The WGM Artisan Sale Committee has made the difficult but unanimous decision that the Oct 16-17, 2020 Artisan Sale is a NO GO due primarily to COVID-19 related concerns. Our criteria for the decision was:

  • MN State Fair Regulations for rented buildings – no formal response from MNSF yet, but we expect an additional cleaning fee at a minimum
  • MDH & CDC guidelines and forecasts – are indicating COVID-19 infection rates nationally continue to increase
  • Co-Chair in place for the sale – no one has stepped forward to volunteer for this role
  • Must have members willing to work the sales floor during the sale – some of our Committee volunteers have indicated they won’t risk being physically present until a COVID-19 vaccine is available; given the ages of most of the sale participants, we expect the same will be true of many of them
  • Disinfecting items which have been tried on (and even handled) will be extremely problematic for handwoven items; we also expect our member artisans will hesitate to bring their goods to sell

Our go-forward plan is two-fold:

  1. The sale has been rescheduled to April 30 – May 1, 2021. This date is already being held for us by the MNSF.
  2. The Committee unanimously agreed to look at the feasibility of hosting an online sale. We began these conversations mid-July, in anticipation of the likelihood of having to cancel an in-person event.

Please contact me or the Guild with any specific questions.  Cathie Mayr, Co-Chair catmayr@yahoo.com