ACLAC Hosts 3rd Annual Arts & Crafts Fall Festival At the Fairgrounds

By Chris Cole
Staff Writer

You might see the acronym ACLAC and hear a duck. However, it’s not insurance they’re promoting. They’re the Allen County League of Artists and Craftsmen and throughout the year they host community gatherings. This not only helps support the many local artists and craftsmen who make a wide variety of handcrafted goods – from baskets to jewelry to signs and much more – they also help future artisans make college and university a little bit more affordable by fundraising for scholarships.

“We’ve still got cookbooks, got a few cookbooks left,” said Nina Jones, the President of ACLAC. “And we’ll take donations.”

The cookbooks, filled with recipes from the various members of ACLAC, are a constant presence whenever the members and guest vendors get together for their shows. In the Spring of this year, ACLAC did its show in the Allen County-Scottsville Athletic Complex behind the high school. In November they’ll be hosting another show. The shows, combined with the sales of the cookbooks, have helped several local seniors out as they’re getting ready for college.

“Two years ago we did three scholarships because we had a lot of people buy cookbooks and a lot of funds have been donated,” said Jones. “Hopefully, with our cookbook sales here, we’ll have enough to do another one in the Spring.”

The Allen County Fairground AG building served as the location for the 3^rd Annual Arts & Crafts Fall Festival, held on Saturday, Sept. 13. The gates were opened to the public at 9:00 a.m. and the fair lasted until 3:00 p.m. According to Jones, approximately 40 vendors made up of long-standing ACLAC members, a few new members and several guest vendors (some from as far away as Ohio) showed off what they had made.

“Homemade With Love” was one of the guest vendors present. Based in Bowling Green, Teresa Sleeper and her husband, Damian Gilbert, make homemade and personalized signs, wind spinners, glass cutting boards, kitchen towels, coasters, magnets, tumblers, pot holders, t-shirts and baby onesies. Sleeper’s sister also contributes original paintings.

“It was advertised on Facebook,” said Sleeper about asking to become a guest vendor for this event. “I just reached out to them and asked them to be a vendor. They sent us the application, we paid the fee and they’ve been very good about communicating, where we’re parking and what time to be here.”

Sleeper went on to say that, “Nina has been very easy to work with. She was super friendly. She was real quick when I would message her with questions, she would message me right back with very detailed answers. You know, just awesome.”

Prior to this event, Sleeper didn’t know that much about ACLAC. “I know they do a lot each year with scholarship raising for high school students who are looking to get into the arts. And I know they do a few other things too,” she said.

Due to the positive interaction she’s had with Jones and ACLAC as an organization, Sleeper said she would pursue becoming a member.

Jones stated that membership is open to artists and crafters outside of Allen county if the county they reside in is Allen County adjacent. That means residents of Simpson, Warren, Barren and Monroe counties, along with Sumner and Macon counties in Tenn. are eligible to join. Each of the items they sell also must be handcrafted.

There were also a few recent members who were taking part in their very first ACLAC event. One of them was a local author by the name of Heather Dowell. She has written some romance novels under her own name and collaborated with a friend on some other books written under the pseudonym “Beckton Snow.”

“I co-write with my best friend and we came up with ‘Beckton Snow’ because that’s the name (Beckton) of the magical town where everything takes place. And then ‘Snow’ is from the character ‘Jon Snow’ because we both bonded over Game of Thrones,” said Dowell.

It should be noted that the books in which she and her friend collaborated have more of a supernatural aura about them.

When a new vendor joins ACLAC, they must first go through a probationary period before becoming a full member. This was Dowell’s first show and she’ll be eligible for full membership in February.

Dowell is also a Navy veteran and she’s not the only member of ACLAC who served. Krystol Stinson, who was also present at the craft fair, served as well. Finding a supportive community after being in dangerous waters has been good for Dowell.

“They’ve been really supportive,” said Dowell in encouraging her to write.

Dowell stated that, personally, she loves reading dystopian literature but when she writes she includes themes of love, acceptance, uniqueness and embracing qualities that might be a bit odd or quirky.

The craft fair itself seemed to be fairly well attended. Jones stated that they’d had a steady stream of attenders coming and going throughout the morning and were hoping to see a few more through the afternoon. The weather certainly cooperated as a light but steady breeze made the mid 80s temperature feel a bit more comfortable.

In November, ACLAC will be hosting its winter Arts and Crafts fair once again in the Athletic Complex behind the high school. Jones is hoping for at least forty vendors to come out and support their efforts while also helping to raise money for scholarships.