Southern Illinois from the Ohio and Wabash Rivers west to the Mississippi is a region with craft traditions as strong as those in Appalachia and the Ozarks.
”The craft arts of southern Illinois are broad in scope, from the simple and decorative to weaving, woodworking and metalsmithing,” said Ellen Gantner, director of the Illinois State Museum`s Illinois Artisans Program, but they are not as well-known as those of the more publicized Appalachian and Ozark areas.
Today, the state has made a commitment to promote those crafts with the new Southern Illinois Arts and Crafts Marketplace, a beautiful new facility at Rend Lake, a recreation area south of Mt. Vernon, about 280 miles south of Chicago.
”The state sees the marketplace as an important part of economic development through tying tourism to crafts,” Gantner said.
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The marketplace will offer several ways to promote the crafts of the region. A 12,000-foot-plus building, which was inaugurated Friday by Gov. James R. Thompson, includes a shop for inexpensive crafts and memorabilia, a gallery for changing exhibits and the Artisan Shop for high-quality crafts, including ceramics, prints, quilts, baskets, furniture and sculpture.
Its expansive grounds include an outdoor stage and covered pavilion.
”The marketplace will do year-round programming of workshops, demonstrations and lectures by individual craft artists,” Gantner said. ”We want to promote not only to local interests, but also internationally.”