Montana Traditions Festival Marketplace

The deadline is passed for applying to sell traditional crafts at the Montana Traditions Festival Marketplace at the National Folk Festival in Butte, Montana on July 11-13, 2008. We have received several excellent applications from traditional artists throughout the region.

In January, a committee will evaluate the applicants and select craft vendors based on tradition, regional culture,and artist's relationship with his or her community, quality, and uniqueness. The committee reviews all applications and selects vendors who best meet these criteria.

All work must be traditional as defined below:

Traditional arts are those art forms that are learned as part of the cultural life of a group of people whose members share a common ethnic heritage, language, religion, occupation, or culturally united geographic region. Folk and traditional arts are shaped by the aesthetics and values of a shared culture and are passed from generation to generation, most often within family and community through observation, conversation and practice.

Source: The National Endowment for the Arts

The Montana Traditions Marketplace will host 20 to 25 traditional artists who will be selected and invited through a juried process.

As soon as the successful applicants have been selected, they will be announced here, so check back before too long to see who will be featured at the Montana Traditions Festival Marketplace in Butte on July 11-13, 2008.