The MidCity Makers Market was held this Saturday at the intersection of Eugene and Government streets, featuring a wide variety of creators including painters, bakers, jewelry-makers, potters and more.
This variety was intentional, one of the market’s co-founders Paul Claxton said, as there were online applications for creators to ensure they had the right mix of makers at the event.
“We don’t want all jewelry; we don’t want all soap makers,” he said.
The market, which began last December, is a relatively new creation. It was originally intended to be a home trunk show with five or six vendors.
“More and more people expressed interest so we thought, ‘Well, maybe this could be a thing,’” Claxton said.
He was able to work with Madeline Ellis, owner of the handmade jewelry company Mimosa Handcrafted and Justin Lemoine, owner of ELS Landscape Architecture Studio Landscape, to expand the market.
When they decided to have a pop-up market at ELS Landscape Architecture Studio, they were heavily impressed by the turnout, Claxton said.
“Honestly, we were kind of blown away by the response from the community,” he said. “I mean, I think 15 minutes into the start of it, we were just shoulder-to-shoulder with people.”
The market now occurs once every month and keeps growing.
One testament to the success of the market is its sales. A couple of makers at past markets have sold out of everything they had, Claxton said.
Organizing a successful market involves a lot of behind-the-scenes work like deciding dates, making a site plan, determining the capacity and the digital aspect. Among these components, Claxton said the most challenging part is communication, which involves online applications, creating and updating the website and managing social media accounts.
As the owner of a coaching and consulting business specifically for makers, Claxton handles the business side of the market. He said his favorite part of the market is helping the makers get organized and improve their process — including consulting with them to make sure they charge competitive prices for their work.
“A lot of them didn’t go to business school or haven’t had a lot of experience in running their own business and it’s something that you’d need help with,” Claxton said.
By combining the strengths of each of the markets’ founders, the market is beneficial on several levels.
“It’s good for the community with the redevelopment of Government Street, bringing makers together so that they can collaborate and inspire new makers to take their hobby to a business and strengthening the makers as business owners,” he said.
The next MidCity Makers Market will be The Hot Art Edition on Friday, May 12, from 6-10 p.m. at 541 South Eugene Street.
Chad Schoonmaker, with the help of Alison Schoonmaker, sells his art at MidCity Makers Market on Saturday, April 22, 2017, at 541 South Eugene Street, Baton Rouge.
