Crafts People - a gallery representing over 500 contemporary craftspeople
About Us
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Crafts People - a gallery representing over 500 contemporary craftspeople
About Us
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
||||
|
|||||
|
||||||||||||
|
|
In the late sixties, Rudy Hopkins bought the future home of
Crafts People from his grandmother who had run for many years a small Catskill Mt resort (Shady Lawn Cottages). Interested
in working with kids, he opened a camp for teenagers (Green Fields) with an emphasis on art in order to supplement his public
school teaching salary. As fate would have it, he attended one of the clay classes at camp and recognized that this was something
he wished to pursue.
|
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
His lust for clay continued
and finally expanded into an intense interest in crafts. Folks making items with their hands, outside of corporate
amerika, intensified his interest. As a single parent of three children, he decided he must close the camp...and
Crafts People was born. On the porch of the main house, Rudy exhibited his pots and plants in an attempt to create a small
shop.
And then he met Mary. Mary Elwyn was a local painter and metalsmith who became his life partner. Together they raised their
five children and gradually expanded Crafts People. They also ran a homestead (i.e. wood fires, vegetable garden, farm animals),
an alternative school for teenagers ("Our School"), and developed their skills in craft. Mary wholesaled her metal work through
the American Craft Council shows and the Buyer's Market of American Craft. She received numerous awards including Niche awards
for several consecutive years.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rudy enjoyed keeping the shop well supplied with pots, mentoring young artisans how to market their work, and conducting
the business end of Crafts People.
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
