About the Smithsonian Folklife Festival Marketplace

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival Marketplace, in collaboration with Novica, is a natural extension of the Folklife Festival honoring the creativity, cultural heritage and masterful skills of global artisans while contributing to the Smithsonian's mission of sustained development of traditional crafts worldwide.

The Marketplace creates a balance between culture and commerce. It embodies marketplace democracy by connecting global artisans to global customers while helping to conserve humanity's contemporary living artistic and cultural traditions. The marketplace invites an exploration of diverse cultures and helps to build an understanding of where things come from and why they are the way they are.

The Marketplace's diverse artisan products provide an exceptional authentic shopping experience. Artisan voices are heard throughout the marketplace as their stories are recounted alongside their products - revealing the hearts behind the hands that made them and reinforcing the common threads of our multicultural humanity.

The Marketplace is guided by fair trade principles providing a platform where artisans can speak for themselves. It is inclusionary and respects diverse means of expression, honors living cultural traditions and celebrates contemporary artistic expression reminding us that we are all part of something and not separate from it.

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival Marketplace reinforces the Folklife Festival’s unwavering commitment to nurturing human connection by representing diverse cultures as a positive force for cultural equity, inclusivity, and the common good.