Best Folk Art for a Cause

Highland resident Sandra Renteria is so concerned about Haiti, the tiny, war-torn Caribbean nation, that she's become a cheerleader for the place. Dedicated to doing something for the Haitian people, she and her husband formed the Art Creation Foundation for Children, which is based in Jacmel, Haiti, and feeds and clothes children, most of them orphans, while teaching them to make traditional crafts. Renteria's Denver shop, Indigena, specializes in Haitian art, including the children's wares, along with a smattering of better-than-average handmades from Mexico, India and other far-flung locations; Indigena boasts some of the best Oaxacan carvings we've seen in the region. "Indigena wouldn't exist if it weren't for Haiti," Renteria says. It's a small world, after all.