HOT SPRINGS ARTS AND CRAFTS FAIR
Did You Know?
The Hot Springs Arts & Crafts Fair started in 1968 in a storefront in downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas, to provide a place for the members of the Garland County Extension Homemakers Council to sell their handmade items. Now over 200 exhibitors and concessions vendors from multiple states gather every year on the first full weekend of October to showcase their talents and entrepreneurial spirit.
The Hot Springs Arts and Crafts Fair is volunteer run, family friendly, and supports the Garland County EHC in their endeavors to be lifelong learners, develop leaders, and provide service to their community.
A brief history
The Beginning
The Hot Springs Arts and Crafts Fair began in a store front in downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas, as a place for EHC ladies to sell their handmade items in 1968. Thus began the tradition of EHC ladies selling their crafts. More vendors were added, locations changed and the Arts and Crafts Fair evolved, grew, and developed. In the early days at the Fairgrounds on Higdon Ferry, EHC Clubs were frequent vendors with booths of their own, while other ladies sold their crafts at large tables set up in the center of one of the buildings.
Growth of the 80's
In 1986 the “old”, small EHC kitchen attached to the Home Economics Sitton Hall at the Garland County Fairgrounds had been replaced with a new large blue metal building with kitchen and large dining and meeting room. The “old” tiny kitchen space with screen windows and doors was refurbished with pegboard walls. Ladies painted the walls with blue paint and made blue gingham curtains for the windows. Signs with white daisies and blue letters were custom painted for the doors. “The Nook” became the place for EHC ladies to sell their crafts.
Progress of the 90's
By 1995, the Arts and Crafts Fair was at its height during the heyday of “country style and crafts.” Visitors came to the fair in droves. That year there were 40 people waiting in line for the doors to open for EHC's The Nook. By 12:00 there were over 200 transactions recorded on the cash register. At the end of the three days, over $10,000 worth of merchandise and cookbooks had been sold in the Nook.
In 1996 the Nook space became the office for the Fair Association and the sales place for the 39 participating EHC ladies and clubs was moved to the new horticulture building. An arbor was built to separate the store from the rest of the building. The GCEHC board gave permission for the name to be changed to “The Country Store.” The blue gingham curtains became table skirts, aprons and collars, a banner, and flags. A 1997 accounting of sales showed 30 members participating, 2491 items brought in to sell of which 982 were sold and only 9 items were lost or broken!
The Hot Springs Arts and Crafts Fair had grown from a small group of ladies to exhibitors coming from all over and the fair was filling up the fairgrounds!
Still going strong in the 2000's
Still going strong in the 2000's
In 2002, EHC member, Judy Throgmartin took The County Store and its bookkeeping into the computer era. That year 21 members brought items to sell. Recording of items had progressed from handwritten lists on notebook paper to computer printed lists and columns of daily sales totals.
2007 saw a major change for The Country Store with a move to a new location in a big new building at a brand-new fairground on Malvern Road. It took a couple more years of growing pains for The Country Store to find a more permanent home at the front of the Creative Arts building #5.
The fair committee was learning the value of long time exhibitors and how relationships were developing between the committee's building hostesses and the vendors.
2021, a Year of Anniversaries!
Still going strong in the 2000's
2021, a Year of Anniversaries!
2021 was the 25th year for “The Country Store”, and over 50 years of a place for EHC ladies and clubs to sell their handmade items and for exhibitors from surrounding states to showcase their hard work and creativity.
The white daisy signs outside The Country Store and the blue gingham banner and table skirts and the arbor inside are reminders of many years of ladies in Garland County Extension Homemakers working together, showing and sharing their talents with their community.
Today
Still going strong in the 2000's
2021, a Year of Anniversaries!
This year preparation for the 57th Hot Springs Arts and Crafts Fair will take place all year long. The EHC Arts and Crafts Fair Committee are constantly trying to improve the experience of attending and exhibiting at our fair. The Garland County Extension Homemakers Council members will continue making crafts for The County Store and their commitment to lifelong learning, leadership development, and community service. If you would like to learn more about the GCEHC, visit the webpage for the Garland County Extension Service, University of Arkansas System, Department of Agriculture.
Follow the Garland County Extension Homemakers Council on Facebook!