Crafty Merger Helps Maine Artists Grow

There's a certain sense of pride that Mainers feel for products that have the "Made In Maine" label. There are hundreds of talented Maine artists all over the state producing products and crafts of exceptional quality. One problem for artists in some more rural parts of Maine is that getting enough customers to visit a shop in a town of a few hundred people can be tricky. So most artists have to take their product and seek out a larger customer base, which isn't easy to do alone.

That's why the Maine Highlands Guild, an organization that helps rural Maine artists network, train, and sell their work, is merging with the Maine Crafts Association at the beginning of next year.

The Maine Highlands Guild, based out of Dover-Foxcroft, came about from research efforts in 2000-2001 aimed at finding ways to integrate the rich cultural aspects of Piscataquis and Penobscot counties with economic development. The biggest challenge identified by the research was connecting artists in this rural part of Maine with the appropriate markets where they could sell their goods. So in 2002 Tracy Michaud-Stutzman, Executive Director, formed the Maine Highlands Guild as a way to cooperatively market rural Maine artists as a whole, to help train these artists and help them network and learn from each other, and to educate the public about these Maine artists. Through these efforts, the Maine Highlands Guild has become much more effective than any one artist could be alone.

In the past five years, the Guild has gotten its members' goods in wholesale shows across the country — places like Boston, New York, Atlanta, Denver, and Chicago. The Guild has also worked to get products from this area into retail stores to increase the audience. In that time, the Guild has brought in over $400,000 in sales for its artists, along with an extra $800,000 in grant money for training, education, and promotional efforts.

Aside from working to increase sales for its members, the Highlands Guild wants to make sure its artists have the tools to succeed and grow. Artists might be able to produce some amazing products, but often they don't have the business acumen to be able to do anything with it. Michaud-Stutzman brings in business speakers and holds training sessions for Guild members so they can learn things like how to create a business plan or how to set pricing structures. “It's important to have an organization there to support you as an artist, but also understand you as a business,” says Michaud-Stutzman. “A lot of time in business and economic development programs, the focus isn't geared towards the small craft-based business. We try to provide that niche focus.”

Pin Oak Leaf by Stillwood Pottery, Orono, Maine.

After five successful years helping rural artists get their businesses off the ground, it was time to look for the next step. There were two major issues the Guild wanted to focus on as they moved forward. The first was to continue to increase artists' access to markets where they can sell their products. The second issue was training people to work in these fields. Now that several artists had built solid business foundations, they needed additional employees. Artists found no qualified help was available, and they would have to train everyone they hired. Michaud-Stutzman realized the Guild had done a good job training and promoting local artists, but didn't have the means to tackle some of these larger problems.

That's where the Maine Crafts Association comes in. The MCA is a non-profit organization that has been around since 1983, and has a similar vision to that of the Maine Highland Guild's, and has a much larger member base. The MCA wanted to have more emphasis on small town Maine artists, so joining with the Maine Highlands Guild made perfect sense.

As a result of the new merger, the Guild will go from an organization that works closely with between 30-50 artists a year to about 500 a year. Michaud-Stutzman still wants the emphasis to be on promoting rural Maine artists, but now they will have a much larger presence with which to do so. She also wants to provide other people with the ability to start their own local programs like the Highlands Guild. “Even though we're going to be a state organization, we wanted to make sure that we supported grassroots efforts in those small regional groups and people that are doing things at that level,” says Michaud-Stutzman. " We got [the Guild] going up in [Piscataquis and Penobscot] because we really cared about the area and we were doing something for our region and the community as much as we were doing something for businesses."

The merger gives the new group, which will keep the name “Maine Crafts Association,” a much larger presence, which helps it to gain access to bigger and better sales outlets and opportunities. To help solve the training issue, the MCA is working with a community college to develop a curriculum for a 36-credit crafts certificate as part of an Associate's Degree. The collaboration doesn't stop there. The new MCA also has tentative plans to open a Center for Maine Crafts in the soon-to-be-constructed West Gardiner Travel Plaza in conjunction with the Maine Turnpike Authority. The Department of Tourism will also promote the Maine Crafts Association in its travel and tourism information. Several communities and state officials are supportive of the Guild's efforts, including Governor Baldacci, who gave $10,000 to support the cause.

Two of the Guild's biggest fundraisers take place at the end of the year. They have a kiosk at the Bangor Mall that is running now for the rest of the year. The kiosk is located across from B. Dalton Booksellers on the JC Penny side of the mall. The Guild also will be selling limited edition and one-of-a-kind items at its annual Holiday Art Auction at the Isaac Farrar Mansion in Bangor on November 29. Seats are limited so call 207-564-0041 for tickets or more information. These events are a nice last hurrah for the Guild members as they move into the next year and become a part of the new Maine Crafts Association.

Links:
Maine Highlands Guild
Maine Crafts Association