Southport Magazine

Take break from the beach this Labor Day weekend and go see how creative your community can be at the 32nd Annual Arts and Crafts Festival brought to you by the Oak Island Art Guild. This year’s event will be Saturday, Sept. 2 (rain date Sunday, Sept. 3) from 9 am – 4 pm at the Cape Fear Jetport, 4015 Airport Road. 

According to organizer Mary Beth Livers, this event brings out several thousand people to shop with dozens of arts, craft and food vendors. Proceeds from the event help support art scholarships for Brunswick County students and pay for art supplies used in Brunswick County schools. 

There is still time to join this Festival as a craft or a food vendor. Booths are 10’x10’ and cost $70 before Aug. 15 and $80 thereafter. Exhibitors must create all their own items and craft vendors cannot also sell food. 

Arts and Craft vendors must fit into one of the following categories:

Clay/Pottery: Decorative or functional works of stoneware, earthenware, terra cotta, and porcelain made by shaping and firing.

Country Crafts: Decorative and functional handicrafts including wreaths, baskets, candles, buckets, signs, painted lampshades, plates, containers, etc. No personal care products, including soaps, lotions, essential oils, or honey.

Fabrics/Wearables: Wearable or decorative items crafted from fibers, batik, painted fabric, or paper. Includes quilts, soft sculpture, tapes- try, embroidery, and weaving.

Garden: Crafts meant to be displayed or used outdoors.

Glass: Stained, blown, fused, molded, or etched glass. Also mosaics.

Jewelry: Produced from metal, clay, glass, fiber, paper, plastic, or other materials. Beads not made by the artist should play a subordinate role in the finished piece. This is a popular category and is strictly juried.

Metals: Functional or decorative metal works including sculpture.

Painting: Dry and wet media, including water- color, acrylic, and oil paints, pastels, and pencils applied to paper, canvas, or board. Includes mixed media collages and assemblage. Reproductions of your original art work are eligible.

Photography/Digital Art: Prints or photographs made from artist’s original images. Includes work developed with traditional photography techniques and work executed or manipulated on a computer.

Wood: Hand tooled, machine worked, turned, or carved.

Unacceptable Crafts: Machine embroidery.

An application to participate as either a craft or food vendor can be downloaded at oakislandartguild.org