Gift Local this Holiday Season

Even though we just made it through Halloween, according to the television commercials, it’s time to start thinking about your winter holiday shopping. The marketing machines are revving up to full throttle, and soon we will all be up to our eyeballs in holly berries and little drummer boys. 

Luckily for us on Martha’s Vineyard, going to the mall is not an option – at least not one that doesn’t require some thought and planning. We are not inundated on an hourly basis with signs on the sides of busses or Gap stores on every corner. However, we are somewhat limited in our shopping options, and while some of us love a good trip to Wal-Mart, others would rather get all of our shopping done right here, buying from our own merchants.

gives us that option and takes it one step further with their annual Holiday Gift Show. Going into its ninth year this year, the gift show is an opportunity for both artists and shoppers. “There are fifty-some artists that participate in the show,” said former Executive Director Francine Kelley. “That means there is quite a variety of potential gifts for shoppers.” The work varies from cookbooks and cards to soap, pottery, photography, ornaments, stocking stuffers, clothing, chocolate and more.

This year, the gift show will run from November 19^th through December 18^th, with a Preview Party on Friday, November 18. All gifts are handmade by local, Island Artists and are an affordable price of $250 and under.

For buyers, this means unique, beautiful gifts for all those on your list. For artists it means an added boost to their winters that are really quite quiet for nearly ten months of the year. It also means that visitors to the Island during the holiday season have access to an array of work by Island artists to take back home as gifts.

“Artists come back year after year and more and more are asking to participate. It is a real opportunity for the artists to display their wares out of season. There is a different group of tourists and travelers to the Island from November to holidays, so artists also get to show their work to a new audience," said Kelley.

Featherstone handles all of the marketing and promotion of the show and holds a separate Preview Party for donors, members and artists the night before the show begins. Additionally, artists do not have to maintain or be present at their booth during the run of the show, which means a huge amount of time is saved for making art, taking trips to Wal-Mart, or whatever else they may need to do. In exchange, Featherstone, which is a non-profit year round art center, takes 50% of the sale price. Featherstone has volunteers who work at the show that is open every day from noon – 4 pm. “Many artists don’t believe me when I tell them they don’t have to be here,” said Kelley adding that the artists really benefit from heavy foot traffic that the show gets. “We saw about twenty people a day come through last year,” said Kelley.

Artists who are interested in participating should notify Executive Director Ann Smith at Featherstone by Friday, November 11. E-mail is ann@featherstoneart.org, phone is 508-693-1850 and fax number is 508-693-8706.

The show will run from November 19 - December 18 from noon to 4 pm each day.  The opening preview party for participating artists, Featherstone members and donors will be Friday evening, November 18 from 7-9 pm.