Maine Crafts Association

09/14/2026

🔔BIG NEWS!🔔CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: 2026 Maine Craft Artist Award

Maine Crafts Association proudly announces a call for nominations for the 2026 Maine Craft Artist Award. In 2026, the program will offer a single award of $10,000.

Since 2009, the Maine Crafts Association has honored craft artists by presenting them with the Maine Craft Artist Award. The award acknowledges the artist’s work and career as reaching a distinguished mark of excellence. These artists are recognized for their outstanding bodies of work and dedicated careers of service to the craft field in Maine.

For the 2026 awards cycle, an appointed juror will select one recipient based on the following benchmarks: excellence in craftsmanship, inspired design, a singular voice or style, career and professional practice, and a dedicated career of service to the field.

2026 Award Benefits

$10,000 honorarium
A lifetime MCA Professional membership
Custom artist-made award pin designed to reflect the honoree
Custom artist-made award certificate
Recognition at the annual award presentation
Special press release and website feature
Solo exhibition at the Center for Maine Craft
Invitation to teach at MCA’s Weekend Workshop at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts
Invitation to exhibit at any scheduled Guild Fine Craft Shows
Inclusion in anniversary exhibitions
Nominations are due October 13, 2026

Honorees are selected from a pool of peer or self-nominations. We aim to recognize a diversity of voices, backgrounds, and cultural heritage, as well as exemplary contributions to the craft community and the field of materials-based practice.

All artists nominated since 2018 will automatically be considered for the award. While previously nominated artists will be considered, MCA strongly encourages submitting new application materials to support the nomination.

The 2026 awards are generously supported by the Maxwell | Hanrahan Foundation

09/08/2026

Are you interested in working for a creative arts organization? One of our Institutional members, Schoodic Arts For All, is hiring an Office + Communications Manager! Schoodic Arts for All

To learn more about the position, visit www.schoodicartsforall.org/careers-apprenticeships.

09/03/2026

Maine Craft Weekend is just one month away, and there’s still time to be part of it!

On October 3 - 4, 2026, craft artists, studios, galleries, businesses, and organizations across Maine will open their doors and invite the public to discover the people, places, and creativity that make Maine’s craft community so extraordinary.

Whether you’re planning an open studio, demonstration, exhibition, workshop, pop-up market, artist talk, or another craft-centered event, Maine Craft Weekend is your opportunity to connect with new audiences and join a statewide celebration.

Don’t miss your chance to get on the map!

Join fellow craft artists and organizations across Maine and become part of a weekend designed to encourage the public to engage with artists directly.

08/20/2026

Attention Maine studio artists! The Maine Gallery + Studio Guide has an incredible advertising offer for you - save 50% off their standard rates for next year's annual guide for a limited time only (offer ends September 8th). Click this link to learn more: https://online.fliphtml5.com/jdufw/Untitled-2/ =1

08/08/2026

MCA has partnered with the League of NH Craftsmen for three years now to offer the Craft Apprentice Program in Maine and New Hampshire. Here are a few mentorship pairs from CAP past and present, taking part in the 93rd Annual Craftsmen’s Fair in Sunapee!

08/05/2026

Thank you Maine Home + Design for sponsoring STITCH 2026!

08/04/2026

Is there a craft medium you'd like to learn more about, or new skills you'd like to acquire? Tell us in the comments! We're partnering with Scarborough Public Library to offer the Library Artist Series through June 2027. Come teach and learn with us!

https://mainecrafts.org/call-for-applications-library-artist-series/

Thank you to the Maine Arts Commission for supporting this project through the Creative Communities grant. 🙏

Thanks to the Maine Arts Commission, we have a TON of art programming coming up. The Scarborough Public Library is pleased to be partnering with the Maine Crafts Association to present an artist series as part of the Maine Arts Commission Creative Communities Program. More information can be found here: https://www.scarboroughlibrary.org/artist_series

If you have a type of art you'd like to learn about, please leave a note in the comments!

If you are an artist who would like to be involved, please apply using the above link!

07/28/2026

Get on the map! 🗺️ Join the tour for Maine Craft Weekend.

Each year, thousands of craft lovers and enthusiasts spend the weekend exploring Maine’s creative communities, visiting studios, discovering artists, and shopping handmade. If you’re an artist, gallery, shop, organization, or community, this is your opportunity to put your work in front of an engaged audience that’s actively planning where to go.

✨ Open your studio. Host a demonstration. Plan a special event. Join hundreds of participants across the state and become part of a weekend that celebrates craftsmanship, community and creativity.

Current Maine Crafts Association and Maine Made members receive a FREE event listing when they register by August 1.

Meet the Makers!

Tour the barn studio of ceramicist Lindsey McFarland Howarth. Learn her glazing techniques and try your hand at the mini pottery wheel.

Join H é l è n e F a r r a r at her encaustics studio in Rockland. Helene will demonstrate the process and is releasing new work just for this weekend.

Visit Camden for the Harbor Arts Fair to find the two-day fair with 60+ artist vendors and live music on the grounds of the Camden Public Library.

Link in bio to register and learn more about the events.

07/22/2026

Our final Craft Apprentice Program studio visit brought us to Kennebunkport village to chat with apprentice Chrystina Gastelum and the beautiful working studio & retail store of mentor Albert Nhan. Albert owns Wooven , an apparel company with products designed and sewn by him using fair trade handwoven fabrics, alongside handcrafted items that support the work of traditional craft artisans in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. You can visit Wooven in both Kennebunkport and Biddeford downtown locations.

We loved seeing Chrystina’s progress so far - she has already designed & sewn multiple pieces of apparel (including a wedding-guest dress and shirt for her husband!), with no plans of stopping in sight. The pair have a wonderful and dynamic relationship where they are both constantly learning from each other.

📸 portrait by Barbara Girard

Apprenticeship Summary:
This apparel-focused apprenticeship will advance apprentice Chrystina Gastelum’s skills in flat pattern drafting, garment construction, and fashion production under the guidance of mentor Albert Nhan. Her goals include mastering measurement-taking and shirt pattern drafting with advanced manipulation techniques, refining sewing precision through improved construction methods, tool use, and material sourcing, and developing a functional marketing and sales channel for her work. Through 100 hours of one-on-one training in the mentor’s studio, Chrystina will build both technical expertise and a sustainable, professionally presented apparel practice.

🗓️ Save the date for the Maine capstone exhibition, opening Friday, October 2nd (5-7pm) at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, and on view until October 27th, and the New Hampshire exhibition opening reception Thursday, November 5th (5-6:30pm) at the League of NH Exhibition Gallery in Concord, on view until December 4th.

Many thanks to program partners Maine Arts Commission Maine Arts Commission and the League of NH Craftsmen , funding from Maxwell Hanrahan Foundation and individual donors (thank you!), media sponsors Maine Home+Design , exhibition sponsors Kennebec Savings Bank and Cornerstones hayrunner and Woodhull

07/22/2026

Call for Artists: Congress street vending opportunity!

Creative Portland invites local artists to set up pop-ups or artist vendor tables (bring your own table & stool) during the next Third Wednesday program in the heart of the Arts District near CVS and MECA (500 block of Congress Street) on Wed August 19 between 4-7pm. No permits required.

Joining in the excitement will be local musicians, face painters, block partners, food trucks and more. The goal of the program is to activate the streets through the arts.

Please reply to: [email protected] with an indication of your interest and availability and a sample photo of your work or an instagram handle.