About Stevie’s Artisans

There is indeed a Stevie of Stevie’s Artisans and I am located in fabulous Brooklyn, New York. Stevie’s Artisans Urban Folk Art is actually a continuation and extension of a retail relationship with several Bronx-based artists begun when I was manager and buyer of the gift shop of The Bronx Museum of the Arts. The story really begins with my experience as a Fulbright Scholar to Italy in 2006 - which started as a research project on the traditions and culture of three Saints’ Feasts celebrations and then evolved into an exploration and appreciation of the folk art created as an integral part of the celebrations. After I returned to my home in Brooklyn and began managing the gift shop at the Bronx Museum, my focus shifted from Italian folk art to contemporary, urban expressions embodied in graffiti and the handcrafts and wearable art made by young NYC artists. My interest in folk art snowballed and evolved into this involvement in what I think of as urban folk art.

After I was laid off from the Bronx Museum (a casualty of the tanked economy) I created Stevie’s Artisans Urban Folk Art and continued my retail relationship with the group of artisans I had been working with, at a gift/apparel shop near my home in Brooklyn. I’m no longer in a “brick & mortar” shop but Stevie’s Artisans is now a fabulous gang of four who hail from NYC, Portland, Oregon, Long Island, NY and Berlin, Germany. I’ve branded their work Urban Folk Art because it’s hip and edgy, with an urban perspective. Their creations are available on this web site and some retail and museum shops and I feature stories on my blog.

The talented artists I work with feel privileged to do what they do and I am thrilled to work with them. They believe in making quality goods that they love to wear, look at and use. We hope you will, too. And, I am always looking at other artists’ work with thoughts of increasing and expanding the Stevie’s Artisans “gang.”