IFAM ambassador

Jul. 12—Stacey Edgar, executive director of the International Folk Art Market, has made a career out of representing artists in far-flung places. Edgar started her company, Global Girlfriend, in 2003 from a $2,000 tax refund and built it into a flourishing organization that sold fair-trade handbags and accessories made by artisans from around the world. Edgar was an assistant professor at University of Colorado in Boulder prior to moving to Santa Fe, and she recently spoke with Pasatiempo about her vision for IFAM.

When you started Global Girlfriend, you had already traveled a lot at that time?

No, I was not a very well-traveled person when I started the company. My mother-in-law had been asked to be on the board of the World Food Program. My father-in-law had been a politician, and when they left office, they were both asked by Catherine Bertini — then head of the United Nations World Food Program — to join two different boards.

They had done some traveling to places where the food program was giving food assistance, and there were always women selling their amazing crafts to aid workers at the Addis Ababa Hilton in Ethiopia and places like that.

She would bring me back souvenirs, and I'd be like, "Gosh, these things are beautiful. I know people who would love these things." That's where the harebrained idea came in. I was a social worker, and when you're a social worker, it's like, "You need a resource, you have a resource? Let's put you together."

How did this happen?

I started working on it in 2002, and it officially launched in 2003.

It's interesting because it's very similar to the IFAM story. It was that whole idea of, "There's something we should be able to do. It's awareness raising and sharing beautiful products and sharing the stories of really talented and tenacious folks who need an opportunity."

I had more of like a home party, a Tupperware party for women in my neighborhood, and we almost sold out in one evening. People said, "Oh my gosh, can you come to this event?" or "Can you bring these things to my home?" Or "Won't you come to my church and talk about this?"

Much like IFAM, it kicked off to great interest by consumers to connect with these folk artists and their handmade products. There's just something really special about handmade products; you can feel the effort somebody put in when you buy it.

It's also that connection to another human being. You connect to a person and a place by seeing or using that item. There's something a little bit deeper. You can't put your finger on what it is, but it's there.

Then you traveled the world, to South America and Africa?

I ran that company for 17 years, and we merged with a larger company. We had a lot of incredible things happen, a lot of press coverage, a lot of great opportunities.

One of my favorite stories is that I had a small article in a local magazine, 5280 in Denver, and someone at the new Belmar Whole Foods in Colorado in Lakewood — they had just opened up a really big store — called me saying, " We should be carrying these products in Whole Foods." And I said, "Oh gosh, thanks for your call. I don't wholesale." But they were like, "We're Whole Foods, and we don't really call people, so maybe you should figure it out."

With their coaching, in early 2006 — so three years after founding the business — we wound up selling in all their Colorado stores, which then bled into their largest region — the Southwest region, where they're headquartered in Austin, Texas — and we ended up working with over 300-plus Whole Foods stores around the country, which was our biggest partner.

What were you selling at Whole Foods?

We had an organic apparel line made by a group in southern India that was started by nuns. That was a really fun project. A lot of small bags and jewelry, shopping bags before everyone was forced to adopt them.

We had an online retail store where we sold a broader range of products. The fun thing about that is for wholesale, we needed to work with artists who as we grew, could grow in volume. We worked with women's cooperatives that employed 500 to 700 women, which was amazing. But we also wanted to work with groups who employed five women. The retail side allowed us to buy 25 to 50 products at a time because that was their capacity, and we could sell direct to consumer.

Were you running the company at the same time as being a professor?

For the first year, I was doing both. Teaching one class snowballed into being a full-time professor, which then led to me getting my Ph.D. I did my dissertation on the ripple effect of artists and entrepreneurship for women in Africa. It was a really fun way for me to dig in and do real numbers-based research on what I had done for almost 20 years.

Leading IFAM must've felt like such a great opportunity for you.

It felt a like lot coming home after being away from my artisan business. I first came here in 2008 and brought my then younger family because one of the artisan groups I worked with, Tintsaba, was going to be at IFAM and told me about it. I drove down from Colorado and was enchanted.

I came back many times after that. I did artists' training at St. John's College; we would provide help in how you set up for the market but also how you grow your artisan business and the challenges you might face. I've kind of been in the IFAM family on the sidelines for a while.

I just don't know if everybody knows what IFAM means to the handmade sector and the world. For me, somebody who's told artisans' stories for almost 20 years as part of my business and always tried to bring the most authentic story to the consumer, here, nobody has to tell your story for you. The artists are here. You can connect one-to-one. You can ask questions, and the artist can share their technique, their innovation, and their culture with you. That's what is different than anywhere else in the world. That's what makes this special.

The International Folk Art Market runs through July 14 and features more than 160 artisans from dozens of countries. More info at folkartmarket.org.