Handcrafted Holiday Market honors 65 years of creativity in Tryon
On a snowy winter day in 1959, Tryon resident Grace Hall wrote to the Tryon Daily Bulletin calling for a dedicated craft center. Within a year, 200 townspeople pledged a dollar each, launching what would grow into the Tryon Arts & Crafts School — an institution that continues to anchor Polk County’s creative life today. Hall’s reverence for the handmade still resonates each winter during the school’s annual Handcrafted Holiday Market. For several weeks, the TACS Gallery transforms into a wonderland of artisan-made gifts, with new pieces rotating weekly so there’s always something fresh to discover. Among this year’s featured makers is potter Ann Gleason, whose utilitarian designs are decorated with motifs drawn from the forests and gardens of Western North Carolina. For her, the market is less about transactions and more about connection, with each vessel or bowl carrying the warmth of the maker to the person who receives it. “A well-crafted handmade item is a carefully chosen and thoughtful gift,” she says.
Handcrafted Holiday Market: November 7-December 18; Opening Reception: Thursday, Nov. 6, 5:30-7pm
Tryon Arts & Crafts School / 373 Harmon Field Road, Tryon / tryonartsandcrafts.org