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Highlands Today

Arts, Crafts Festival Planned For January

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By MANDY SHEETS | Highlands Today

Published: September 4, 2007

SEBRING — A "high-caliber" arts and crafts festival will be making its debut at Sebring's Circle on Jan. 19-20.

Howard Alan, a widely recognized coordinator of art and craft shows nationwide, will be organizing Sebring's first show, which he described as "a high-quality craft fair."

"We will have a couple million dollars of work on display and artists from probably 10 states," Alan said. "Everything sold is hand-crafted, original work made in America."

The show could eventually include a juried competition and even more vendors.

"Based on sales, the show grows," Alan said. "It takes a few years to get off the ground, but we plan for it to slowly build and develop into a really nice show."

Artists are required to work at their booths, which creates an interactive experience for the patrons.

"The people get to talk with the artists and learn more about their work," Alan said. "It creates a nice atmosphere."

Alice Stroppel, executive director of the Highlands Art League, said a show of this quality would bring a lot of artists to the area.

"The quality of artwork and crafts and the amount of advertising they can do is really going to put us on the map in the art circuit," Stroppel said. "Our plan is to do it once and see how it works for Sebring and the art league. Then we can decide how we want to continue and how to help it grow and become something wonderful for the city."

A typical Howard Alan show will feature anywhere from 100 to more than 300 exhibitors, all of which is coordinated by the company.

"The vendors they bring in are a level we haven't seen artwise," said Don Elwell, president of Highlands Art League.

Sebring City Council will vote on the proposed dates at Tuesday's meeting.

Although this show could eventually take the place of another downtown festival, all events are still scheduled for the upcoming season.

The 41st annual Highlands Art League Annual Festival will still take place Nov. 10.

Elwell said the Chamber of Commerce is considering hosting an event on the November date if the festival doesn't take place in the future.

Pete Pollard, executive director for Sebring Community Redevelopment Agency, said the event could even replace the Roaring 20s Festival, which will be Feb. 9, 2008.

"We developed this festival in 1983 as a way to simulate activity downtown," Pollard said. "Our intent has been to make sure we had a major event that time of year, but if you would rather have this event, that would be fine … You have no idea the amount of time and effort goes into that show, so if we could pass it off to someone else, we would be happy to."

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