VIllage Artist Scott Enter Celebrates 30 Years

Scott Enter, Village Artist

The year was 1990, and Department 56 was looking for someone to do product photography of new items for brochures. A young graphic artist with a passion for both art and photography applied and got the position. He enjoyed the photography but as time went on he also enjoyed watching the designs of the little lighted houses that were exploding onto the giftware scene.

Fortunately, the Creative Director saws something in the young artist and asked him if he’d like to take a shot at designing an accessory for The Original Snow Village, a village rooted in the 1950s and 1960s on Mainstreet USA. Because he was never satisfied with doing just the basics, he tinkered with the accessory until he figured out how to light it. The Creative team was very pleased, and this young artist secured his place as a Village artist where he has been designing for 30 years.

56.54020 Village Greenhouse

That accessory that was turned into a lighted piece was the “Village Greenhouse” (56.54020, 1991-1995) and the artist was Scott Enter.

Over the past 30 years Scott has gone from photography to becoming the principal designer for both The Original Snow Village as well as the Snow Village Halloween.

Scott really enjoys the nostalgic vibe of Snow Village and does meticulous research to get the details just right. He has also continued to tinker with basic designs to add animation, sound and colorful lighting.

If you ask him what his favorite holiday is he answers without hesitation – Halloween! In fact, in the Minneapolis suburban neighborhood where Scott and his family lives, he is known for creating elaborate outdoor Halloween decorations that the whole neighborhood enjoys and looks forward to every year.

And Scott is always on the lookout to find ideas to help him create new pieces. When he approached the Creative team in the late 1990s about adding Halloween to the Villages, he had a great idea in mind. The idea came from his daughter’s nursery where she had a music/light box that caste images onto the wall. The shadows and soothing sounds helped lull the baby to sleep. Scott turned this idea on its head and created the interior scene that rotated to create eerie shadows for the original “Haunted Mansion” (56.54935, 1998-2000).

56.54935 Haunted Mansion

It was at this time that Department 56 adding Halloween themed giftware and a Halloween Village seemed like a natural fit. To kick off the Village Department 56 offered the “Haunted Mansion” was two different roof colors – a black roof version (56.34050, 1998-1999) to our giftware retailers to entice them into carrying this new Village. The green roof version (56.54935) was shipped to our Village accounts. Both versions sold very well and the new Village was on its way!

The next 22 years would almost be a blur of more and more creative, innovative, and exceptional designs for the Halloween Village from the very popular “Grimsly Manor” to the many pieces in the Haunted Rails train. And Scott is not done yet, he has files full of ideas and is constantly receiving suggestions from collectors who stop by to visit with Scott each fall as he travels around the country visiting retailers and attending collector events. One such suggestion came from a young collector in Texas who brought a sketch of an idea to an open house. Scott took the idea back to the drawing board and the result was “Poe’s Perch & Aviary” (4056704, 2017-2018)

4056704 Poe's Perch Aviary

Scott is also responsible for the creation of the subseries “Christmas Lane” for The Original Snow Village and “Trick or Treat Lane” for Snow Village Halloween.

Congratulations Scott Enter on 30 years with Department 56!