and Cultural Event Support Fund this summer edition has more than ten makers showing their skills and techniques. Local Cloth will be offering hands-on fiber experiences in silk painting and shibori dyeing, as well as spinning and weaving. Several other educational demonstrators include Brandy Clements of Silver River Chair Caning Center, mixed media artist John Richards, WNC Fiber/Handweavers Guild, Asheville Quilt Guild, and dyer Dede Styles.

The Fair will feature nearly 150 makers with both contemporary and traditional work in clay, wood, metal, glass, fiber, natural materials, paper, leather, mixed media, and jewelry. The members will fill both floors of the U.S. Cellular Center on its concourse and arena level. Each maker has undergone a two-step jury process as a part of the Guild's legacy to uphold a set of standards established by their creative peers.

Each day provides various experiences in addition to shopping. At 1:00pm Local Cloth will also be putting on a mini fashion show, “15 Minutes of Fashion,” in which models will be adorned with exhibitor's handmade garments and jewelry. Mountain musicians, from old time to bluegrass, perform live on the arena stage daily. Since the first fair, the music of the area has been woven into the fabric of the Craft Fair experience.

The U.S. Cellular Center was a shift in landscape for this event as it was incepted under canvas tents in 1948 on the grassy lawns of Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN. Downtown Asheville provides a robust experience for visitors, as the time honored gathering is representative of the creativity that flows in Western North Carolina. As a venue to provide a regional marketplace for mountain craftspeople, the Guild Fairs have since evolved into a popular celebration of craft in the country.

The Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands is made possible from the additional following sponsors: The Laurel of Asheville, Our State Magazine, Smoky Mountain Living, WLOS News 13 and WNC Magazine.