For two days in August during CraftFest Cotuit 2011 the Cotuit Village Green becomes the largest outdoor crafts festival on Cape Cod.

(Cotuit, Massachusetts) — January 18, 2011—The Cotuit Feder-ated Church, organizers and sponsors of the annual Cotuit Arts & Crafts Festival, has announced the acclaimed event’s return to the bucolic Cotuit Village Green in 2011 for the 41st consecutive year. More than 100 artisans and craftsmen will gather at this premier showing of skilled craftsmanship and artistic talent on Saturday, August 20th, from 10—5, and Sunday, August 21st, from 11— 4. A day spent at CraftFest Cotuit is a day full of artistic inspiration, dialogue and learning, with all the pleasures of a quintessential summer village festival, down by the seaside, on Cape Cod. And, once more, the festival’s organizers will offer both free parking and free admission.

top

In 2011 CraftFest Cotuit will present many new exhibitors —offering both traditional and contemporary crafts in all genres. Lectures on American crafts will be offered on both Saturday & Sunday by out-standing professionals — as will frequent demonstrations by skilled artisans and “walks” and “talks” along the midway of this, the largest outdoor summer gallery of arts & crafts to be found on Cape Cod.

top

CraftFest Cotuit Festival Lecture Series

Printable program

Saturday, August 20th — 1:00 pm
Sanctuary—Cotuit Federated Church

CraftFest Cotuit presents
Rick Paulus —calligrapher, graphic designer
“From the White House to the Sea: A Calligrapher’s Journey”

From a studio in the East Wing of the White House with presidents and first ladies peering over his shoulder — to his native, seafaring Cape Cod — famed calligraphy artist, Rick Paulus, brings us stories of style and intrigue in lending his talent to some of the nation’s most historic occasions. As Chief Calligrapher in the White House for eight years, Paulus’s hand and pen created graphic designs for White House and State Department events that delivered his craft with diplomatic skill and beauty.

Now the proprietor of his own graphic arts studio, Cape Lettering Arts, and founder of the Cape Cod Calligraphers Guild, Paulus is an enter-taining speaker who will tell us of his artistic journey from the highest office in the land —to his call home to celebrate the lure of the sea.

Sunday, August 21st — 1:00 pm
Sanctuary—Cotuit Federated Church

CraftFest Cotuit presents
Irene Young — fiber artist
“Spinning: A Return to the Origins of Fabric Making”

All those fantastic fibers from animals on the homesteads of early America became yarns of color and texture that were often turned into garments of necessity and of beauty. The hand-spinning craftsman-ship of our region’s earliest settlers is still alive today in the work of Irene Young, a Cape Cod fiber artist and proprietor of Mountain Sea Wearables.

Irene Young is a spinner, dyer and felter. She will present a talk on the numerous ways that she creates clothing and accessories and expound on the processes and raw materials she uses to achieve this by using methods from early Asia and Europe.

The CraftFest Cotuit Festival Stage

In addition to the more than 100 exhibitor booths staged by artisans from all over the east coast of the U.S., the ART TENT at CraftFest Cotuit will offer outstanding work for sale by local and regional artists under the festival canopies. The talented voices and instrumental skills of some of the area’s most promising performers will be featured on the Main Stage all weekend at CraftFest Cotuit. And, while many come to CraftFest in search of a visual feast, others come to feast on the food! Volunteers from the Cotuit Federated Church traditionally offer their legendary lobster rolls from the church’s own kitchen, while other vendors prepare and offer a delicious array of festival fare.

