Kentucky Crafted: The Market, featuring traditional and contemporary fine art and craft, along with books, musical recordings, films and Kentucky Proud® food products will be held at South Wing B of the Kentucky Exposition Center, Louisville, Ky., on February 21-22, 2009.

FRANKFORT, KY — Now in its 27th year, the state-sponsored wholesale trade show and retail marketplace, Kentucky Crafted: The Market has received awards for the 2009 event from the Kentucky Tourism Council, the Southeast Tourism Society and “AmericanStyle,” the leading national magazine for collectors of fine American craft.

The Kentucky Tourism Council has selected Kentucky Crafted: The Market as one of the “Commonwealth’s Winter & Holiday Season Top Ten” events. A panel of impartial judges selects the Kentucky Tourism Council “Top Ten” events for each season. Criteria for selection include popularity of the event, its impact on the local tourism economy as well as cultural and historical significance.

Kentucky Crafted: The Market also received the prestigious “Top 20 Events” designation from the Southeast Tourism Society for February, 2009. The nonprofit organization promotes leisure travel, sustainable tourism and the importance of the travel industry in 12 southeastern states. Selection for the Top 20 is based on nominations with a track record of success.

The readers of “AmericanStyle” have voted Kentucky Crafted: The Market to the number two spot of the nation’s “Top 10 Fairs & Festivals,” an annual survey competition to determine where Americans prefer to go to view and buy art and fine craft. “The quality and diversity of the art are top-notch. In addition, the nation’s best art events provide a noteworthy intersection of contemporary trends in professional art and craft and major current trends in retail,” said Wendy Rosen, publisher of “AmericanStyle.”

Special guest to this year’s market will be nationally renowned garden designer, Jon Carloftis. Kentucky Crafted: The Market will feature garden vignettes designed by Carloftis, who will also make a presentation, “Designing a Kentucky Crafted Garden,” sharing his ideas about creating beautiful garden spaces from rooftops to rolling acres and how to incorporate many of the wonderful products that can be found at Kentucky Crafted: The Market in home gardens. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session and book signing of his latest book, “Beyond the Windowsill.”

Kentucky Crafted: The Market 2009 Kentucky Exposition Center, South Wing B, Louisville, Ky.

Trade Only Days (Registration required with 2 forms of business identification)

Thursday, February 19, 2009, 1:00 p.m. n 7:00 p.m. E.S.T.

Friday, February 20, 2009, 9:00 a.m. n 6:00 p.m. E.S.T.

Public Days

Saturday, February 21, 2009, 9:00 a.m. n 6:00 p.m. E.S.T.

Sunday, February 22, 2009, 10:00 a.m. n 5:00 p.m. E.S.T.

Adults $8 (Children 15 and under free), Parking $6

$3 off admission with coupon, go to www.kycraft.ky.gov

Designing a Kentucky Crafted Garden

with Jon Carloftis

Saturday, February 21, 2009 10:00 a.m. E.S.T.

Fee: $25 (Includes free admission to Kentucky Crafted: The Market)

To register: www.artscouncil.ky.gov/forms/CarloftisReg.htm

Kentucky Crafted:The Market is produced by the Kentucky Arts Council, a state agency in the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet that creates opportunities for Kentuckians to value, participate in and benefit from the arts. Funding for the Kentucky Arts Council is provided by the Kentucky General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

For more information about Kentucky Crafted: The Market and Jon Carloftis go to www.kycraft.ky.gov.