Bahamian craft takes center stage at the end of this month with the 14th Annual BahamArts Festival by the Bahamas Agricultural & Industrial Corporation (BAIC).
From Friday, October 28th to Sunday, October 30th, Bahamian artists and vendors will be promoting and selling their unique Bahamian crafts at more than 100 booths in the Arawak Cay Fish Fry site from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.
The festival aims to highlight the theme "Achieving Excellence".  Indeed, the festival comes at a time when Bahamian craft is taking off both at home with the opening of the new Straw Market and in the international market, says Assistant General Manager (Handicraft Development) at BAIC, Donnalee Bowe.
"We have thirty-five associations that BAIC has formed as a result of our training programs," says Bowe.  "In the first years, we did the BahamArts Festival so they would have a market for their product but we've now realized that we've gone beyond the local market and so we want to expand to the international market."
One of the major projects that the BAIC is spearheading, is to bring Bahamian handicrafts to consumers online, a groundbreaking model funded by a $500,000 grant from the Inter-American Development Bank.
"When we won the grant for handicraft industry we were one out of 212 global applicants, so the world is watching and especially the Caribbean," says Bowe.  "We're producing a groundbreaking model.  The IDB says they may use it as a model for the rest of Caribbean."
The program, which will develop and launch a virtual platform to negotiate the marketing, sales and distribution of Bahamian handicraft souvenirs, will revolutionize the way Bahamian artisans sell their products to the world.
Bowe points out that $250 million exits the country to purchase souvenirs for the tourist market, and effectively, their program will tap into that figure as well as generate employment and meaningful careers.
"We keep our ears to the ground and try to keep ahead of the market trends--we study a lot of market trends and opportunities so I think we are on target with taking our products to the global market," says Bowe.
"With the amount of opportunities we need for job creation, the opportunities we know exist is enough for us to create thousands of jobs in this industry, because once you start the shipping, all sort of jobs come into play--packaging, travel, insurance, everyone benefits and it's a total circle."
The BahamArts Festival continues to be a platform, however, for Bahamian artisans to display and market their work to the local market, as well as meet with international buyers to purchase and negotiate contracts for the mass production of Bahamian-made products.  One guest speaker, for example, is a Bahamian who is working on getting Bahamian handicrafts into the United States WalMart centers.
Though Bowe recognizes that they are standing on the precipice of exciting and revolutionary developments in the industry, she knows it will be a while before its full potential is realized--yet she still has hope.
"I am looking forward to the time when we reach our full potential of the handicraft industry to supply the local and international markets with Bahamian products," she says.
Nevertheless, with so many activities and opportunities for artisans, locals and tourists alike to engage in our rich cultural history, the BahamArts Festival will be an exciting event that will continue to promote Bahamian handicrafts.
Besides the booths, attendees can also enjoy other activities like a Mini Regatta at 9 a.m. and a 'Battle of the Bands' high school competition on Saturday, October 29th, as well as a Gala Tea Party at 2 p.m. and a grand gospel concert at 6 p.m. on Sunday, October 30th.
However, the BAIC has events lined up even before that weekend to celebrate craft culture and marketability in The Bahamas, including a specialized plaiting workshop at the BAIC on Monday October 24th and Tuesday October 25th at 6 p.m.; the Bahamas National Craft Association annual general meeting at Breezes Hotel on Wednesday October 26th and Thursday October 27th; and a National Church Service at Hillview Seventh-Day Adventist Church at 7p.m. on Thursday October 27th, where they will honor 94-year-old and lifetime straw vendor, Hadassah Rolle-Pinder.

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