WHEELING -- At least 45 vendors are expected to take part Saturday as the Wheeling Artisan Center hosts its Handmade Holiday event.
Set from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the Artisan Center, located at the corner of 14th and Main streets downtown, the event will showcase handmade crafts perfect for that unique gift.
Cassie Minder has been the communications and development manager for Wheeling Heritage for the last six months. She said events such as this are what led her to her position. "What brought me here was the opportunity to make a difference in Wheeling. I came here for college and I felt like Wheeling gave me so much of an opportunity that I wanted to give back and help with the mission to revitalize the city, and what better way to give back then to help grow the city and to make it even better."
Minder, a graduate of Wheeling Jesuit University, said that "Handmade Holiday" is an event that started with the craft fair movement and it is an opportunity for local artists to come and showcase their work. It also gives community members the opportunity to buy and invest in their work because many artists don't have their own storefronts
Wheeling Heritage hopes that by next year the Wheeling Artisan Center is able to hold more events such as art galleries in order to help return the Artisan Center to its former glory. Organizers want people who visit there to think of it as not only an art gallery but also to realize there is more there than they might have initially thought before.
"All of the products that we sell at the Wheeling Artisan Center are made by local West Virginia or Ohio Valley artists. So we really give them a platform that helps not only to help showcase their art but also to sell it.
"This year alone we brought in over 20 new vendors that have brought in their products to show us so that we can place them on our shelves, which is really awesome. So that's how the Artisan Center is a platform for the artists in Wheeling," she said.
"It has allowed more people to come in and see all of these awesome products that come out of the state.
"Wheeling has a rich history in glass so we have a lot of different glassmakers out there that make ornaments and suncatchers. We have a lot of ceramics from pie dishes to ring holders. ... We have print art out there, we have handmade stickers, food, honey.
"Honey is one of our amazing sellers and we have a couple of local honey people but we also have one down state that we have gotten to learn a lot about who has taught us a lot about the art that goes into honey making."
Minder added that the Wheeling Artisan Center has a wide variety of products so there is something to fit everyone's needs.