Working holiday for artists & better souvenirs for an Italian town

Rebelling against generic, not-made-here products that are piled to the rafters in tourist shops everywhere, an Italian town is inviting artists and designers to come for a visit and rethink the concept of souvenirs. For its Unconventionall Holiday Market, the southern town of Rivello hopes to attract 149 artists, designers and artisans from around the world, for a minimum stay of one week in July or August. As artists in residence, they’ll be charged an accommodation fee of around EUR 90 per week. The market’s organizers hope that visiting creatives will enjoy nearby beaches during the day, before coming back into town to exhibit and sell their alternatives to—as UHM puts it—”trivial, mass-produced objects, quite often camouflaged as fake local handcrafts”. The concept was developed by creative agency Unconventionall, which is accepting submissions from artists and designers until 10 June 2010. It’s a great example of combining creativity and commerce to reinforce a town or region’s uniqueness. For more on businesses that are countering globalization, check out trendwatching.com’s still-made-here. (Related: In London, a free retail space for small creative businesses — Souvenirs meet style in Canada — Austrian village asks tourists to set their price.)