Amana Arts Guild hosts Haus Walk, open house

AMANA — The Amana Arts Guild will host an open house at its new gallery across from the Visitors Center during Amana’s annual Prelude to Christmas.

Visitors to Amana may stop at the new gallery Friday, Dec. 5 from 5-7 p.m. to see the new shopping space featuring work by local artists.

The Arts Guild is also hosting a Christmas Haus Walk Saturday Dec. 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 7 from noon to 4 p.m. Tickets are $20 and include entry into a raffle to win an Amana-made traditional Christmas pyramid, now on display at the High Amana Store, according to a recent issue of the Amana Society Bulletin.

Raffle tickets can also be purchased at the High Amana Store or at the Guild Gallery in Amana.

Tickets for the Haus Walk are available at the Arts Guild Gallery and at any of the homes on the tour.

The Haus Walk includes the Myers home in Upper South Amana, once the Amana Society Baker, the Amana Society Bulletin said. The building is being renovated as a family home.

Also on the home tour is the McCarty home in Middle Amana. This home, the Amana Society Bulletin says, is a beautifully maintained communal-era home on Middle Amana’s back street.

The Robert Brost home in West Amana is a former sandstone bakery, perhaps the oldest home on the tour, according to the Bulletin.

Two doors away is the West Amana village blacksmith shop which will be open during the Haus Walk. A blacksmith will be on hand to share his work with visitors.

Also on the Haus Walk is the Rhodes home, Rawson’s Bed and Breakfast in Homestead, which was built in 1862 as a communal kitchen and is one of Amana’s most successful bed-and-breakfasts, the Bulletin says.

The Haus Walk will include a craft pop-up market at the Amana Arts Guild Folk Life Center in High Amana, featuring traditional Amana crafts such as tinsmithing, basket making and needle crafts.

Local crafters will demonstrate how these traditional colony crafts are done, and handcrafted items will be available for purchase.