By Matthew Liebenberg
A new art and craft market in Swift Current aims to continue a previous tradition that offered handcrafted items to shoppers for nearly two decades.
The Holiday Harvest Art & Craft Market will make its debut at the Stockade in Kinetic Park from Oct. 5-6.
This is the same weekend that the former Fall into Christmas Art & Handcraft Market took place, which is no coincidence.
Elaine Robitaille of Swift Current and Erin Pell of Saskatoon, the organizers of the new Holiday Harvest Art & Craft Market, were long-time vendors at the former Fall into Christmas Art & Handcraft Market.
They were therefore eager to continue the tradition when Fall into Christmas show managers Cyndi and Stew Tasche recently announced their retirement.
“I’m excited,” Robitaille said. “Fall into Christmas is a show I’ve done almost all the years I’ve been in Swift Current. I came in 2009 and did it in 2010 all the way through until the pandemic, and then when it started back up again. It was always a very well-run show and they took such good care of the vendors.”
Fall into Christmas became a popular event since it began in 2005. It offered an opportunity to do shopping for the holiday season on the weekend before Thanksgiving with handmade products for sale from a variety of artisans, craftspeople and bakers.
There will be around 50 to 60 vendors at the new Holiday Harvest Art & Craft Market with plans to have more in coming years.
“Our first year will probably be a little cozier while we get our feet under us, but we’ll add more things as we go,” she said. “We just can’t do it all in one go.”
Many of the vendors at the new show participated in the former Fall into Christmas, but there will also be different vendors for visitors to explore and discover. Some vendors will be from out of province or from the prairies and over a third will be from southwest Saskatchewan.
Holiday Harvest Art & Craft Market is a juried market open to artists and craftspeople, vintage curators and packaged food vendors. Some of the jury criteria applied during the vendor application process are quality, originality, presentation and professionalism, and variety. The intention is to offer a professional quality show with handmade products to shoppers.
“I’m so excited to like keep it going and to have something professional quality for handmade in Swift Current,” she said. “I want to keep encouraging the folks who are looking for a place to showcase their handmade stuff they’ve designed and done themselves. It does take a lot of talent to make a good store full of well curated items, it’s just not the same as making your own well curated items.”
Robitaille is a polymer and ceramic clay artist who is actively involved with the local art community in southwest Saskatchewan. She met Pell, who is a glass artist, at Fall into Christmas and they began to collaborate.
They were already selling their art on Etsy, an online venue for art and craft, and they became Etsy Saskatchewan team leaders. They provided support for the Etsy arts community in the province and also organized events.
They have organized 31 markets between 2014 and June 2023, but they have been considering a rebranding for some time and finally started Sask Collective in 2024 to promote local creatives.
Robitaille and Pell are therefore organizing the new Holiday Harvest Art & Craft Market in Swift Current under the Sask Collective banner. It will be a great addition to their activities and complementary to their existing flagship event, the outdoor Spring Market in the Broadway district of Saskatoon that they have been organizing for several years.
Robitaille is also looking forward to adding other events to the Sask Collective portfolio in the future.
“Next year hopefully we’ll pick up another fall show again in Saskatoon,” she said. “It’s been a few years because of the pandemic, but we’d like to have a spring and fall show in Regina and Saskatoon and then the fall show here in Swift Current.”
The Holiday Harvest Art & Craft Market at the Stockade takes place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Oct. 5 and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 6. Admission is $5 at the door and children 12 years and under are free.
