Join us for a Pre-Launch Celebration for the inaugural PA Wilds Artisan Collaborative cohort on Tuesday, April 8, from 3-5 PM at Elcam in Saint Marys.
3:00 – 3:30 PM: Welcome & Opening Remarks
3:30- 5:00 PM: Open House (Artisans and Manufacturers Product Stations & Elcam Facility Tours)
A program of the nonprofit PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, the PA Wilds Artisan Collaborative invests in rural entrepreneurs and local manufacturers through the collaborative development of new branded products that inspire pride, creating new economic opportunities for the region’s local communities.
In addition to helping to grow PA Wilds business-to-business (B2B) connections by connecting local creative entrepreneurs with area manufacturers, this initiative seeks to help the region’s retailers keep up with demands for locally made products, by having the artisan-designed goods produced by manufacturers in the region. A portion of sales for products made through this partnership will support the PA Wilds Center’s non-profit mission to integrate conservation and economic development in a way that strengthens and inspires communities of the PA Wilds.
Participating Artisan Designers
Participating Manufacturers
The opportunity was open to Professional Juried Artists in the Wilds Cooperative of PA (WCO) network who specialize in visual arts and graphic design. Participants were selected through a competitive application process. As part of its ecosystem, the Center operates three physical mission-driven PA Wilds Conservation Shop gift stores in the region, which focus on selling locally made products from rural PA, and an online marketplace, ShopthePAwilds.com, that does the same. Through just this commerce platform, the Center sees consumer demand for more locally made, PA Wilds branded products. Products developed through the Artisan Collaborative will begin to help address this market gap and will be available through physical PA Wilds Conservation Shops as well as the artists and manufacturers.
Special thanks to Artisan Collaborative program funding partners: The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
