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Aid to Artisans (ATA), an international nonprofit organization, is a recognized leader of economic development for the craft industry. By linking artisans to new markets and buyers to culturally meaningful and innovative products, ATA provides needed economic opportunities to artisans while preserving the beauty of global handmade crafts.

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REDY! Workshop
South Africa
November 18 & 19, 2008

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Global Handmade Design Innovation at the

New York International Gift Fair                                                       

At the 2008 New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF) August 16-20 at the Javits Center, Aid to Artisans (ATA) will display a fresh collection of hundreds of handmade products, many showing in the U.S. market for the first time.

In ATA’s Booth, ID210 in the Handmade Hall, new crafts from 13 countries including Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Haiti, India, Kyrgyzstan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mozambique, South Africa, and Tanzania will be showcased. ATA works directly with artisans in these regions, helping them to design innovative products that will sell in the global market place.

In West Africa, ATA helped artisans create new curtains, pillows and ottomans that use traditional tie-dye techniques on locally grown cotton. This year, the Salvadoran artisan group Alternativa made handbags and totes from recycled truck tire inner tubes. Other designs from El Salvador will feature a new architectural element and products include yellow wicker sculptural balls and room dividers. ATA even helped reinvent the design of popular-selling clay planters from Alejandros Ceramica artisans. The group created new, beautifully shaped orchid pots made from locally mined terracotta clay.

Crafts exhibited at ATA's past NYIGF shows will also come back to life this year. “We will have a full Aid to Artisans Collection of not only our current artisan projects, but products we’ve particularly liked from the past. Iron from Haiti, felt rugs from Kyrgyzstan, and telephone wire and beaded jewelry from South Africa will all be shown,” said Alden Smith, ATA Warehouse Manager.

For those interested in jewelry, ATA will exhibit an array of eye catching pieces including crocheted cotton necklaces from Mali, fused glass from Colombia, and a new beaded chain-link necklace designed by ZenZulu South African artisans, a perfect accessory for a cocktail dress or jeans.

For those interested in gifts that give back, ATA’s booth displays socially responsible and eco-friendly shopping at its best.  A purchase of a magenta-patterned Wola Nani bowl from South Africa helps the producers, women artisans suffering from HIV and AIDS. A purchase of lead-free ceramic pottery made by Barro Sin Plomo artisans in Mexico reveals a story of hope—removing poison from glazes has saved hundreds of lives in Michoacán. Zebra-inspired pillows from Tanzania carry the history of Flotea Massawe, a successful female craft entrepreneur who defied laws that prohibit most East African women from starting businesses.

SENEGAL: NATURAL DYES & ORGANIC COTTON

For the past two years, ATA has been working with artisans along the coastal and Dakar regions of West Africa. This year, a new pilot project launched in the city of Tambacounda, Senegal. Employing its expertise in product design and technical assistance, ATA will work with artisans to create organic, handspun, naturally dyed cotton yarn for the high end export market using energy efficient spinning wheels. The pilot project hopes to prove that by keeping resources local, hand produced rural artisan enterprises can not only concentrate profits within the community, but also reduce dependence on soaring energy costs.

In June, Docey Lewis, international textile designer, and staff member Lauren Barkume traveled to Senegal with the USAID CE (Senegal Economic Growth Program). They helped train several artisans and met with key project leaders including Aissa Dione, a world renowned fabric weaver, and Mariama Sylla, a local exporter, artist, and dye expert. “I was struck by the beauty of the people—women in their elegant bou bous and matching headwraps dot the landscape like wild flowers,” observed Barkume on her first trip to Senegal.
 
They visited the pilot site in the tiny village of Maccanding, population 1300, where the women had already been trained on their two new spinning wheels and hand carders. Time trials showed that with the new wheels, they were spinning organic cotton twice as fast. As a result, they were able to learn techniques for creating thick and thin yarn, a skill that will help them export to yarn boutiques across the U.S. The new cotton machines will also help artisans earn more money by keeping their production localized. Currently, they are forced to pay for outside resources with higher level technology.

Future plans: In addition to the pilot project, ATA is planning two upcoming training activities: a Costing & Pricing Workshop that will prepare artisans for selling products to the international marketplace and a Regional Natural Dye Workshop that will train them in West African dye recipes and production. ATA is also working with UNIDO, a United Nations funded program, to create a Senegal Artisan Directory. The directory will help connect local artisans to the global marketplace. ATA and UNIDO will soon be bringing four international buyers to Senegal to scout out new products and design ideas.

