Aid to Artisans’ President Clare Brett Smith Retires, Still Trekking on a Cultural Journey
After a 22-year tenure at Aid to Artisans (ATA), a
Hartford-based international nonprofit, 80-year-old
pioneer Clare Brett Smith has retired from ATA.
Clare was followed as President by David O’Connor in
2006 who has assumed executive leadership of ATA.
“It is a privilege to take over the organization from Clare who brought ATA strong growth and a great reputation with artisans and the development community,” said David O’Connor. “I would like to thank Clare for her contributions during our time working together, and I look forward to ATA’s continued success in providing quality services and assistance to artisans worldwide. We see great hope for the future.”
When Clare first became President of ATA in 1986, she operated on nothing but heart and a shoe string budget. She scooped up a group of friends in her culturally-savvy network and gathered on a second floor landing room of her home. She had one computer with two fonts and a $30,000 budget.
Under Clare’s leadership from 1998 to 2007, with an increased budget of several million dollars, ATA and its partners delivered critical product development, training and marketing services to 65,000 artisans in 41 countries and an additional 60,000 artisans received small grants. Seventy-two percent of these artisans were women. During this period, ATA’s sales efforts leveraged nearly $230 million in retail commerce, a testament to Clare’s ability to help reach artisans who were completely unfamiliar with export. Clare also helped secure ATA’s first major project in Honduras from 1984-1986, which eventually generated $15 million in U.S. sales. Prior to the project, no artisan businesses existed in the country.
“Clare’s personal magnetism and fearless curiosity drew people to ATA in a blend of charitable intention and market orientation that preceded the fair trade movement by over a decade,” said Keith Recker, former Board Member and former Executive Director of ATA. “I met Clare in 1988 and was struck by her skillful way of getting to know people and of networking among them into imaginative and effective solutions for artisans, and this was before networking was a common concept.”
Clare’s first artisan development work began in Haiti. On her honeymoon in the early 1960s, she and her husband, a former navy pilot, made an unexpected landing in the region and convinced Haitian police to allow them to stay. The experience led her to a fortuitous encounter with Haitian artisans who opened her eyes to the beauty and potential of handmade craft. She eventually journeyed back to Haiti in search of more crafts and then continued trekking across the globe with her Primitive Artisan business. The Haiti story has now come full circle as ATA is returning to work in the country.
Clare has traveled to dozens of countries in hopes of helping skilled artisans market their products—and she hasn’t just traveled. She’s experienced what life is like as an artisan. She’s sat in rice paddy fields in Sri Lanka. She’s worked next to potters in Mexico, bead makers in Ghana, weavers and felt-makers in Central Asia. Her eyes see not the despondency, but the skills, traditions and potential in these communities and their native people. She plans to travel for as long as she lives.
About Clare Brett Smith
Clare Brett Smith was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Connecticut and Vermont. She graduated from Smith College with a bachelor’s degree in history. Since 1951, she has lived in Farmington, CT in a historic house full of artisan crafts from her world travels. She is married with seven children, 10 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She has also opened up her home to international house guests most of her life, many of whom have become her second family.
Clare was a member of the First Delegation of Artists and Craftsmen to the People’s Republic of China in 1977, and represented Haiti as the World Crafts Council meeting in Kyoto in 1978. Clare has received numerous awards, including a 2005 Decorative Accessories Industry Achievement Award. She has been asked to present her work at worldwide leadership conferences including the Leadership Conference on Conservancy & Development in the Yunnan Province, China in 1999 and the Maker and Meaning: Craft and Society international seminar in Madras, India. In 2002, she was the juror for UNESCO Crafts Prize for Latin American and Caribbean artisans at the International Craft & Design Fair in Mexico City. In 2006, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Clark University. Clare is also a renowned photographer and teacher of photography. Her photos hang from museum walls and studio center exhibits across the country. Clare has been featured in dozens of media outlets including Time Magazine, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Town & Country Magazine, USA Today, CPTV, Forbes and The Hartford Courant.
About Aid to Artisans (ATA)
ATA was founded in 1976 by James Plaut, former secretary general for the World Craft Council, based on his deep concern for the “endangered artisan.” ATA has now spent 32 years mentoring artisans in more than 110 developing countries worldwide, and is the vital ingredient that links these artisans with the global marketplace. Through ATA’s programs, artisan craft products are showcased at international trade shows, esteemed designers travel abroad on training missions and buyers fly thousands of miles to source artisans’ work in remote regions across the globe. With a hand in the entire maker-to-market distribution process, ATA’s ultimate goal is to help the artisans connect with new markets and sustain their businesses long term. The money they earn enables them to provide for their families and communities, while preserving the beauty of their cultural traditions.
