Organic. That’s how Ann Cavanaugh, director for arts education and culture at the Corralitos Cultural Center, describes the way the Corralitos Artists Collective came into being. Artists who met during the Cultural Center’s first spaghetti dinner and art show in August clicked and decided to meet again and the Collective was born.

“There are a lot of artists in Corralitos,” Cavanaugh said of the small town located between Aptos and Watsonville, “a whole lot of people in these trees. You’d never know.”

At least 30 of those artists will be gathering November 14 and 15 for the Collective’s first-ever Harvest Festival, to be held at the Cultural Center. Though there will be a few child-friendly booths, most of the festival is geared towards adults with wine tastings, music, a silent auction, raffles, hors d’oeuvres and art. Lots of art. There will be glass sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, stained glass, paintings and more, including a giant salmon.

“There’s some really amazing art, some surprising art,” said Cavanaugh, who is helping to organize the festival. “It’s not run of the mill.”

Stained glass master Randy Beaver’s “Twelve Towers at Dawn,” a fantastical piece reworking Rodney Matthews’ 1970s poster referencing J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, is among the pieces that will hang in the show. The piece, which took Beaver three months to create, has 112 pieces of glass in one of the dwarves alone.

This is not the first time Beaver has been involved with an artists collective. Thirty-five years ago, he helped start the arts and crafts co-op in Boulder, Colo. He became involved with the Corralitos group through his neighbor, Joe Lenchner, a well-respected woodworker.

“It just connected me with all of these people and all of a sudden we turned into this little powerhouse,” said Beaver, who’s lived in Corralitos for the past decade.

Weekly meetings help the artists of the Collective connect. There are around 10 regular attendees. Artists often have a sense of isolation, Cavanaugh said, and the Collective creates a group they can come to and feel like they are not alone.

“If we give artists encouragement and support, then ultimately [the Collective] may take us to a place where the Cultural Center could be a much stronger place for artists to come.”

Members of the group have already contributed to the Center by painting, cleaning up and building freestanding panels to display works. Beaver has been amazed at how the Harvest Festival has come together.

“It’s shaping up to be something a lot more than we thought,” he said, praising the work of various volunteers who have made contributions .

The cancellation of this year’s Corralitos Festival of Lights due to the economy leaves a gap that the Harvest Festival could help fill. Cavanaugh — by training a marriage and family therapist — would love to see the Harvest Festival become a yearly event, bringing people in from all over the area. The group is also planning a Spring show.

“You get out of your element, off the freeway,” she said of the charm of coming to Corralitos. “It’s the way the air smells out here and the visual of driving down the smaller road.”

Beaver agrees that the area is “idyllically beautiful.” He said hopes the event gives artists such as himself a way to connect with new audiences.

“We’re all at the bottom of our game and looking at a new renaissance of crafts in America,” Beaver said, adding later, “There’s no place but up from here.”

Corralitos Harvest Festival, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. November 14 & Noon – 4 p.m. November 15. Corralitos Cultural Center, 127 Hames Road, Corralitos. Free. (831) 254-2669.