Art Fair Alternatives - Part II: Art Studio Tours

Art Fair Artists Success Show

Our guests are potters Jan Richardson and Robert Briscoe, well known in the artist community not only for their fine work but their generosity in developing opportunities for other artists. Living in rural Maryland Jan developed the Valley Craft Network in 1982, a tour that continues to bring buyers from nearby Baltimore and Washington, DC, into the region to visit studios. After a move to Washington State about six years ago she found few opportunities for selling her work and since then has worked within that community, creating art shows and the Peninsula Artists Studio Tour. Robert Briscoe has been exhibiting his functional beautiful pottery at art festivals since 1970. In 1992 together with 7 of his friends they started the St. Croix Valley Pottery Studio Tour, which has become a national pottery phenomenon. It started as a simple idea: bring together a group of potters to create an event that would be larger in scope than any individual's studio sale. In its' 22nd year it has grown to include 50 potters (43 of them invited from elsewhere). The studios are within an hours' drive of Minneapolis. Collectors and pottery lovers come from all over N. America to enjoy the celebration and collect this fine handmade work.