Popular Kentucky craft market is back with new vendors, free admission, added day
Since returning to Lexington in 2013, The Kentucky Crafted Market has faced pretty much every challenge the Bluegrass in March can offer, from a tornado outbreak that had participants sheltering under the stands in Rupp Arena to more than a foot of snow that forced some vendors to dig out their driveways to get to the event.
The market has even faced the joys of sharing and address and parking spaces with a University of Kentucky men’s basketball game.
But it took a global pandemic to shut the market down.
“We were actually onsite at the Kentucky Horse Park setting up,” Chris Cathers, executive director of the Kentucky Arts Council says, recalling the 2020 Kentucky Crafted. “We actually had all the booths in place all the piping and drape in place at the Horse Park.
“We had begun unloading our stuff when the call came through.”
The Kentucky Crafted Market, like pretty much everything else in the middle of March 2020, was canceled. As crazy as that sounded at the time, Cathers said no one could have imagined it would have been two years before the popular annual event that draws thousands to see and buy the work of Kentucky visual artists and craftspeople would return.
As the pandemic took hold and deepened, the arts council pivoted to offering a virtual market, helping artists who were not yet selling their work online become familiar with e-commerce, and using its own platform to spotlight artists.
“We were just trying to find some way to connect artists with audience because there was this need to continue to make sales,” Cathers said. “You know, a lot of these artists are going into the spring and summer, that’s where they do a majority of their wholesale and retail types of orders.”
In the two-years since, e-commerce options have improved and artists skills on those platforms have sharpened. But Cathers says artists still took a tremendous hit by not being able to sell at events such as Kentucky Crafted for nearly two years. A Kentucky Arts Council survey found that 67% of creative businesses in Kentucky were severely impacted by the pandemic in 2020 and more than 22,000 creative workers were unemployed by COVID-19 and 61% of creative workers experienced a drastic decrease in their work.
So, the return of a major event like Kentucky Crafted is a welcome relief to many artists. The event includes a day (Friday) devoted to wholesale customers and getting those sorts of orders can make up a major part of an artist or craftsperson’s sales.
“People are looking forward to connecting with their favorite artists, artists are looking forward to touching base with their VIP customers and people who have bought from them in the past,” Cathers says. “And so you know, we look at this show, as a way of kind of welcoming back the public and the artist together, and using this show as that venue to do so.”
This will be the second time the market has been held at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Alltech Arena after several years in Lexington Center, now known as Central Bank Center. Cathers says there are some things missed not being in the downtown location. But overall, the location and atmosphere of the Horse Park have been very well received.
“When you come into the Horse Park, you see the fences and you see the horses and you see this landscape that reminds you of a classic Kentucky moment,” Cathers says. “And, you know, to be able to drive back and then go into Alltech arena and then see Kentucky artwork and Kentucky crafts — it was just a great connection, a great synergy of all these things that were Kentucky.”
Sitting close to the intersection of two major interstates — 75 and 64 — also makes it easily accessible to visitors from around Kentucky and beyond. Cathers says in 2019 the market attracted a new audience, some of whom were simply drawn in by signage on the interstate.
Admission to the market is free this year, as a way of welcoming people back and encouraging them to give to the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund. Cathers says a number of exhibitors are from Western Kentucky and that of the more than 90 artists and craftspeople at the market, 20 are new to the event.
Of course, it was not entirely clear this year’s market would happen, as the year opened with one of the most dramatic surges of the pandemic. Cathers says the Arts Council remained cautiously optimistic in making plans to hold an in-person event. And at this point, there will be safety precautions in place like plenty of hand sanitizer, but there will be no mask or vaccination requirements.
“You’ll have people that will be there and will be masked, but it is optional for people coming into the Alltech arena,” Cathers says. “We just want everybody to have a safe, healthy time and be able to reconnect and buy some art.”
The Kentucky Crafted Market
What: Annual event presented by the Kentucky Arts Council featuring more than 90 Kentucky visual and craft artists.
When: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. March 11 (Wholesale buyers with ID only); Public hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. March 12, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. March 13
Where: Kentucky Horse Park Alltech Arena, 4089 Iron Works Parkway
Admission: Free, parking is $5