Michelle Daher Yaacoub
Nearly every inch of the colorful 50,000 square foot Festival Pavilion offers opportunities to drop a pretty penny on clay mushroom earrings, a handmade eco-friendly leather bag or a variety pack of custom-drawn queer themed stickers. Once every few months, marketplaces such as the biannual West Coast Craft (WCC) transform spaces like the Festival Pavilion. It can get packed, with more than 200 stands where artists from all over the Bay Area and beyond gather to sell their goods.
Among the stands, one by the entrance displays colorful shirts with artistically drawn profanity words and cute animal graphics. The founder and owner of Smile Cult, Sandy Lopez, runs the booth of the Los Angeles-based business with a small team. She said she sees the fruits of her labor when interacting with customers who feel a connection to her wholesome work. “I work alone most of the time and can be my biggest critic,” Lopez said. “It’s hard sometimes to see my success until I see that feedback.” In an increasingly digitized shopping culture, these pop-up fairs are one-of-a-kind opportunities to share their work in person.
Across a variety of artistic crafts, pop-up market vendors and attendees spend a few hours sharing a space and bonding through a mutual sense of community that’s central to the San Francisco small business scene. They create exposure for new artists to be seen by fellow creatives and new customers.
Claire Harper of Harper the Label can be found selling handmade sustainable leather bags and other goods. As stated on her website, her business is made with the hope to “shed light on the leather industry; and hope to slow down the fashion calendar and bring intentionality back into the design process.” Harper said, “I feel successful when people come into the booth and go, ‘What is this? I’ve never seen anything like it.’”
Francelle Deray, senior psychology major and frequent WCC attendee, credits her first time attending WCC to artist Carissa Potter that she and 800,000 others follow on Instagram. “I saw them post about going, so I got to meet them and talked to them about their art,” she said. “Following artists for a long time and finally seeing them in person is a good feeling.”
Alexandria Vasquez of Herderin, an ethically centered clothing business with pieces she sews by hand, also works as a professor of sociology at USF. Vasquez explains that, while many of her vendor friends see WCC as working and selling, “I’m the total opposite. It’s about storytelling for me and about showing up for this fair.” She defines it as a sort of “small business conference,” similar to how she would attend a sociology conference as an academic.
Art markets allow artists to see their work as an intertwined part of a bigger community. Lopez said “Community is a new buzzword that people try to market, but it has lost its meaning, especially in big [corporations].” Xavier Chavez, senior media studies major and frequent attendee of Japantown mini art marts, said that he feels art markets are more personal than other purchases. “You’re actually meeting the vendors and they’re actually making the art,” he said. “A lot of the time, I get to hear more from them on why they like making this specific art.”
Chavez continued, “I love supporting local queer artists and Asian-owned businesses […] It’s hard to tell these days if you just buy it in a store.”
Harper has experience attending fairs in her hometown of Washington, D.C. and said that San Francisco fairs feel different because people here “are more familiar with supporting small businesses. East Coast cities don’t have fairs often and there are fewer artists in the city.” Lopez of Smile Cult frequents SF markets and makes the eight-hour drive from bustling Los Angeles for a similar reason, “People in San Francisco are so open to supporting small businesses. I don’t have to explain my work to them or what I am.”
Artists similar to Sandy Lopez, Alexandria Vasquez, and Claire Harper alongside hundreds of other creatives can be found at upcoming craft fairs. Renegade Craft is on March 29 to 30 at the Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion and West Coast Craft has events on April 12 and 18 at the same location. San Francisco is home to more frequent marketplaces such as Head West across many neighborhoods, or the monthly Japantown Mini Art Mart.
Reflecting on the importance of these fairs, Francelle said, “For anyone who hasn’t gone, it’s nice to try and visit and to talk to local artists. Not everything is art; sometimes, there is vintage clothing, foods, flowers, and everything is beautiful. Seeing people from all cultures, backgrounds and ages is beautiful.”
Editor-in-Chief: Jordan Premmer, Chief Copy Editor: Sophia McCrackin, Managing Editor: Jordan DelFiugo, Opinion Editor: Dakota Duran, Scene Editor: Elina Graham
