ATA’s orange booth with Chin Chili representative from Myanmar
NY NOW August 2016 marked a significant moment for ATA as we celebrated our 40th Anniversary. Our familiar orange booth was filled with crafts from Mexico, Haiti, Nepal, Turkey, Myanmar, China, and Syrian Refugees living in Turkey. With its colorful dolls and toys, the product collection from China were our bestseller.
Dropenling’s dolls from China
Once more, China’s Dropenling collection stood out by the vivid colors reflected in the handmade dolls and stuffed toys created by artisans providing sustainable, long-term solutions to the promotion and preservation of the traditional, local culture.
Chin-Chili’s product collection from Myanmar represented the second best seller for this edition of NY NOW. Their woven textiles, pillows, table runners, and bags were a wonderful addition to the booth.
Our walls were decorated by wonderful paintings and printed stuffed toys made by women artisans from the Janakpur Women Development center in Nepal. This organization was built to create sustainable solutions to support artisans, from Maithil culture. The toy collection and clutches created by Soma artisans based in Turkey gave a wonderful touch to the booth. Residing in the mining town of Soma, Manisa, Turkey, the Soma Artisans initiative, provides economic opportunities for women in that region.
Making their first appearance at NY NOW, Amal (Hope in Arabic), a newly created organization of Syrian women refugees living in Fatih, Turkey, brought beautiful and colorful embroidered jewelry and clutches inspired by memories of Syria. Amal aims to bring a means of financial support to their families by women refugees who are learning to make and sell crafts that are inspired by Syria’s great architectural and artistic heritage, including the renowned Damascus tiles and Palmyra mosaics.
ATA Puebla Marketing Coordinator, Guillermo Jester, show the beautiful Palma placemat to a buyer
ATA Mexico featured a large collection of handmade products from various brands that have worked with its artisan communities in Chiapas including Santa Rosa, Boutique Mexico, Artemateria, Kunu and introduced a collection from its new project Coaching and Assistance for Sustainable Entrepreneurship (CASE) funded by the W.K Kellogg Foundation.
Right across ATA’s booth stood for the second time Idea+Materia’s wonderful exhibit showing products from Puebla, Mexico. ATA’s Idea + Materia seeks to provi
de 375 artisans from 25 towns in Puebla with intensive training that builds their artistic and business skills, before connecting them with Mexican and International buyers. Booth #419 at NY NOW did just that. The beautiful Palma baskets and mats were once again the center of attention, and more than 300 pieces were sold. Many visitors were drawn to the onyx products and volcanic stone candle holders as well and bought over 200 pieces, making them the second best hit.
The highlight of the week was our annual reception where the display room was buzzing with participants’ handmade products ranging from traditional art from Tajikistan, Egypt, India to a blend of the new and old techniques from Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Nicaragua.
ATA President Bill Kruvant addressing the guests at the annual reception
