All right, I'm a little giddy. A successful end to months of preparation will do that to you. Our first ever Holiday Craft Lounge wrapped up yesterday in the late afternoon. We cleared out of the Overture Lobby and the artists and shopgirls returned to their studios and homes and stores.
I feel SO grateful and blessed! LOOK at all that food! We have a cartload to bring to the Second Harvest Foodbank AND our generous customers have provided enough for over 500 meals. Hooray! Hooray!
Thank you to everyone who came out and enjoyed the Downtown Holiday Open House and the Holiday Craft Lounge. I don't usually carry a can of food with me when I go shopping so I am amazed at how many people remembered.
Meanwhile, on the crafting front, judging by the stragglers who just didn't want to leave, paper wreaths and stamped metal ornaments were VERY popular activities. We are so thankful to all the artists who took time to bring their wares and their inspiration to the event: Forrest & Co at Artterro, Jane Fasse, Emily Keown, Debra and Lily Greene, Karen Kuhn & Co, Melissa Brumm and Willa Leannah, Cynthia Wadsworth, Alisson Burda, Naomi Richardson, Andrea Thorson, Michelle Pieterick, Kim Lapacek, Mindy Kuen, Norma Jean Buchanan, Rosy Hawbaker, Kaeti Lindquist and Diane Knauff. There were so many wonderful activities! I'm feeling inspired to go and make things for Christmas. Now to find the time...
This is a picture of the Craft Lounge from above. We had a pretty steady stream of people all day long and a nice mix of shopping, crafting, chatting, and laughing. In all, in addition to Anthology's table, we had 17 artists with projects and products to share.
The space of the Overture Center lobby was so wonderful to be in. So often we just walk through there in the evening on our way to a performance; we don't usually get to linger and enjoy the space. Initially we were planning to use the Promenade Lounge on the second floor but we wouldn't have been able to fit nearly as many artists or shoppers in there. Plus the Overture Lobby is so light and open.
A HUGE thanks to the Overture Center Community Arts Access Program. There is great debate over the value of the Overture Center to the City of Madison, and an even larger debate over the value of art in our lives. Personally, I think that art is an integral part of living, that creating is essential to sanity and that Art is not something that is set apart from Life. It is meant to be touched and made, to be messy and underneath your fingernails. The Holiday Craft Lounge was a great opportunity for us to do on a larger scale what we started at Anthology - to get supplies in the hands of shoppers and get them creating. This kind of event is a prime example of how art is at work in our lives, and how the Overture Center is an integral part of the community.
Thank you! Thank you!
