Art lovers and creative types can be the most difficult people to shop for.
Enter the Holiday Art Market at Golden’s Foothills Art Center. This annual event is prime among the area’s holiday arts and crafts fairs for offering an array of beautiful, handcrafted, locally produced wares.
“This year we have over 140 artists and every single one is from Colorado,” says Annetta Crecelius, communications manager at Foothills Art Center. “Shoppers like to know that if you buy something here, your money isn’t leaving the state.”
This is the 36th year for the Holiday Art Market, which runs through Dec. 30. The market is a juried exhibit where artists display and sell paintings, ceramics, jewelry, glass, woodworks, fiber art and mixed media objects.
“People return annually just to collect certain items,” Crecelius says. Artist Mary Morine, for example, makes “Treasure House Boxes” that collectors use to create town scenes for their holiday decor. And artist Christine Katzenberg’s ceramic snowman sculptures, priced between $7 and $48, are another popular seasonal offering.
“I’ve been making the snowmen for the art market for seven years now,” Katzenberg says. An art teacher, Katzenberg creates the figures using a Raku firing process at her home studio in Denver. The crackled glaze results from heating the pottery in an outdoor kiln, then quickly cooling the pieces before finishing them in flames inside an aluminum trash can.
“It’s playing with fire,” Katzenberg says. “You never know exactly what each piece will look like.”
For artist Brad Evans, a love of wine and woodworking provides inspiration for his home decor and furniture items made from recycled wine barrels and crates.
“The patina on the wood is awesome,” Evans says, “because it’s almost purple on the inside, and the outside is natural white oak.”
Working from his Lakewood studio, Evans crafts votive holders, wine racks and even hat stands from the reclaimed wood and metal of the barrels. His best- selling items are Lazy Susans made from recycled wine crates with logos from high-end wineries, such as Opus One or Silver Oak. “A lot of buyers have good memories associated with a particular wine or winery,” he says.
Special events are scheduled throughout the run of the market. Today from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., several artists will be on hand for meet-and-greets and demonstrations. (Additional artists’ demos take place Dec. 4 and 18.) On Dec. 3, kids can meet Santa and sip hot cocoa during the center’s first holiday bake sale, and help kick off the Golden Candlelight Walk. On Dec. 11, the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District presents Kids Create Day, when kids can decorate cookies or make their own ornaments and cards.
“The meet-and-greet events are a great way to connect with the artists,” Crecelius says. “You can meet them, ask questions, watch and learn.”
The 36th annual Holiday Art Market at the Foothills Art Center, 809 15th St., Golden, runs today through Dec. 30. Free admission; holiday hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information, visit or call 303-279-3922.
