At a dinner in Mozambique last year, the people around the table were deconstructing the International Folk Art Market held in Santa Fe the previous July.

The market, presented annually for the last six years, is already the largest of its kind in the world and a major contributor to the Santa Fe economy — to the tune of almost $16 million (including gross receipts tax on artists' sales and visitors' purchases, payroll and contracts, lodger's tax and spending by tourists who attend the event).

The discussion included staff, local artists and some people from Santa Fe on the market's Folk Art Safari. Out of that exchange of ideas — and requests from artists — came the decision to allow them to sell their traditional handmade goods during the market's Friday night opening party.

"When you're far away you can (sometimes) see things more clearly," said Charlene Cerny, the market's executive director.

So, while munching on snacks, partygoers this year will be able to do some shopping in the lighted booths. A good part of Milner Plaza, where the market takes place, will be tented this year, just in case it dares to rain. And there also will be dancing to TradiSon, a Cuban band that plays at La Bodequita del Media, a popular Havana restaurant that was a haunt of writer Ernest Hemingway. Tickets are $125.

The Friday night sale is just one of the things that's new at the 2010 market, set for July 9-11.

Founders Cerny, Judith Espinar (creative director) and staff work year-round to make each market better and different from the last.

Nearly half of all the participants, who are chosen by an independent selection committee, will be new. They include people from Cameroon, Ethiopia, Israel, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine. Among the items for sale this year are felt rugs from Kyrgyzstan, tribal garments from China, recycled metal sculptures from Haiti, tie-dyed bandhani garments from India, filigree jewelry from Spain, rebozos, or shawls, from Mexico, and woven silk textiles from Laos.

One of the new artists is Magdalena Martinez, a physician from Oaxaca, Mexico, who makes ceramic figures fashioned from clay. When sculpting the figurines, she begins with the face, then builds a scaffolding for a traditional costume by flattening a length of clay like a tortilla and folding and forming it to the shape of the body. Martinez, whose father was also a well-known ceramicist, presses the details of the costume into the torso, adding the arms and legs before firing the piece.

Jubulile Nala is another market newcomer. She learned to build her hand-coiled and painted clay pots from her grandmother and her mother, Nesta Nala, in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Although the family's work is in museum collections, Jubulile and other artisans from her region have trouble making a living. She uses clay dug from local riverbanks that is dried, mixed and hand ground to fashion the beer pots symbolizing hospitality and community which are used at Zulu weddings, births, marriages and burials. With knives, stones, corncobs and even umbrella spokes, she makes decorations such as beading or nipples on the surface. After firing, she rubs the pots with animal fat.

To kick off what is now billed as International Folk Arts Week, the Museum of International Folk Art will open an exhibit of the work of women's cooperatives from Bolivia, Rwanda, Peru, Swaziland, India, Kenya, Laos, South Africa, Morocco and Nepal that are represented at market. The Gallery of Conscience exhibition highlights weaving, beadwork, painting, baskets, embroidery and other traditional folk arts.

The exhibit "Empowering Women: Artisan Cooperatives That Transform Communities" is guest curated by Suzanne K. Seriff, chairwoman of the market's artist selection committee, and is devoted to what Seriff describes as "the issues that threaten the survival of the traditional arts." Tours with the curator and a representative of the women's co-ops will be offered.

Later in the week, Diana Baird N'Diaye, a cultural anthropologist with the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, will moderate a colloquium for artists at which they will exchange information on topics (selected by participants) such as preserving cultural traditions, expanding market access, leadership and management skills and product development.

"We're listening more to our artists. What do they think? What do they want to learn?" Cerny said. That, Espinar added, is "a very new way for nonprofits to work with their constituents."

On Wednesday, the market is co-sponsoring a presentation by Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, published a book last year titled Half the Sky about how women around the world who have been abused and oppressed have, with a little financial help, survived and become part of the economic life of their communities. Tickets for that event went on sale April 1.

Besides providing income for the artists (who take home 90 percent of their sales revenues), the market supports whole communities in their home countries and helps ensure the continuation of traditional crafts. At the same time, Espinar said, making folk art can have a profound effect on the future of the family. "Passing on all of these cultural things goes along with being there for their children," she pointed out, "and very often makes a difference as to whether their children go to school."

She predicted that one day, "One of these women is going to be president of some country."

Normally the market provides financial support only to first-time market artists, but given the disaster in Haiti, the organization is paying all the expenses for four Haitians, including the two who created the awards for last year's Clinton Global Initiative.

Dressing up the market is always a priority. Each year, there is another layer of decoration added, often inspired by Cerny's and Espinar's travels around the world to find new treasures to bring to the market. This year, because there is an Afro-Cuban theme, volunteers will be covering poles with African fabric, gathered like a Roman shade and wrapped diagonally with tinsel.

Contact Anne Constable at 986-3022 or aconstable@sfnewmexican.com.