Two Harvard seniors, Reba Maisel and Barbara Cerva, have organized 30 fellow artisans, 17 of them from town, to put on Harvard’s Artisan Multi-media Gallery Show and Sale on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 21 and 22, at the Congregational Church, 5 Still River Road. Saturday evening from 7 to 9 p.m. is a preview sale and a meet-the-artists event, with refreshments and a string quartet from Indian Hill. There is a suggested guest donation of $10. Sunday from 12 to 4 p.m. the artisan gallery sale will continue, with most of the proceeds benefitting the Harvard Council on Aging.
Barbara Cerva and Reba Maisel in a planning session for Harvard’s Artisans Multi-media Gallery Show and Sale. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)
While this is very much a joint venture—and ultimately a community effort—both women agree that the inspiration started with Cerva. A few years ago, after the death of her husband left her feeling isolated, Cerva reached out for help from the COA. What she found, she said, was a wealth of new friends and new experiences. “The COA made contacts for me and showed me how to make them for myself,” Cerva said. A few months ago it struck her how much the COA services and events at Hildreth House have meant to her, and she wanted to do something to express her gratitude. One idea was a craft show to raise money for seniors. Someone suggested that Reba Maisel would be the perfect person to work with.
Maisel agreed to the project, but she envisioned a gallery show and sale rather than a craft fair, an upscale event where artists’ work would be for sale but the artists themselves would not be selling it. Maisel had long wanted to support a venue for local artisans to showcase their work. Since retiring as owner of the Fiber Loft, Maisel has spent time at Hildreth House, enjoying reconnecting with moms she knew when their kids were young. She had decided it was a place to which she wanted to commit her energies. Here was a perfect opportunity to support both the COA and local artisans.
Both women had business experience they could bring to bear on the undertaking. Cerva worked at Harvard University for 35 years as coordinator of biology undergraduate programs. Her skills were making connections among people. Maisel began the Fiber Loft shop in 1974 in two upstairs rooms in its current building on Mass. Ave. that once held the post office and the Harvard Pharmacy downstairs. In the beginning, much of her business was mail order, but the week before 9/11, she expanded downstairs into space vacated when Will Garrick moved his drugstore to 1 Still River Road.
That following year people wanted to stay home, many to knit and weave, said Maisel, and her business boomed. She has fond memories of the shop. Her children would come over after school, lie on the floor, and do homework while shoppers stepped over them. Lots of out-of-towners came on weekends, she said, attracted by the beauty and charm of Harvard. She sold the business to a former customer and part-time employee. It was so nice to leave the shop in good hands, said Maisel.
Daunting undertaking
Even with their skills, organizing an event from the ground up was at first daunting. Cerva and Maisel needed to contact artisans, set up a special bank account, do publicity, and get volunteers to help with numerous aspects of the event. The response was great, said Maisel, and it became a real community project as Scouts offered to help with setting up, individuals volunteered to take care of food on both days, the church donated the space, restaurants donated gift certificates for the raffle, and Grace Young, a member of Bromfield’s National Arts Honor Society, offered to make an advertising poster for the Common. “It felt wonderful to show that seniors are not curmudgeons; seniors can contribute to the total community,” said Maisel.
Maisel said they were thrilled with the response from artisans they contacted. Almost without exception they readily agreed to participate, and some of them extended the invitation to others they knew. The result is a collection of 30 artisans, with talents including oil, watercolor, and pastel painting, glassware, jewelry, pottery, quilting, weaving, woodworking, photography, and one-of-a-kind works of art.
Support for COA, delighted artisans
A participant with a unique project is Harvard resident Christine Wyman, co-founder of Social Catalysts, a nonprofit located in Stow whose goal is “to create social and environmental change while improving the lives of people with disabilities.” Wyman will display a weaving program she sets up on site at human service agencies that provide employment training to adults with disabilities. This particular project involves people hand-weaving recycled videotapes into cotton and other types of yarn. Once a roll of fabric has been woven, Social Catalysts brings it to local fashion designers who create products such as purses and handbags.
Combining the requested $10 donation for the Saturday night sale and reception, the large percentage of the artisans’ sales, the monetary support from town businesses, and the money from a raffle on both days, Maisel and Cerva hope to present the COA with a nice thank-you check. But, Maisel said, even without a big check, the response to the event has made it all worthwhile . “It surprised me just how delighted the artists were,“ she said.
Organizers of the Fair Trade Faire, happening at the Unitarian Church Fellowship Building the same day as the Artisans’ Gallery Show and Sale, were happy to share the day, said Maisel, adding that it’s fun to have more than one thing going on in town at the same time.
