It was Six years ago….
When Heather & Gordon, that make up Hopeful and Glorious hosted their first Winter Art Fair at Lytham Hall. As curators of everything gorgeous, handmade, and with a distinctive design flair (whatever the medium) I thought I’d let Heather tell you …..
What they do & Why they do it!
That first year there was a wonderful selection of work by makers from across the Fylde coast that filled the Upper West Wing and it was magical. Lots of lovely visitors came who were supportive of handmade art, craft and design. Each year since then we’ve grown and shaped what we do and it’s been an utter delight to work with creatives from the Fylde and all the lovely visitors who care about local handmade and Lytham Hall just like we do. The Fylde coast is abundant with talented artists and makers and each year we’ve worked with some of the best. Meeting makers, hearing about how things are made is such a lovely part of in-person events and we’re really missing that this year.
Going On-line
We’ve put a lot of thought into what comes next and for now, the immediate future is online but we want it to be a great experience. For this November we’re aiming to bring together an online event with opportunities to meet the makers, watch demos and have a go at home and an online market of the best of art, craft, design, food and drink. Our Winter Fair Online will take place on our website on 20-22nd November. Many of those taking part will be offering great extras such as free gift wrapping so at a time when it’s not that easy to get out it’s a perfect way to shop and send at the same time. We’ve worked with the National Festival of Making over the last 4 years and they’re getting involved in the Winter Fair Online so we’re delighted that the event will reach a national audience.
With the online fair we want to try and create the best event we can both for our makers and our customers. We’d usually have the buzz of setting up, talking with makers – meeting some for the first time and welcoming others back to the hall so we’re encouraging our makers to set up a stall at home and film it on their phone. We’ll be having maker demonstrations and workshops to watch and make at home. We want to create an event that is a celebration of making and not just selling.
Setting up an online fair is a challenge. One of the main things that we’ve found is that it needs to be quick to find and easy to understand. We wanted to make this event quick to find but a place where people might spend a bit of time watching artists demos or dropping into one of the meet the maker sessions so that we get more of the atmosphere of a face to face event. We’re selecting makers in exactly the same way, but we’ve widened what we’ll be offering to include artisan food and drink producers. Throughout the event we and the stallholders will be every bit as present as at it would at a face-to-face event. We might be out of sight, but we’ll all be busy.
Examples of curated artists/designers/makers
Supporting the Smallest Businesses
Supporting small business has always been important but now never more so. Covid19 has seen more people shopping online and the massive stores that offer the all-under-one-roof multinational approach have boomed often at the cost of the independents. If you can’t nip out and buy it, next day delivery has been something that lots of us have relied on. Despite the ease of the global online stores supporting our high streets and independent businesses this festive season really will make a difference. There’s a campaign that many creatives take part in called #JustACard it makes the case that by buying just a card from a creative business can make all the difference to those businesses. We don’t have to spend a fortune. Every pound spent locally stays local so it’s not just supporting a business it’s supporting a community.
We hope to be back at Lytham Hall in 2021 but please come and see our Winter Fair Online 20-22 November. The market will be hosted on our website and our social media will have all the demos, workshops and meet the maker events.
Thank you for all your support over the years and we hope you have a good Christmas and that you stay safe and well. If you would like to keep up to date with what we are up to, subscribe to our newletter hopefulandglorious.co.uk/
Examples of curated artists/designers/makers
Thank you Heather (& Gordon), I for one will be sat on my laptop and seeing what is handmade and unique, also looking forward to the artisan food & drink producers too.
Make sure you have November 20th -22nd in your calendar too.