For more information, visit www.aidtoartisans.org. To request high resolution images or for media inquiries, contact Joanna Smiley, Communications Manager, at (860) 947-3418.
“It is a privilege to take over the organization from Clare who brought ATA strong growth and a great reputation with artisans and the development community,” said David O’Connor. “I would like to thank Clare for her contributions during our time working together, and I look forward to ATA’s continued success in providing quality services and assistance to artisans worldwide. We see great hope for the future.”
When Clare first became President of ATA in 1986, she operated on nothing but heart and a shoe string budget. She scooped up a group of friends in her culturally-savvy network and gathered on a second floor landing room of her home. She had one computer with two fonts and a $30,000 budget.
Under Clare’s leadership from 1998 to 2007, with an increased budget of several million dollars, ATA and its partners delivered critical product development, training and marketing services to 65,000 artisans in 41 countries and an additional 60,000 artisans received small grants. Seventy-two percent of these artisans were women. During this period, ATA’s sales efforts leveraged nearly $230 million in retail commerce, a testament to Clare’s ability to help reach artisans who were completely unfamiliar with export. Clare also helped secure ATA’s first major project in Honduras from 1984-1986, which eventually generated $15 million in U.S. sales. Prior to the project, no artisan businesses existed in the country.
“Clare’s personal magnetism and fearless curiosity drew people to ATA in a blend of charitable intention and market orientation that preceded the fair trade movement by over a decade,” said Keith Recker, former Board Member and former Executive Director of ATA. “I met Clare in 1988 and was struck by her skillful way of getting to know people and of networking among them into imaginative and effective solutions for artisans, and this was before networking was a common concept.”
Clare’s first artisan development work began in Haiti. On her honeymoon in the early 1960s, she and her husband, a former navy pilot, made an unexpected landing in the region and convinced Haitian police to allow them to stay. The experience led her to a fortuitous encounter with Haitian artisans who opened her eyes to the beauty and potential of handmade craft. She eventually journeyed back to Haiti in search of more crafts and then continued trekking across the globe with her Primitive Artisan business. The Haiti story has now come full circle as ATA is returning to work in the country.
Clare has traveled to dozens of countries in hopes of helping skilled artisans market their products—and she hasn’t just traveled. She’s experienced what life is like as an artisan. She’s sat in rice paddy fields in Sri Lanka. She’s worked next to potters in Mexico, bead makers in Ghana, weavers and felt-makers in Central Asia. Her eyes see not the despondency, but the skills, traditions and potential in these communities and their native people. She plans to travel for as long as she lives.
About Clare Brett Smith
Clare Brett Smith was born in Pennsylvania and raised in Connecticut and Vermont. She graduated from Smith College with a bachelor’s degree in history. Since 1951, she has lived in Farmington, CT in a historic house full of artisan crafts from her world travels. She is married with seven children, 10 grandchildren and three great grandchildren. She has also opened up her home to international house guests most of her life, many of whom have become her second family.
Clare was a member of the First Delegation of Artists and Craftsmen to the People’s Republic of China in 1977, and represented Haiti as the World Crafts Council meeting in Kyoto in 1978. Clare has received numerous awards, including a 2005 Decorative Accessories Industry Achievement Award. She has been asked to present her work at worldwide leadership conferences including the Leadership Conference on Conservancy & Development in the Yunnan Province, China in 1999 and the Maker and Meaning: Craft and Society international seminar in Madras, India. In 2002, she was the juror for UNESCO Crafts Prize for Latin American and Caribbean artisans at the International Craft & Design Fair in Mexico City. In 2006, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Clark University. Clare is also a renowned photographer and teacher of photography. Her photos hang from museum walls and studio center exhibits across the country. Clare has been featured in dozens of media outlets including Time Magazine, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Town & Country Magazine, USA Today, CPTV, Forbes and The Hartford Courant.
About Aid to Artisans (ATA)
ATA was founded in 1976 by James Plaut, former secretary general for the World Craft Council, based on his deep concern for the “endangered artisan.” ATA has now spent 32 years mentoring artisans in more than 110 developing countries worldwide, and is the vital ingredient that links these artisans with the global marketplace. Through ATA’s programs, artisan craft products are showcased at international trade shows, esteemed designers travel abroad on training missions and buyers fly thousands of miles to source artisans’ work in remote regions across the globe. With a hand in the entire maker-to-market distribution process, ATA’s ultimate goal is to help the artisans connect with new markets and sustain their businesses long term. The money they earn enables them to provide for their families and communities, while preserving the beauty of their cultural traditions.
For more information, visit www.aidtoartisans.org. To request high resolution images or for media inquiries, contact Joanna Smiley, Communications Manager, at (860) 947-3418.