Native Holiday Art Fair in Santa Rosa sees strong turnout

Sunday’s rain didn’t dampen the atmosphere at the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center’s Holiday Art Fair in Santa Rosa.

Turnout for the event Sunday afternoon was the largest the center has seen in the roughly five years it has held the event, said Nicole Lim, executive director for the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center.

“Lots of traffic and new faces,” Lim said of the turnout.

The museum started the arts fair with the aim of raising awareness of local Native artists and the traditions and histories they showcase.

This year the fair featured 15 vendors offering an array of goods, including greeting cards, glassware, jewelry, bags, clothes and flowers. Long tables wrapped around the museum’s event room as shoppers and vendors milled around and filled the space with chatter.

Artist Eric Wilder, a graphic designer and storyteller, said Sunday was the busiest he has seen the fair.

Wilder filled his booth with greeting cards, clocks, stickers and posters all featuring images with ties to Native culture and history including hummingbirds, which bring good luck, his grandmother’s woven baskets and Native people.

Wilder, a member of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians, uses the images in his art and in his work as a graphic designer to share the histories of his tribe as well as other tribes that he works with.

“We’re not people from the past,” Wilder said. “We’re still here.”

Maria Tlatilpa, a Santa Rosa resident, joined the fair for the first time this year to sell flower arrangements and wreaths from her flower farm, Izel Flowers, and beaded earrings and printed clothing created by her two daughters.

Growing the flowers and creating the arrangements is like therapy, Tlatilpa said.

Lim said she thinks it is “very important for people to understand the care and time” that goes into making traditional arts such as beading jewelry and weaving bear grass baskets.

The museum holds an arts fair quarterly. Details about upcoming events are posted on the museum’s website, https://cimcc.org.

“It’s a great opportunity,” said Lim. “When they’re buying from Native artists they’re buying local.”

You can reach Staff Writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or emma.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MurphReports.