Every Saturday in downtown Baton Rouge, white tents line up on the corner of 5th and Main streets. Shoppers stream in and out of the Red Stick Farmers Market, carting tote bags filled with fresh produce. However, once a month, customers have the chance to fill their bags with different kinds of local goods.
Only a few feet away from the farmers market, artists fill their own white tents with unique, handcrafted products. From watercolor paintings to handmade pottery and jewelry, the Baton Rouge Arts Market offers its visitors a wide selection of artistry.
The market takes place on the first Saturday of each month from 8 a.m. to noon in partnership with the farmers market. It has been active in the Baton Rouge community for more than 20 years. But in February, Luke Lognion, co-owner of local antique store Circa 1857 and affiliated gift shop Brass by Circa 1857, took over the market as manager.
An avid promoter of the arts, Lognion hosts pop-up art markets at his shop, Brass, and runs the arts markets at the Baton Rouge Blues Festival and Live After Five in downtown Baton Rouge. He has a deep connection with this area of the city and feels that the arts market contributes to Baton Rouge’s unique culture.
“I guess the biggest thing that actually drives me is my passion and love for Baton Rouge and my passion and love particularly for downtown Baton Rouge and everything it can become,” Lognion said. “It’s just one of the beautiful parts of the city where you just get to see Baton Rouge come to life.”
Lognion’s first priority is providing services that make the market more enjoyable for both shoppers and artists. One of his goals is to organize live music performances at each market. Already enacting his plans, Loignon arranged for the Northwestern State University Jazz Orchestra to perform live at the most recent market on Saturday, March 2.
In the long term, Lognion hopes that by improving logistics and advertising for the market, artists who used to sell their work there will return, and new artists will be motivated to join. This in turn will attract more customers, possibly including those looking for bigger art purchases.
“I’m just giving it the attention that it needs right now, just getting the artists to want to come back,” Lognion said. “Eventually I do want to grow it to where designers and interior decorators can come in and find good, high-quality, local visual art for their clients.”
Holy Hart, a local artist who creates hand-knit fiber garments, has been selling her work at the arts market since 2006. She has noticed before that the adjacent farmers market is where many of the customers at the arts market come from. Hart thinks more publicity for the arts market could help it bring in more customers who come particularly to buy art.
“People have sort of discovered us,” Hart says. “They’ve come here by chance and then found that we were here and they didn’t know about it and they’re long-time residents of Baton Rouge. Or I wear my fiber arts to the dentist’s office, and they don’t know that the arts market exists.”
Hart and other artists are optimistic for the future of the arts market under Lognion’s leadership. Ana Maria Andricain, an artist who makes hand-made, custom jewelry, has been a vendor at the arts market for more than 10 years. Before selling jewelry, she worked as a performer on Broadway. Andricain recognizes similarities in the structure of a successful market and a Broadway show.
“It’s going to take buy-in from the media to put the word out, ” Andricain said. “It’s going to take buy-in from the community to support the artists, and it’s going to take buy-in from the artists to come back and support the market. It’s just like performing arts in New York. It takes all of these things working together to support each other, and the more the three things support each other, the better and better it gets for everyone.”
When Andricain first joined the market, artists would come from Lafayette, New Orleans and even Mississippi to showcase their work. Art collectors and interior designers would frequent the market in search of artworks to fill their clients’ homes. Andricain was able to build relationships with customers and create a consistent clientele of her own. She feels that Lognion is taking the right steps to bring these qualities back to the market, and he is doing it quickly.
“He has such vision,” Andricain said. “Just the fact that he met with the artists and asked questions was a huge deal. Just in one month to see the difference of the look and feel and the attendance from getting it on calendars and reaching out to media. I am really excited to see it come back.”
Like Hart and Andricain, Lognion is optimistic about the future of the arts market and how it will impact the city’s art community.
“It is a creative center,” Lognion said. “I think the arts market shows that there is a creative culture here in Baton Rouge that is unique to Baton Rouge that is not only growing, but is currently starting to thrive.”
