Photo courtesy of David Byland.
Olivia Easterling receives the first Alabama Craft Guild scholarship in fine/traditional crafts, presented by ACG President David Byland.
When David Byland talked about his craft guild in the past, people would say, “You’re the group that does the show at the Gardens.”
“But they didn’t know our name, because it didn’t roll off the tongue, and it didn’t describe what we did,” he said.
That’s why the group — Alabama Designer/Craftsmen — recently changed its name to Alabama Craft Guild.
Byland, the president of ACG, said their goals haven’t changed from what they were 50 years ago when Lowell Vann, an art professor at Samford University, and several other local artisans started the group.
“We understand the importance of traditional craft and the Alabama artisans who laid our foundation in wood, pottery, metal and more,” said Byland, who himself is a leather artist.
“Alabama has a rich heritage of fine handcrafted art, and our new name reflects the nationwide recognition our artisans are receiving and attracts patrons who understand the quality of work associated with guild membership.”
Artisans become juried ACG members by having their work evaluated by experts in their craft. Currently, the guild has 75 members across the state, about 40 of whom will display their work at the group’s annual show at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens Nov. 11-12.
The guild will also celebrate its 50th anniversary through the show’s theme, “Fifty Years of Fine Craft,” and will feature works in mediums from clay to glass to wood. The show will also include a “Tools of the Trade” exhibit and craft demonstrations from the artists.
“People really look forward to it each year,” Byland said of the show, noting that some of their customers have been coming to the event for 20 or 30 years.
When he and his wife, Laura, moved to Hoover from Oklahoma in 2014, they too visited the show and were hooked immediately.
... our new name reflects the nationwide recognition our artisans are receiving and attracts patrons who understand the quality of work associated with guild membership.
David Byland
“We walked in, and we saw an amazing assortment of handcrafted items that really represented what we thought Alabama was all about,” Byland said.
The first display they saw was for Larry Allen’s pottery, some of which was recently featured in the film “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
The couple also found pine needle artwork, which was “just beautiful,” Byland said.
They walked out with a half dozen items, now displayed in their home.
“It was a way of feeling like we were now a part of Alabama; we had met the people who made those things,” he said.
ACG’s show offers the chance to experience Alabama art as well as find handmade Christmas gifts you won’t find anywhere else, Byland said.
The show is partially sponsored by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Admission is $5 per adult, part of which goes toward a college scholarship designed to encourage the study of traditional fine craft.
Another part goes to fund the group’s outreach efforts, which include sending artisans to local schools to do their crafts with the students.
“Alabama has a really rich history in craft, from the folk craft you see in some of the quilts to some of the stuff Larry Allen is doing that is high-end stuff in galleries all over the country,” Byland said. “It’s an important history to keep alive and keep people doing.”
For more information, visit alabamacraftguild.org or follow them on Facebook or Instagram @alcraftguild.
