NEW SPC CRAFTS FAIR IS SET TO MAKE ITS DEBUT AT JAZZ FEST 2010 AT OCC

Two of Central New York’s most venerable cultural institutions have joined forces.
The Syracuse Peace Council, which has presented the Plowshares Craft Fair every December for four decades, is teaming up with Syracuse Jazz Fest this year. According to festival and SPC officials, Plowshares will coordinate SummerCrafts at Jazz Fest as part of the 28th annual Syracuse Jazz Festival, set for June 25, 26 and 27, on the campus of Onondaga Community Collage.

“This partnership has been years in the making and it’s something that’s long overdue,” said Jazz Fest’s founder and artistic director, Frank Malfitano. “We’ve wanted to have a major crafts component at Jazz Fest for a number of years, but we never had anyone to manage it for us, and now SPC has stepped in to make that dream a reality.”

Peace Council organizer Andy Mager and Malfitano met earlier this spring to arrange for SPC to have an informational table at this year’s festival. “The next thing you know, we were conceptualizing a full-blown crafts area at Jazz Fest,” Malfitano said.

Mager and SPC warmly welcomed the idea. “The Syracuse Peace Council is delighted to partner with the Syracuse Jazz Fest to offer a diverse range of quality crafts at Jazz Fest this year,” Mager said. “The Peace Council brings 40 years of experience organizing Central New York’s premiere multicultural crafts fair - Plowshares - to this first year of crafts at Jazz Fest.”

If festival-goers respond positively this year to the SummerCrafts element, it’ll likely become a regular festival feature. “When people are attending a music festival,” Malfitano noted, “our observation has been that they like to have something to eat, and that they also like to shop, so we believe that this new SummerCrafts area at the festival this June is going to bring another exciting dimension to the Jazz Fest experience. And we’re absolutely thrilled about it!”

“With more than two dozen crafters on board, interest from local and regional artisans and craftspeople has already been very strong,” Mager said. “We expect the craft show to offer a wide range of handmade goods including pottery, jewelry, clothing, fabric dolls, quilted items and more.” Applications for artists wishing to be part of SummerCrafts at Jazz Fest can be found at www.peacecouncil.net/