Once upon a time (in 1945 to be exact) a group of craft enthusiasts who were gathered at the Berks County Historical Society encouraged the formation of a local chapter of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen which had been recently founded in 1944; and as it is said, that was “The Beginning” and there is no end in sight.

We are proud of our heritage and of our continuing goal as the Reading-Berks Guild to continue to encourage and foster the love of working with one’s hands and making something of beauty and functionality. Of our 140 members, we are blessed to have many juried traditional craftsmen and artists as well as many juried contemporary fine artists and craftsmen.

We have a partnership with the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center and Kutztown University. We participate with their annual events at the Heritage Center. Our long running annual Holiday Fine Art and Craft Festival is held in the O’Pake Field House at Kutztown University. This will be our 72nd Festival on October 29 and October 30, 2022.

Sharing knowledge and enthusiasm for crafts and fine art is important and we do this through our affiliation with Berks County Television once a month on “Your Berks Craftsmen”, a live television hour of getting to know a craftsman or artist “up close and and personal”.

About Our Meetings:

We generally meet the first Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM at the beautiful GoggleWorks in Reading, PA. We invite you to come out and get to know us; always check our website for any changes to our meeting dates AND keep up to date with us at rbcrafts.org