GREENE – A spectacular array of craft vendors will once again convene for the 13th Annual Treasures and Treats Craft Fair, Saturday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m, in the Greene Intermediate School gym. The proceeds from the fair will be used to fund the school district’s Arts & Education program, which, despite massive state funding cuts, is still up and running, thanks in large part to the annual succes of the fair.
“We started the fair 13 years ago as a way of supplementing the funding for our arts education programs,” said event coordinator and kindergarten teacher Mary Lake. When the state cut the school’s grant money, the fair, as well as the school’s arts education programs, had grown strong enough to survive the budget slashes.
The Treasure and Treats Craft Fair has grown so successful it has attracted 60 vendors this year, a far larger number than ever before. The Intermediate School’s gym is not even grand enough to contain the vast quantity of vendors this year and many will have to set up their booths in the hallway.
“We make sure all of the vendors are selling handcrafted items and that nothing is store bought,” said Patt Washburn, special education teacher aide in the Intermediate School and the vendor coordinator for this weekend’s event. The list of unique goods to be displayed is boundless. “You name it and well, we just have about everything,” she said.
Jewelery, paintings, raffles, chair caning, handcrafted clothing, children’s clothing, handmade toys, maple syrup, wood crafts, metal sculptures, a cup cake station, face painting, polymer clay items, rustic signs, primitive hand painted art work, a bake sale ... the list of vendors is just endless.
“Teachers have also been working with their students to create their own special works of art to sell,” said Lake. Most of the other volunteers running the event are also faculty members, but there are some parents too.
If fair goers need a break, they can take a breather at the Sugar Plum Cafe and sit down with a purchased snack to munch on.
The Arts & Education program has been an important part of the district’s curriculum for some time now. It reaches all students K-12, varying in form depending on the grade by bringing in professional artists to help weave the arts into education.
“My kindergarten class has been working with a musician out of Utica who is teaching them about different music from all around the nation,” said Lake. Last year, Lake’s class worked with a visual artist who created quilts and murals from reusable materials to teach the kids about recycling. “We are trying to impart life long lessons that the kids will benefit from,” she said.
“There are kids who haven’t heard or seen the kind of stuff the arts and education program brings them,” said Washburn. “It is so important to expose them to the arts as well as culture.”