THE BIG CRAFTY
Years ago the Asheville Art Museum began hosting a craft fair for amateurs which they named The Big Crafty. The fair was held in the basement of the museum and in the open courtyard outside the museum. The goal was to encourage local amateur artists and craft makers, people who couldn’t or wouldn’t go into business for themselves but who loved to make and sell their things. And hundreds of local people who loved to make things joined in. The yearly Big Crafty got bigger and bigger and finally had to move out of the museum space and into the Harrah’s Civic Center where it is now.
In the Civic Center there is also a twice yearly Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands, a guild of craft makers you have to be invited into to join. It’s next fair will be on July 16-18. Only the finest work by professional craftsmen is displayed and sold and my visit there is one of the high points of the summer.
But what I discovered at this year’s Big Crafty is that it is now somewhere in between the original amateur craft display in the museum and the exhibits at the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands. Now at the Big Crafty there are the same professional booths and signage. These people are making a living through their crafts and probably take part in many regional craft fairs during the year.
The difference is that The Big Crafty is more funky, more counter cultural, less fine art and aimed not at esthetes but at ordinary people who like what they like. The people visiting are also different, baring themselves, it is summer after all, to show off a wild variety of tattoos. The Big Crafty was also free to visit yesterday.
I was there not to buy but to photograph. Aside from slipping into video mode for a large portion of the time, unnoticed because I rarely look at my iPhone when photographing, and having to somewhat salvage photos from video to photo mode later, I had a good time. The booths were electric, the people were having a great time. There were many young people as would be expected but many not so young and some as old as me enjoying a Sunday afternoon among a crowd of lively people. It was the best of Asheville.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 