NORTHAMPTON — In what has become a seasonal favorite, the annual Northampton Artisan Fair returns for its fourth year on Saturday, Nov. 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Hosted by the Northampton Center for the Arts, its building-wide Artisan Fair at 33 Hawley St. will feature 60 local artists and artisans selling their work. The event will also feature live music, coffee and refreshments throughout the day.
NCFA Co-director Kelly Silliman said the idea for the event sprung from realizing the center’s building space was ideal for a large-scale artisan fair.
“I’m always looking for opportunities to support and amplify local artists and so it felt like a good opportunity coming out of the pandemic,” Silliman said. “We had 30 artists that year and in the past four years we have doubled in size. We fill almost every nook and cranny of the building.”
Silliman said the robust turnout that has grown for the fair is in part due to the center’s efforts to create an event more so than just a regular fair market space with things like refreshments for sale sponsored by The Roost coffee shop available and the live performances of music during the day.
“In general, we just want the energy to feel really welcoming and inviting, and we want the artists to feel really welcoming and inviting and we want the artists to feel supported. There’s something about that energy that feels really special,” Silliman said.
The fair also comes at a great time, not only happening during Small Business Saturday, but also right in time for holiday shopping.
“We really wanted to remind people, hey, this is a way to spend your dollars locally, to support your friends, your neighbors, your community artists, and to also get beautiful items to give as gifts for the holidays,” Silliman said. “The timing is ideal because even though there are some people who start their shopping early in the fall, many folks are really doing the bulk of that in late November and early December.”
The Artisan Fair is also a wide-ranging showcase of the local talent in the region according to Silliman, with some artists telling her in the past the fair is their biggest day of sales for the season. Another artist told Silliman they were able to get two commissions out of people he met just at the fair.
Another aspect Silliman and her team at NCFA have focused on with the fair is balancing both established and emerging artists throughout the building.
“In any room you go into you’re going to find really well-known local artists who make their living this way, as well as artists who are just getting started and working towards more sustainability with their art. That’s something that’s really important to us at the center in general and something we’ve been able to do at this fair,” Silliman said.
A full list of the participating artists in this year’s fair can be found on nohoarts.org/events. Silliman added she hopes to see many come up once again for this year’s fair.
“We would love to see both new and familiar faces in the building and it’s free to attend, and a great opportunity to really revel in the incredible creativity in the valley,” Silliman said.
