Smithsonian Folklife Festival Marketplace

CONNECTING BY HAND

INNOVATION MEETS TRADITION

CULTURE. CREATIVITY. CONNECTION.

Explore Colombia

LIVING TRADITIONS

HANDMADE BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival Marketplace, in collaboration with Novica, extends the reach of the Folklife Festival. It honors the creativity, cultural heritage, and masterful skills of global artisans while contributing to the Smithsonian mission of sustaining and developing traditional crafts worldwide.

Featured Artisans

Marie Mireille Delisme

Marie Mireille Delisme

As artist-in-residence, Mireille Delisme participated in the 2004 and 2010 Smithsonian Folklife Festivals. Inspired by her dreams, Mirielle uses sequins and beadwork to embroider Haitian vodou tapestries.

SEWA

SEWA empowers craftswomen across India to be both business owners and tradition bearers. By joining women-led cooperatives, artisans improve their financial and digital literacy while reviving traditional embroidery styles.

Isabelle Collins

Isabelle Collins

Isabelle’s work is inspired by historical motifs, seen in tiles around her birthplace of Puebla, Mexico, while also playing with influences from other traditions, including Moroccan or Chinese designs.

Porfirio Gutiérrez

Porfirio Gutiérrez

Featured at the 2018 Folklife Festival and the National Museum of the American Indian, Porfirio has dedicated his life to revitalizing traditional Zapotec dye techniques through masterful and innovative textiles.

Eda Arroyo

“Embroidering” silver and gold filigree threads, Eda creates beautiful jewelry and accessories for Peruvian Marinera dancers. Her fine metalwork mesmerized visitors at the 2015 Folklife Festival.

Ocean Sole

In 2014, Ocean Sole brought its lively eight-foot-tall giraffe to the Folklife Festival’s Kenya program. Its artisans transform flip-flop waste from the shores of Kenya into vibrant works of art.

Armen Ohanyan

A participant at the 2018 Folklife Festival, Armen has spent his life creating wooden crafts, using custom-made whittling tools, often found in a traditional Armenian home.

Pataxó Indigenous Community

Pataxó Indigenous Community

Folklife Festival featured artisans from the Pataxó community from Bahia, Brazil make crafts from native trees. They carve, design, and build wooden bowls, animal sculptures, and instruments collectively as a community practice.

J. Borges

José Francisco Borges depicts scenes of Brazil’s natural world and cultural traditions in whimsical woodblock prints. Born in Pernambuco, he made a living selling prints and cordel leaflets.

Tsolak Koshtoyan

Tsolak Koshtoyan

Tsolak is a fourth-generation silversmith in Gyumri, Armenia. He uses century-old tools and molds inherited from his grandfather to create bracelets, belts, rings, and earrings.

Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco

Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco

Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez represented the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco at the 2015 Folklife Festival. An expert weaver, she preserves traditional Andean textiles and supports several weaving communities in Peru.

Huichol Cultural Center

Huichol Cultural Center

This nonprofit organization based in Jalisco, Mexico, supports the endangered Wixárika (Huichol) tribe through language education, ethnographic documentation, and traditional craft production.

Ivan Borges

The son of artist J. Borges, Ivan continues the family tradition of woodblock printing scenes of everyday life in Brazil, from fishermen at work to town dances and young lovers.

Azatuhi and Anna Stepanyan

Azatuhi and Anna Stepanyan

Sisters Azatuhi and Anna specialize in hand-painted batik scarves, using floral and fruit motifs, like tulips and pomegranates. Their shop, Sunny Art, is based in Yeghegnadzor, Armenia.

Mamerto Sánchez

Mamerto Sánchez

At the 2015 Folklife Festival, Mamerto shared the traditions of Quinua, Peru, known as a town of ceramicists. In addition to ornaments, he molds miniature clay churches to protect and bless new homes.

Canto Sisters

For sisters Katya and Blanca, mate burilado (carved gourds) are a way to preserve local customs in the Andes and stories of their family. They presented this intricate Peruvian artform at the 2015 Folklife Festival.

Tohõ Pataxó

Tohõ Pataxó is a painter, teacher, and leader in the Pataxó Indigenous community, living in the Pé do Monte Pataxo village in Bahia, Brazil. On canvas, he recreates traditional body painting in a bold color palette.

RISE Beyond the Reef

RISE Beyond the Reef

This nonprofit organization based in multiple locations across Fiji supports the heritage craft of Indigenous women through handmade production, leadership training, and access to formal markets.

Zenú Indigenous Community

Zenú Indigenous Community

The Zenú are an Indigenous people from Colombia’s Caribbean region. Out of native caña flecha (cane fiber), they handweave the infamous sombrero vueltaio (turned hat), along with handbags and bracelets.

Shop the Collection

Mexican Wood Sculpture

Pillows & Throws

Kenyan Recycled Sculpture

Decorative Plates

Ceramic Sculpture

Armenian Decorative Accents

Peruvian Sculpture

Brazilian Decorative Bowls

Brazilian Handbags

Paintings and Prints

Jars and Bottles

Nativity Scenes

Focus on sustainability

Featured Countries

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival Marketplace is a vibrant collaboration between the Festival and NOVICA, the leading online platform for global artisans, designed to connect the world through creativity.

Preserving Culture and Heritage

Every Marketplace purchase provides vital income to global artisans and supports our mission to nurture human connection by representing diverse cultures as a positive force for cultural equity, inclusivity, and the common good.