At one time, SDC had a quilt guild that used to show at the National show in Paducah, KY. I haven't seen them in years. Do you know if they still have any active guilds? Such as blacksmithing, wood carving, furniture making, etc?
Sadly, they do not. I would gladly participate in the woodcarving segment if they brought it back though! I think the general publics excitement regarding the arts and crafts movement isn't what it once was, and $$ of course drives a lot of things. I expect that the return on investment got poor because there's fewer knowledgeable people engaged in making it successful, and there are so many bureaucratic things in the way of business anymore.
Thanks, Woodcarver! We will be making a move to the Ozarks region in the next year and hubs would like to find a wood carving and/or blacksmithing group.
Yeah SDC is becoming less and less of an arts and crafts park with a few amusement rides and more of a highly elaborate theme park focused on games/rides and a handful of crafts which the latter probably only remain on site by the PTB for the sake of novelty to the parks heritage. I would love to see the park maintain that balance but it will likely trend more into the opposite direction as time goes on.
Hopefully this being the year of food and crafts there's a bit of a focus shift on the part of leadership. The patrons certainly notice the lack of craftsmen, I hear about it very often from them.