ATA Sponsors Artisans at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

Every July, more than 100 select folk artists from over 40 countries travel to historic Santa Fe, New Mexico for the International Folk Art Market. The gathering unites thousands of admirers from around the globe searching for folk art forms that reflect the world’s diverse cultures. With each purchase, buyers provide economic and cultural sustainability to highly skilled artists, their families and communities. At the 2007 market, 110 artists from 40 countries across 6 continents exhibited. For over half of these artists, it was their first time ever experiencing a global market. Nearly 20,000 people attended and 800 volunteers helped make the market possible. Artists’ sales increased by 31% from the 2006 market-- $1.3 million to $1.7 million— and the average sales per booth amounted to $15,000. Dozens of artisans from ATA’s past programs will be in Santa Fe for the Folk Art Market, which is just one example of the continuing success of their craft businesses in the international market.

ATA is also sponsoring the following two artisans from its current programs in South Africa and El Salvador:

Ntobeko Cele representing Gail Olga Sink’s Beadwork from Pondo People in South Africa
Beaded walking sticks, men’s vests or waistcoats, and billy can purses are all a part of traditional Pondo dress made by women. The beaders who design these pieces live in the rural villages surrounding the Port St. Johns area of Transkei, South Africa. Beading skills are passed on from mother to daughter, and all garments and objects are hand-made using beads imported into the country. Gail Sink, a textile designer, created Pondo People, a women-run company, to create employment for rural women. Pondo People now employs 20 women in the area who had been losing income due to a decline in mining jobs.

Victor Antino Herrera Alvarenga with Kiko’s Ceramica from El Salvador
The ceramic tradition of the town of Ilobasco has its roots in the ancestral traditions of the Pipiles and Lenca tribes, both of which used the region’s red clay to create various kitchen items. In the workshop of Ceramics Kiko, where several generations of artisans worked in this tradition of ceramics, Doña Dominga Herrera began to make miniature dolls from the same red clay. Victor Antonio, her nephew, continues this practice, which has come to represent the art and culture of Ilobasco and El Salvador on an international level. The dolls are handcrafted and painted to represent folkloric events. Figures depict mythological history and town life, including elaborate nativity scenes with hundreds of pieces and Easter celebrations representing huge processions through the town square.

W.K. Kellogg Intern Program

The W. K. Kellogg Foundation has generously awarded a three-year grant to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market for an internship program aimed at developing new folk art markets in Southern Africa. The program will train future leaders of Southern African craft in how to reach new markets and build relationships with existing businesses in their country.One of the four women accepted to this highly competitive program is Chila Smith Lino, of Mozambique. Chila worked for ATA as the Marketing Manager for its Mozambique program. She was instrumental in helping artisans increase their sales and income through buyer cultivation and coordination, assisting with promotion and export, and in one-on-one training in various aspects of running a craft business. In 2006, Chila and other former ATA staff members created the Mozambican non-governmental organization, CEDARTE (Centro de Estudos e Desenvolvimento de Artesanato). CEDARTE employees continue to grow the craft sector in Mozambique as there is still a lot to be done. Chila works as CEDARTE’S Marketing Director and her mission is clear: keep expanding the Mozambican craft industry, improve artisans’ lives and communities, and make the cultural heritage of Mozambique known to the rest of the world. Now completing the final portion of this three-year program, Chila and the other interns will have the tools they need to continue to develop their local arts markets and programs, while they launch a new craft market model for their region of Southern Africa.

Aid to Artisans' President Clare Brett Smith Retires, Still Trekking on a Cultural Journey

After a 22-year tenure at Aid to Artisans (ATA), a Hartford-based international nonprofit, 80-year-old pioneer Clare Brett Smith has retired from ATA. Clare was followed as President by David O’Connor in 2006 who has assumed executive leadership of ATA. 

 “It is a privilege to take over the organization from Clare who brought ATA strong growth and a great reputation with artisans and the development community,” said David O’Connor. “I would like to thank Clare for her contributions during our time working together, and I look forward to ATA’s continued success in providing quality services and assistance to artisans worldwide. We see great hope for the future.”

When Clare first became President of ATA in 1986, she operated on nothing but heart and a shoe string budget. She scooped up a group of friends in her culturally-savvy network and gathered on a second floor landing room of her home. She had one computer with two fonts and a $30,000 budget. Read more

 Ghana's Crafts Get a Boost from a VIP Visitor

The recent visit of President Bush to Ghana and Tanzania raised the profile of USAID-funded programs that have strengthened the artisan sector in sub-Saharan Africa. International news stories pictured the president with dozens of Kente-clad, umbrella- shaded Ghanaian officials (like Nana Kwaka Duah II in 1988) at the West Africa Trade Hub in Accra, home of ATA's sister organization, ATAG, Aid to Artisans Ghana.

Read more about the visit and ATA in Ghana

Read More ATA News