The Alliance for Artisan Enterprise’s annual conference in Santa Fe this July was our second since our founding in November 2012 and it was a great pleasure to see our collective progress. Despite a sudden change in venue from Morningstar Ranch to La Posada de Santa Fe Hotel due to inclement weather, the Alliance Team was eager to welcome the Alliance and kick off our biggest event of the year.
Ms. Shalini Mehan, Livelihoods Consultant from our new member the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), recently came down to D.C. and presented the UNHCR innovative project which focus on the intersection of arts and peace building, specifically with Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Ms. Mehan’s passion for this field comes from her experience of living and working in the Middle East, where she started her own design project in Jordan for a couple years and worked with artisans in Damascus. She met most of these artisans simply by going to the villages and visiting them.
The Alliance and its members work in over 110 countries of the world, but that doesn't mean the United States isn't one of them. The Alliance has been looking for opportunities to connect with artisans in the states, to understand their challenges and share their stories. I was of course thrilled when I found a Washington Post article featuring David Norton, a self-taught potter from Virginia. Read below to hear more of his story.
During the month of April, the Alliance traveled to Peru for two Alliance events in Lima and to visit Alliance Member Center of Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC). Kicking off the Alliance's work in Peru, Nilda Callanaupa Alvarez, Founder & President of CTTC, and one of her esteemed weavers, Maribel Quispe, shared their artisanal work
The Alliance for Artisan Enterprise was invited by the U.S. Department of Commerce to speak at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Workshop on Integrating SMEs into Global Supply Chains in Taichung, Chinese Taipei. The artisan sector is an important driver of economic growth, especially in the APEC region, and we were delighted to be part of the dialogue on how to integrate small and medium artisan enterprises into global value chains.
On February 3rd, in a private room filled with blue light glowing from the walls of the Hotel Mondrian Soho, the murmur of an excited crowd came to stillness. The hush signified the opening of the evening’s panel discussion, “Common Threads: Social Justice & the Runway”, moderated by Alliance Director, Peggy Clark with featured speakers Paul Van Zyl, Co-Founder and CEO of Maiyet and Rebecca van Bergen, Founder and Executive Director of nest.
To celebrate our very first anniversary, we've created a video to showcase the progress we've made and the aspirations that lie ahead. Alliance fellow Henna Wang had the opportunity to speak with Natika Washington, Director of the Office of Global Women's Issues at the US Department of State, to hear about the founding of the Alliance and its purpose in empowering women artisans of the world.
