last word
CRAFT SHOWS ARE BACK
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
I t started as a fun hobby with her
husband and grew into a business
that could attract a Big Ten foot-
ball-sized crowd, about 100,000 people,
to downtown Haddonfield, New Jersey.

For Barbara Boroff, a Jewish resident
of Wynnewood, glass collecting was
a true passion. Over time, too, that
passion became not just about glass,
but arts and crafts in general. Boroff’s
Renaissance Craftables partnered with
local main streets to host shows all over
the Philadelphia area.

This summer, as downtown shows
return post-COVID, Boroff’s legacy
will be on full display along the main
street that once hosted her biggest
event: The Haddonfield Crafts and Fine
Art Festival is set for July 9 and 10 on
Kings Highway. Boroff organized the
first show in 1993, and it became an
annual event.

“Haddonfield is just a beautiful com-
munity,” the 87-year-old said. “The
streets are wider. The customers are
interesting. It’s great.”
Boroff started the business in 1984
and began collecting glass with her late
husband Alan Boroff sometime before
that. They were on a skiing trip to Vail,
Colorado, and they saw a nice piece; so
she said to her husband, “Honey, why
don’t we collect handmade goblets?”
“He said, ‘Great,’” the wife recalled.

“We both love stuff,” she added.

So, the couple started buying glass
pieces wherever they went. It did not
matter where they were in the United
States. They would walk into stores,
spot nice items and pick them out. They
also joined glass groups and began vis-
iting glass museums.

Eventually, their collection reached
700 goblets, and they started donating
to those same museums. Boroff esti-
mates that they’ve given to four or five
different institutions.

“We’ve gone to almost every glass
museum in the country,” she said.

But Boroff always felt that other peo-
28 ple did not share her passion. It was
not that they didn’t like glass; it was
because they didn’t know about it. So,
she wanted them to learn, and she
came up with a way to showcase local
artists. When she opened Renaissance
Craftables, Boroff was a former teacher
who had left education to raise her
kids. She had never done anything like
what she was about to try.

But she thrived at it.

Renaissance Craftables held shows
on main streets like Haddonfield, in
synagogues like Har Zion in Penn
Valley and at the Willow Grove Mall.

JUNE 23, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
At one point, Boroff, who attends both
Har Zion and Mishkan Shalom in
Philadelphia, was doing 18 events per
year, she said.

The business owner, her husband
and often their three daughters, Marcy,
Joan and Lisa, would show up to a
main street area around 5 a.m. to set
up tables and tents. It was a partnership
that worked for everybody. Renaissance
Craftables made money from selling
tables; downtowns got major weekend
traffic to their local economies; and
artists got a chance to sell their work to
interested locals.

Barbara Boroff estimated that
between 225 and 250 artists would
apply to be in shows.

“A lot of the fine crafts and arts are
usable. You can buy clay that you use;
you can buy wood that you use; you
can buy goblets that are usable,” Marcy
Boroff said. “It makes unique items
accessible if you buy them as part of an
art festival.”
By the time Barbara Boroff reached
her 70s, though, she was ready to slow
down. Marcy Boroff ran the organiza-
tion from 2007 until 2019, the last tour
year before the pandemic.

In 2020, Renaissance Craftables had
to cancel all of its shows. In 2021, “we
did maybe two,” Marcy Boroff said. But
this year, the tour is back, with dates
scheduled for Haddonfield, Wildwood
and Haddonfield again in the fall. A
Glenside show has already happened.

“We’re back,” the daughter said.

They are back with another new
leader, too: Marcy Boroff’s wife, Maria
Veneziano. Marcy Boroff worked in public
health before taking over Renaissance
Craftables, and recently got back into
the field with a public engagement and
policy position in the Jefferson Health
system. The couple needed one job
between them that would provide ben-
efits. But Marcy Boroff and Veneziano did
not want to lose Renaissance Craftables,
as Veneziano became part of the oper-
ation in her own right. She became the
logical successor to her wife.

Barbara Boroff is just glad that the
shows are back.

“It’s very important that it’s still going
on,” she said. “I see people around that
remember the shows and have been to
the shows.”
The coolest part, according to
Barbara Boroff, is helping the artists.

“It’s a tough way to earn a living, and
it takes some talent and backing,” she
said. “There are good people on many
levels that are worth looking at things
and buying and appreciating.” JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of Renaissance Craftables
Barbara Boroff