Mar 19, 2008

Artisans project will nurture and market Hoosier producers and ‘made in Indiana’ brandBy Ashley PetryIndyStar.com

A government-backed business- development effort is under way. But this isn’t meant to lure an out-of-state conglomerate or keep a big company here.

Instead, the Indiana Artisan Development Project aims to provide business training, marketing help and development grants for thousands of individual Hoosier artisans and farmers who produce art, handmade crafts and food products.

Backed by a one-year, $350,000 grant from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs to the Indiana Arts Commission, the effort also will promote statewide tourism trails and craft a logo to help brand “made in Indiana” products.

“Indiana has a long history of quality art and other products, and we don’t really build them together as an Indiana brand,” said Eric Freeman, the project’s director. “Primary among (our goals) is to help Indiana artisans develop their business.”

A recent survey by Creative Industries, released by Americans for the Arts, said Indiana had 8,905 arts-related businesses last year, employing nearly 54,000 Hoosiers in nonprofit museums, theaters, symphonies and other endeavors. The report said there were increases of 986 arts-related Indiana businesses and 4,650 full-time jobs from 2006 to 2007.

Freeman, who was hired Jan. 1, said he has a database of more than 2,500 Hoosier artisans and food producers whom he is contacting about the project.

They are people such as Angie Satterfield, whose family owns Satterfield Farms in Vevay. The fifth-generation honey farm also produces beeswax products such as candles, soap and lip balm.

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