2025 Roycroft Summer Festival Opens June 28

The Roycrofters-At-Large Association will be back at the Classic Rink for the 49th annual Roycroft Summer Festival on Saturday, June 29 and Sunday 29. Hours for this year's festival are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

The East Aurora Classic Rink, located at 41 Riley Street in the Village of East Aurora, is an open air roofed venue that provides protection from elements and ensures a comfortable experience for attendees that includes ample parking. With the festival centrally located in the village, patrons can park once and take advantage of everything East Aurora has to offer, including Main Street shops and restaurants.  

As always, visitors to the Festival can experience fine art in wood, metal, fabric, jewelry, clay, glass, book arts, prints, drawing, painting, and photography while protected from the elements in an elevated setting. Roycrofters at Large Artisans have earned the right to use the “double R” mark of the Roycroft Renaissance and represent the very strongest in quality workmanship and design.

In addition to over 30 Juried Roycroft Artisans and Masters, this year’s festival also includes a variety of non-Roycroft juried artists and Roycroft Emerging Artists fellows. The Roycroft Emerging Artists program provides opportunities for rising local artists who exhibit a quality of work in keeping with the Roycroft standards in their chosen mediums and advances RALA’s express mission to serve as an organization to further the revitalization and evolution of the Arts & Crafts Movement, in both craft and fine art. This year’s Emerging Artists represent fiber, painting and basketry. 

Roycrofters at Large is joined by non-profit partners from East Aurora and larger WNY Arts Community, and a schedule of live art and entertainment will provide opportunities to interact with and observe arts up close and personal can be found on the RALA website. Live Art by Roycroft Masters will be suppplemented with demonstrations by Exhibiting Artists from The Buffalo Society of Artists, who will join us at the Rink together with The Hunt Art Gallery Emerging Artists cohorts. This new collaborations brings two of Buffalo's oldest and most regarded art societies to East Aurora for a weekend of high craft and fine art not seen anywhere else in WNY.

The 2025 RALA Goodie Box will be unveiled at the Summer Festival on June 28 and raffle tickets for the 2025 fundraising season will begin. The annual Goodie Box is a RALA tradition for over 20 years, and is the backbone of our non-profit fund-raising initiatives. Besides containing an astonishing variety of items from Roycroft Artisans, each year’s box has a centerpiece created by a select Roycroft Master. This year’s centerpiece pushes the boundaries of the traditional goodie box with a design by Roycroft Master in Ceramics Gerald G Smith. This year's centerpiece is an innovative ceramic collection reimagining the goodie box proper as a storage vessel and pedestal for elegant tea service components.

Clad with a combination of metallic and rustic glazing techniques, Smith’s one of a kind creation expresses an industrial look blended with dramatic Moroccan influence. Together with this piece, the 2025 Goodie Box is valued at over $8,000. Tickets are sold throughout the year with a final drawing at the  National Arts and Crafts Conference, at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC. 

The festival carries a $5.00 admission charge for adults to offset costs; entry is always free for children under 12 and active members and Patrons. East of entry if provided for Members, who can bypass the public line by using a new streamlined members check-in. Our new member services table will also have a supply of this year's Patron Premium, where the first 80 members in good standing can also pick up their annual Patron Premium.

This year's Premium is a classic leather card wallet handcrafted from a single piece of

vegetable-tanned leather by Roycroft Artisan Tom Ciminelli of Buffalo Creek Leatherworks. Featuring a decorative punched design with a snap closure and the Roycroft Renaissance mark, each piece is hand lettered and signed and measures 4-inches wide by 2.75-inches tall and comes with thoughtful and environmentally conscious packaging. This beautiful piece of “every day art”is designed to provide useful artistry and sized to carry business cards, gift cards, credit cards, coins, or currency while paying tribute to the timeless and practical designs of the early Roycrofters. We are so excited to offer an item of this caliber to our Patrons.

For information on membership and the 2025 Patron Premium, please visit our membership page. Please renew online before coming to festival and fast track your check-in, or   bring your completed application with you to festival with your check ready to go (be kind to our volunteers fellow members and come prepared).

Be kind to our volunteers! Come prepared.

Also NEW this year: Our memberships are giftable! Just look for the gift option and give while supporting the arts.

Our 2025 Show Exhibitors are:

