Art market has a bigger purpose

Summers in Santa Fe, N.M., are punctuated by art markets that are a boon to collectors and an opportunity for serious oohing and ahing from throngs of visitors.

The newest, the 3-year-old Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, is a melange of textiles, pottery, basketry, carving and more by 100-plus artists from around the world.

But there’s a larger mission behind the event, which will be held Saturday and Sunday: to sustain world folk art and folk artists.

“We know that these art forms that take hand work are endangered species,” said Judith Espinar, one of the market’s founders and its creative director.

The artists, who are streaming into Santa Fe from 41 countries, also will go to two days of training in marketing and running their businesses. That program is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which also gave the market nearly $1 million, part of it earmarked to train interns from southern Africa to start their own markets.