The Crafts Center at CHF International
Indigenous artisans uphold centuries-old traditions rich with cultural significance, aesthetic beauty, and commercial value. Yet despite the talent and dedication of artisans, all too often their businesses remain fragile due to a lack of business knowledge. The Crafts Center at CHF International mentors artisans to become true entrepreneurs by providing resources needed to support all types of crafts, from concept to final sale.
Our Services:
Training and Assistance
Low-income artisans, business owners, and local organizations receive direct training in planning and management skills through the Crafts Center’s field programs. We offer customized market development consulting and assessments, market orientation and entry seminars, and a wide array of business development services to help strengthen artisan enterprises.
Market Linkages
Our extensive crafts network database connects artisans to international and local wholesalers and retailers interested in purchasing and reselling their products.The Crafts Center helps members to identify a host of funding organizations, product designers, training institutions and management and marketing consultants.
Membership Program
Crafts Center members stay abreast of market trends, best practices, trade policies and regulations, sources of micro-credit, and upcoming events through our website www.craftscenter.org, quarterly newsletter, annual trend report, and our resource library.Members of the Crafts Center receive:
- Subscription to Crafts News, the Crafts Center's quarterly newsletter with information on trends, marketing, trade tips and regulations, advocacy updates, and the experiences of crafts groups around the world
- Listings in the Crafts Resource Database
- Market Alert email updates on business and funding opportunities, job openings, events and conferences, and member announcements
- Use of Crafts Center member logo
- Discounts on AEN and Crafts Center products and services
- And more!
Become a member of the Crafts Center Online!
Increasing Demand and Awareness
Exhibitions, seminars, events, and media exposure generate public interest in buying crafts and supporting fair trade labor practices.Through these and other public outreach methods, the Crafts Center helps build demand for artisan products.
Inside Crafts Center
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Miram Adam Atim Abbakar, an internally displaced mat and basket weaver from Darfur, Sudan, is being hosted by the Crafts Center at CHF International to attend the Santa Fe International Folk Arts Market 2006, held June 7-9, 2006, where she will share her story and her craft with as many as 20,000 artisans and buyers in attendance.
Since 2004, CHF International has been working with displaced Sudanese living in the camps to implement nearly 20 separate livelihoods activities, including mat and basket weaving. These efforts are helping to ensure that those living through the traumatic experience of internal displacement are active participants in efforts to improve their own lives–while the crafts–specific projects such as mat and basket weaving also help to preserve critical cultural traditions.
The Crafts Center at CHF International contributes to economic development through field programs and coordination of an international network dedicated to supporting low-income artisans. Distinguished by a focus on grassroots initiatives, we build the capacity of organizations and individuals to become artisan entrepreneurs. Since 1986, the Crafts Center has offered technical assistance and training in the development, marketing, and sale of crafts. |
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Additional Resources
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Association of Women in International Trade’s Fall Newsletter
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The Crafts Center at CHF International
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Sign up now! The Crafts Center at CHF International offered a U.S. Market Orientation February 9-10, 2006 in Silver Spring, Maryland for those interested in learning more about product design, pricing, exporting, sales, and marketing in the United States. The Crafts Center offers members and non-members a hands-on approach to learning about entering the U.S. market for crafts producers through our U.S. Market Orientation.
The U.S. Market Orientation program was conducted by expert professionals in their field.
Some of the main topics covered were:
- Marketing issues: Establishing your target market, determine product potential
- Business concerns: pricing and costing, packaging and packing, transportation & logistics, business etiquette
- Product development: Custom evaluation
- Trade shows: most popular, how to work a trade show, how set up a booth efficiently and effectively, how to approach potential customers
For more information, please contact Jennifer Marcy at jmarcy@chfinternational.org or 301-587-4700 x 1827.
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