Printable Program PDF

Saturday, August 20th

10:00 am Alison McMurry & Michael O’Toole (Vocal and Guitar Duo)

11:00 am “An Irish Tapestry”
Susan Bode & Michael O’Toole (Fiddle, Vocal and Guitar Group)

12:00 noon “Notescape” (Men’s A Capella Group)

2:00 pm Miss Claire’s Studio Singers

3:00 pm “Ninesixteen” (Vocal & Instrumental Group)

Sunday, August 21st

10:30 am “Ninesixteen” (Vocal & Instrumental Group)

11:30 am Hannah Myers, piano

12:00 noon The CFC Singers: “Star-Spangled Songs”

2:00 pm “A Broadway Sing-Along”

(Schedule subject to change)

top

At CraftFest Cotuit… things the kids shouldn’t miss:

Printable program

Saturday, August 20th

Crafts and art workshops directed by the staff of the Cotuit Nursery School:
"Crafting" for the younger fair attendees — a simple & fun project creating an underwater scene, complete with fish, sand and glitter will be available for the pre-schooler to create and take home. Colorful Cotuit Skiff towels will also be available for $20 each to benefit the playground fund. Stop by and visit and let your kids create some art — and run off some steam on our community playground! (from 10 am —4 pm at the ART TENT No. 65 )

Young talent on the CraftFest Main Stage: 2:00 pm Listen to the young voices in “Miss Claire’s Studio Singers”

StoryTime! At 1:00 pm “StoryTime” with Mairead Mayen : Come hear some classic tales told with a dramatic flair. Familiar folk tales and short stories will be offered for kids of all ages. Bring your imagination and your sense of fun! (Adjacent to Booth #105)

Cotuit Village Library: ( Adjacent to Booth No. 105 )
Throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday, children’s librarians of the Cotuit Village Library will offer craft-making projects and activities at the Library’s festival booth—in the area adjacent to Booth No. 105. Join in the fun of making items that not only celebrate a child’s imagination but that also sharpen their hand-making skills.

What child isn’t a fan of Face-Painting? (Near No. 105)
Our face-painting artists will delight young festival-goers with all types of pos-sibilities for a funny, scary or fantasy disguise. For a $1.00 donation, give a child a CraftFest facial adventure that will be worthy of many photos for the family album.

Sunday, August 21st

MORE crafts and activities with the Cotuit Village Library Today — from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm behind Booth No. 105

MORE Face-Painting— behind Booth No. 105

On the CraftFest Main Stage today:
11:30 am Hannah Myers, young pianist, on the Main Stage

Another “StoryTime” today with Anne Abouchar
1:00 pm—Behind Booth No. 105

One of the seven quaint villages of the Town of Barnstable, Cotuit has been the home of CraftFest Cotuit, the annual arts & crafts festival pro-duced by volunteers from the Cotuit Federated Church, for 40 years.

top

Cotuit is “on the map” for many as the home of the Cotuit Kettleers, the collegiate summer baseball team of the Cape Cod Baseball League. The team plays regularly at Cotuit’s Lowell Park and is always an exciting league leader. Cotuit’s waters — Cotuit Bay and Nantucket Sound — are the cov-eted source of world renowned Cotuit Oysters and the joy of mariners from all over the world. Along these shores was launched the first Cotuit skiff, a small, gaff-rigged sailboat that has become the star of one-design racing fleets around the world.

top

The village is also the home of the Cahoon Museum of American Art and the Cotuit Center for the Arts, leading arts institutions on the Cape Cod cultural scene. Artists and writers, musicians and poets, boaters, fishermen, scientists, professors and theologians have all discovered Cotuit and found a place for it in their hearts. In fact, some very “crafty” people first settled the Cotuit highlands in the 1600s, when Miles Standish offered the native American inhabitants “a kettle and a hoe” for the more than 18,000 acres of rolling hills, thick woodlands and beautiful shores and beaches that comprise the village today. A reminder of that legend, the “Kettle Ho” Restaurant & Tavern, stands on the edge of the Cotuit Village Green, the home of Craft-Fest Cotuit — and where visitors will always be made to feel welcome should they decide to head to Cotuit in search of “a crafty way to spend a Cape Cod day!”

top

In 1970, when the members of the Cotuit Federated Church organized its first community-wide arts & crafts festival to benefit charitable programs of the church, little did they imagine that the event would grow to become the premier crafts exhibition on Cape Cod. Recently noted by The Boston Globe as one of Cape Cod’s top summer fairs, in 2011 CraftFest Cotuit promises something for everyone. Further information, an exhibitor applica-tion and up-to-date details of CraftFest Cotuit 2011 programs may be found on the festival’s web site at www.CraftFestCotuit.com.

top