Advanced Tech art students will be hosting the Appalachian Center for Craft’s Annual Holiday Festival, which beginning Nov. 25-27 from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.
The Appalachian Center for Craft, a Tech satellite campus in Smithville, Tenn., has been hosting the Holiday Festival since 1986 to showcase handmade crafts by artist.
This is not the kind of festival where booths will be set up, it’s more of a contemporary fine-craft exhibition sale, according to Gail Looper, gallery manager.
Visitors will be able to learn hands-on in the workshops that are new this season. Workshops are taught by Tech’s advanced junior and senior art students. Workshop sessions will be held three times a day from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. with each seat costing 20 dollars. The workshop schedule includes formed copper jewelry, glass bead making and marbling a scarf. Registration begins each day of the Holiday Festival in the lobby of the Craft Center from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
“The Friends of the Appalachian Center for Craft and staff of the Craft Center thought the mini-workshops would be a different and unique opportunity for visitors to come and experience what it’s like to be a craft center,” Looper said. “People are always excited to make something.
Proceeds from the mini-workshops will go to support FACCT’s Educational Outreach Programs, which allow 5th-12th grade students to come to the Craft Center for a day of hands-on classes and demonstrations.
According to Looper, the main focuses include the fiber department, which will be located in gallery one, the feature of Tracy Williams-Young, a senior Tech student displaying her body of work in the north windows and The Craft Center and regional artists in gallery two.
Demonstrations are presented every day from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. with a variety of blacksmithing, clay-throwing, glassblowing, custom woodworking, and more.
“My goal is for people to come out and enjoy themselves just as much as they did last year,” Looper said. “We look forward to the workshops being a successful holiday addition.”
For more information on the events and directions, visit http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/home/.
