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Kim Fischer,
Operations Director
Living in Ferdinand for 32 years, raising two sons, and having served on numerous boards and committees has helped me build valuable relations in our community and tristate area. My role as sales and marketing specialist with The Hanselman group has given me the experience of networking, marketing and sales as well as online sales that will help move our non-profit in the right direction.
Though my degree in marketing and experience working with the public is what led me to this position, I also possess a creative side.
My love of writing poems prompted me to submit my ideas to a company based in New York where they purchased my work for display on their various jewelry boxes sold throughout the US.
But, my true passion is interior design. I have enjoyed working with clients in and around the tristate on furnishing and decorating their homes for many years.
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Patti
Patti, our first Program Director, is from Ferdinand and has been friends with Kathy, Joan and Ann for too many years to count. In addition to being an expert in many traditional arts, she is well connected to the traditional arts community in the tri-state area. She is a tirelessly patient teacher, and has led many classes in our 9th Street Studio.
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Ed
Ed, an engineer and our current president, is Ann’s long-suffering husband who is trying his hand with furniture making, maintaining the looms in our studio and being our voice of reason.
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Alexianna
Although she primarily grew up in Michigan, Alexianna was born in Dubois County and her family is from the area. She loves this community and recently moved back!
Alexianna has a background in photography, communications, and graphic design, and comes to us from the creative side of marketing at a university. Outside of Traditional Arts, she is a dye artist and photographer, but dabbles in many artistic adventures and explorations. When not working on a project, you can usually find her traveling, hiking, thrifting, or cooking. Alexianna manages our art classes and fulfills our photography and graphic design needs here at the shop.
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Joan
Even though our mother tried to encourage Joan in the direction of the traditional arts, Joan moved into the direction of computers and now maintains our IT infrastructure. Patti, who has taught many classes with us, has been successful in enticing Joan to try knitting and she might even be enjoying it a little bit.
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Ann and Patti
For several weaving projects, Ann collaborated with Patti who is an expert seamstress as well as knitter. Ann would weave the cloth, but couldn’t bring herself to cut the fabric and Patti, who loves to work with handwoven fabrics, would make the cloth into clothing. Ann's picture shows her wearing one of the jackets on which she and Patti collaborated.
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Kathy
Kathy, in addition to being the editor of the local newspaper, has extensive experience working with boards of various types and she has been instrumental in helping us get our organization up and running. Patti has tried to entice Kathy to return to her knitting roots (she learned to knit as a child), but she prefers reading to knitting.
June 1-2, 2018
Our Grand Opening!
Copyright Kay Anne Peake
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Shalynne
Shalynne was born and raised in Schnellville, IN but has resided in Ferdinand, IN for 7 years. Raising three wonderful children, aged 9, 2, and 1. You can find her enjoying the outdoors on hikes with her family. Outside of Traditional Arts, she infuses honey, makes candles and dabbles in creating healthy alternatives or creates custom engravings.
Shalynne possesses a diverse education with an Honors degree in Hospitality and Management, concentrating in Baking/Pastry Arts and Culinary Arts and a Certification as a Clinical Medical Assistant.
Her work ethic and sharpness on the computer and inventory system has made her a perfect fit as our Senior Sales Associate. She will be in charge of carefully maintaining all the inventory for our artists, adding those items to our shopify account, prepping mailings, and day to day operations and assisting customers.
As Ann, our founder, moved toward retiring from her career as a Public Health Service Officer and nurse scientist she was looking for opportunities to create connections and share her love of the traditional arts. The result is this collaborative endeavor – Traditional Arts Today. She hopes you’ll get involved by teaching or taking classes at our studio, selling your art or purchasing unique traditional arts at our shop.
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Ann and Joan
Ann and Joan are daughters of an expert quilter who “encouraged” them to learn the traditional arts as children. One example was a summer project to embroider state birds and flowers on blocks for a quilt.
Note that mom stitched quilts completely by hand with 10 - 12 stitches per inch. Over time Ann continued to learn the traditional arts, but Joan moved into the direction of computers. Ann remains a novice in a broad range of traditional arts including knitting, crocheting, needle point, basket weaving and of course embroidery. During her senior year of college Ann took an elective course in weaving and fell in love with this art form. She took classes through the Harmony Spinning and Weaving Guild (which no longer exists) and bought a 4-harness loom. She has continued to weave off and on for the last 40 years with some projects taking almost that long to complete. Ann and Joan attended high school at the Academy Immaculate Conception, later Marian Heights Academy, in Ferdinand where our non-profit is located. While the boarding school no longer exists, the Benedictine sisters who ran the school still reside in the Monastery on the Hill.
Our Vision
To increase appreciation for unique and practical hand crafted items.
Our Mission
Connect artisans and their creations with the community by:
Providing a venue for artisans to sell their creations
Offering classes in
the traditional arts
As a 501(c)(3), grants and donations help us realize our mission. Please support us with a purchase or donation.