Beadwork/Jewelry

Roycroft Master Leah Corey, Bath, NY

Blown Glass

Roycroft Artisan Chrissy Lapham, Corning, NY

Clay

Roycroft Artisan Leslie Green Guilbault, Pittsburgh, PA

Roycroft Artisan William Shearrow, Canton, OH

Ceramics

Colleen McCall, Elmira, NY

Drawing 

Roycroft Artisan Michael Cancilla, Grand Island, NY

Fabric/Fiber

Roycroft Master Nancy Asmus, Conneaut Lake, PA

Roycroft Master Kathy Cairns Hendershott, Warsaw, NY

Roycroft Master Louise Richens, Leroy, NY

Roycroft Master Karen Sienk, Colden, NY

Olivia Lawrence, Wales, NY, Roycroft Emerging Artist 2023

Roycroft Artisan Suzanne O’Brien, Buffalo, NY

Beverly Speller, Burt, NY

Graphic Arts/Printmaking

Roycroft Master Laura Wilder, Rochester, NY

Jewelry

Roycroft Master Patty Cancilla, Grand Island, NY

Roycroft Artisan Robin Gower, Kenmore, NY

Roycroft Artisan Bonnie Hedden, Wellsboro, PA

Leather

Roycroft Artisan Gregory Hain, Hamburg, NY

Roycroft Artisan Katherine Pfitzinger, Littleton, CO

Roycroft Artisan Tom Ciminelli, Elma, NY

Metalsmithing

Roycroft Master Timothy Dunn, Albion, NY

Roycroft Artisan John Monk, Caldwell, OH

Roycroft Master David Tundo, East Aurora, NY

Ron VanOstrand, East Aurora, NY

Painting

Roycroft Artisan Michael Cancilla, Grand Island, NY

Roycroft Master Shawn Krueger, Detroitm MI

Fritz Raiser, Elma, NY

Roycroft Artisan Barbara Fox, Painting, East Otto, NY

Karen Ryan, Rochester, NY

Photography

Roycroft Master Peter Potter, East Aurora, NY

Dick Collins, Elma, NY 

Roycroft Artisan Lee Williams, Photography, Lockport, NY

Wood

Tony & June Burns, Fredonia, NY

Roycroft Artisan Greg Hermans, East Aurora, NY

Roycroft Master Thomas Pafk, East Aurora, NY

Phil Myer, Asheville, NC

Mario Santilli, Amherst, NY

Paul Carlino, Lockport, NY

Roycroft Artisan Raymond Morin, Colden, NY

Wood/Clay/Jewelry/Painting

Roycroft Masters Mission Guild Studio, Mount Vision, NY

New Emerging Artists!

We are proud to feature some “New Emerging Artists” joining our summer show:

Shelby Kittinger, Painting, Buffalo, NY, Roycroft Emerging 2025

Amanda Hartrich, Fiber, East Aurora, NY Roycroft Emerging 2025

Sharon Pieri, Basketry, Fairview, PA Roycroft Emerging 2025

Caillie Roth, Painting, East Aurora, NY Roycroft Emerging 2025

Non Profit Partners

Buffalo Society of Artists

Rural Outreach Center, East Aurora, NY

Buffalo Weavers Guild

Buffalo History Museum

Live Demonstrations by

Roycroft Master Linda Nagel Meyer, Calligraphy, Eden, NY

Roycroft Master Nancy Asmus, Applique, Conneault Lake, PA

Roycroft Emerging Artist Amanda Hartrich, Fiber, East Aurora, NY

Roycroft Master Leah Corey, Beadwork, Bath, NY

Tim Raymond, Buffalo, NY, Exhibiting Member, Buffalo Society of Artists

Cole Pawlowski, Buffalo, NY, Exhibiting Member, Buffalo Society of Artists

Audrey Parker, East Aurora, NY

Buffalo Weavers Guild

Read More about our Roycroft Community in our Artisan Directory anytime.

This year's Featured Artist: Laura Wilder!

Last year, RALA made the decision to return to the use of original art by Roycroft Artisans and Masters for Roycroft Festival posters in preparation for our 50th Anniversary celebrations in 2026. 2024 was "The Year of Hurley," featuring designs by Master CJ Hurley. This year's Roycroft Summer Festival poster features the brilliant work of Laura Wilder, Master Printmaker.

“Lake View” is a Six-color block print requiring six distinct carvings and printings, and is one of Wilder’s most popular prints from 2018. The original is in the artist’s private collection. “Folks from many parts of the US and Canada tell me it looks just like their summer view. So many of us have summer memories of a place like this,” said Wilder. Wilder has generously donated use of this work for the 2025 Summer Festival poster.

A limited series of commemorative posters signed by the artist will be available at this year’s festival. Any remaining posters will be released for online ordering in July 2025. Advance orders can be requested by emailing our office at roycroftersatlarge480@gmail.com.

Lastly, our 2025 Roycroft Summer Festival Door Prize!

Each attendee will receive an entry for the Summerfest Door Prize drawing to win:

GLF and Great Northern, 23x19

#2 of 10 Limited edition archival print by Roycroft Master Peter Potter

Presented in a double mat in a quartersawn white oak frame made by the artist

$250.00 value

Drawing from all entries will take place at 2:45pm Sunday, June 29. Winner need not be present.

Don't Forget:

This weekend also marks an unofficial festival of arts weekend for East Aurora; the Historic Roycroft Campus hosts its Campus Arts & Antiques Show on South Grove Street and the East Aurora Art Society holds their annual show at the East Aurora Middle School. The annual Baker Memorial Strawberry Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., or as long as the strawberries and fixings last. Proceeds from the Strawberry Festival help support missions like “Table for All,” a program open to people within the East Aurora and surrounding communities who would like to come to a safe place for a meal and friendship.

Come for the Art, stay for the Community. See you at the Rink!

Keep abreast of festival updates and exhibitor spotlights on our social platforms @roycroftartisans on Instagram and Facebook.

A shareable event can be found here. Invite your friends! Spread the word!