Charlie Ann Harris, a Jackson, Miss., native, was working as a telemarketer when she decided to use the eight hours she spent each day sitting at a desk to develop her artistic talent.
“To kill the time, I just kind of doodled, which I’ve done most of my life,” she said. “But I started taking it a little more seriously just because for eight hours a day you just repeat the same work, so you get pretty bored. I started focusing more on that and developed my own style and figured I could kind of just see if I could make business with it.”
Saturday was both Harris’ first time in Starkville and her first time selling her crafts at the Cotton District Arts Festival, an annual gathering with dozens of artisans and food vendors selling homemade creations on University Drive. Harris had colorful skateboards with hand-painted snakes and chains and a painting of a disco ball sitting in front of her booth, waiting for someone to take them home.
“Everything has to be handmade,” said Mary Switzer, executive director of the Starkville Area Arts Council. “It’s a really strict requirement that we have, and we’re really proud of that.”
Artisans and food vendors must apply to have a booth at the festival, and no two booths can sell the same items.
Although no one knows exactly when the Cotton District Arts Festival started, Starkville native Switzer said it’s been a tradition for as long as she can remember.
Dan Camp, who was often called the “mayor of the Cotton District,” started a version of the Cotton District Arts Festival in the 1980s, “but it was not the same” as it is now, arts council program coordinator Juliette Reid said.
“It was more of a social gathering, and they had musicians and they had artisans, but it wasn’t, like booths. It was more of a gathering of minds, I would say,” she said. “From what I’ve heard recently, the arts council was doing a festival. It was not called the Cotton District Arts Festival, … and then in the early 2000s we were given the name the Cotton District Arts Festival.”
Hundreds of people walked the streets of the Cotton District on Saturday, where beaded jewelry, paintings of pets and flowers, macrame plant hangers, soaps, candles and any type of craft one can imagine were on display. About 95 artisans and 14 vendors sold their creations.
Jackson native Mary Williams was at a craft show in another city when a customer asked if she would attend the Cotton District Arts Festival. The artist agreed and set up a booth at the festival for the first time.
She found her passion for making Southern farmhouse creations when she asked her son to build her a birdhouse, but he didn’t have time to do it.
“And I said, ‘A birdhouse, I can do that.’” Williams said. “So, I got a little handsaw and made my birdhouse. And I said, ‘Oh, I like that.’”
After finishing the birdhouse, she put her skills to the test, made other designs from wood and painted them with lively colors.
Starkville native Tessa Luke was selling her handmade jewelry at the festival for the second time. Beaded necklaces adorned with crystals dangled from displays, catching the light.
“I really like creating beaded pieces that have, like, dangly, teardrop pieces,” she said, adding that gothic jewelry and rosaries inspire her designs.
Switzer said hosting a yearly gathering for artists and art lovers in Starkville brings the community together.
“My favorite part is definitely the artisans, and that’s because, you know, I myself am an artist and I know how important to be able to have a way to communicate with people who are interested in art,” Switzer said.
