Charleston Crafts, Inc., proudly presents the Piccolo Spoleto Crafts Fairs for 2008. This marks the actual 29th year that the event has been an offering of the Festival. We continue the tradition of offering fine crafts to Festival visitors in a historic outdoor venue. The events showcase the fine craftsmanship and quality being produced regionally and throughout the nation. In addition to the display and sale of crafts, artist media demonstrations are featured.
Piccolo Spoleto, produced by the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs and the College of Charleston School of the Arts, is the official outreach festival of Spoleto Festival U.S.A. The craft events are two of the several hundred visual and performing arts events available to more than 250,000 people during the seventeen day festival. Events begin on May 23 and conclude June 8.
Location: Wragg Square is located one block from the historic Charleston Visitor Center in the midst of the redeveloped Marion Square area. The site offers a secure location on a route well-traveled by foot and vehicle. Adult Admission will be charged. Patron attendance is expected to be 7000 each weekend. Four hotels with more than 600 guest rooms surround the area. There are a variety of restaurants, galleries, entertainment venues and other unique small businesses in downtown, historic Charleston. Two-dimensional visual artists from South Carolina will also be exhibiting their work across the street in Marion Square and should contact the Office of Cultural Affairs at 843-724-7305 for exhibit information. Local artisans also set up at the Farmer’s Market held in Marion Square. Concessions should also contact the Office of Cultural Affairs for information.
Event Schedules:
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Application Schedule:
Notification of event acceptance mailed by March 15. Slides of accepted artists will be returned on the last day of each event to the exhibiting artists. |
Event Promotion: National, regional, and local press information has already begun to go out. Regional gallery owners, interior designers and local arts patrons and groups will receive complimentary admission and notification of the events. A quality rack card will be placed at all visitor information points/centers in South Carolina and Charleston as well as sent to artists for distribution to their customers in the area. If you desire a large quantity of rack card invitation postcards to mail out, please let us know when you apply.
Note: Images selected for event promotion are chosen from slides submitted for jury. Send your quality slides with high resolution of your best work. For past participants, please send updated slides of your most recent work.
Producers: Charleston Crafts, Inc., was formed in 1989 to provide local crafts artists a permanent gallery location, peer support, and to present craft art to the community. Exhibiting members manage the organization and the Gallery. Any net proceeds from these events are used to support these activities and future shows.
Rules:
Each artist must apply individually with one applicant/media per entry form. A “team” of two people producing a SINGLE body of work must enter as one applicant; both artists must sign the application.
No more than two media categories will be permitted per booth. If applying in two media, the artist is required to submit two applications, two jury fees, and two full sets of slides, and ONE booth fee.
Earrings, holiday ornaments and similar small gift items must be a logical extension of a body of work and MUST be included in slides for jury review. Jewelry may not constitute more than 10% of a booth unless a second application for jewelry has been submitted.
Any artist participating in these events must be present for the entire event and remain open during scheduled hours of event operation. Failure to maintain your booth presence throughout the event will result in suspension from future events. Unsupervised pets and children are not allowed in the event area or in artist booths.
Each artist agrees to exhibit at no other event in the tri-county area during participation in these events. You may not exhibit at other craft events or art shows in the area. Gallery and retail shop showings are permitted.
Works exhibited must reflect the caliber presented in the juried slides. Artists not in compliance will be suspended from further participation and may be required to leave the event.
All fees must be paid in full by established event deadlines. Wait list artists invited to participate will be expected to pay fees upon acceptance of invitation to exhibit.
Acceptable to Show: Original works in printmaking, photography, clay, glass, fiber, metal, basketry, leather, jewelry, wood, musical instruments, heritage and folk craft, and mixed media. Each participating artist is required to be the one who conceived and executed the finished work exhibited.
Unacceptable to Show: Watercolors, Oils, Drawing, Pastels, hobby crafts, shell crafts, country crafts, decoupage, decal crafts, works made from commercial molds, kits or patterns, dried floral arrangements, mass-produced items, work using materials from endangered species, commercial re-sales. Salespersons or agents hired to operate the booth are not allowed; the artist must be selling their own work in the booth.
Eligibility: Any crafts artist, age 18 or older, may submit an application with slides and fee(s) to be juried for acceptance. Artists may elect to jury for either or both events. Acceptance to one event does not guarantee acceptance to both events.
Exhibiting Members of Charleston Crafts (current and paid as of Feb. 1, 2008) are automatically eligible for both events and may forgo the jury process in their approved media. An application, show fee(s) and slides must still be submitted.
Screening Procedure: Each set of five artist slides-four of recent work and 1 booth slide-is projected simultaneously and scored by 5 jurors. Jurors are professional artists/gallery owners/curators/and arts educators. Quotas exist for each media to present balanced shows and are filled with top-scoring applicants in each category. Your slides should reflect a cohesive body of your best work that you plan to exhibit. A booth slide is required. Please submit quality slides of work produced within the last 2 years. We cannot accept digital media or photographs for jury at this time.
Booths: Booths should meet the appearance depicted in the booth slide submitted for jurying. All displays must present a professional appearance, with appropriate covering of all display units to the ground. A 10’ x 10’ space is allotted to each artist although there may be some irregularities due to landscape elements. Up to 90 booths will be available. ELECTRICITY is NOT available. Generators are allowed only if they do not disrupt the adjacent booth(s) or the show.
Artist Participation: Artists are not permitted to smoke in their booths or aisles adjacent to their booths. Smoking is permitted in public walkways. All artists must comply with laws regarding open container/public consumption of alcohol while on premises. Please keep your booth area and surrounding clean and litter free.
Security: Security will be provided both day and night; however, participating artists assume all responsibility for works displayed and their equipment.
Inquiries: Charleston Crafts, Inc. PO Box 22152 Charleston, SC 29413-2152
Web: www.charlestoncrafts.org
Phone: Event Coordinator, Charleston Crafts, (843) 723-2938
Email inquiries to piccolo@charlestoncrafts.org.
Please leave information concerning your request and the best method and time to respond to your inquiry. We will respond as soon as possible.
You may apply online, via a web form or by sending in a completed paper application form. Either way, you must send in an application packet with the supporting materials. Improper or incomplete applications will not be processed.
Your packet should include:
No SASE=no return of slides.