Art Market experiences record-breaking year

Last Wednesday, art education major Madeline Tiedt sat in the Strand Union Building (SUB) ballrooms, hand-sewing patches onto a sweatshirt as she watched market-goers peruse her stall at the annual spring Art Market.

Tiedt said it was fulfilling to see her art selling after months of preparation. “I was just nervous about it because I didn't know what was going to happen. [It was] really exciting and fulfilling to see that it actually worked,” she said. “It was worth all of the hours I put in, not knowing what was going to happen.”

On April 9 and 10, the SUB ballrooms were filled with art made by 65 MSU community members. For two days, students, faculty and staff walked through the aisles to view — and buy — art in a range of mediums, from jewelry and paintings to ceramics and hand-stamped clothes.

The market was organized by Arts Student Program Director Madeline Trawick and Arts Student Program Assistant Director Ali Rysted to raise funds for the Exit Gallery. The Exit Gallery is an Associated Students of MSU (ASMSU) Arts program that is a student-funded and student-run art gallery located in the SUB.

Arts ASMSU hosts two Art Markets a year, one in the spring semester and one in the fall semester. Rysted said 15 percent of profits go to the Exit Gallery and the costs associated with hosting the Art Market and the remainder goes to the artists who participated.

According to Trawick, this market was their most successful to date. “Every single Art Market, we exceed what we've done before,” she said. “This Art Market in particular, we beat our record by around $5,000 on the first day. It just shows that campus and students want to see this kind of work.”

In total, ASMSU raised just shy of $30,000, $4,000 of which went to the Exit Gallery, according to Trawick and Rysted.

Tiedt explained the importance of having the Art Market on campus, as it allows more artists and students to engage with the MSU art program.

“For me, to have the same opportunity to do [the Art Market] as some of these undergrads that I look up to,” Tiedt said. “To be in the same environment as them is really inspiring and it makes me excited for the next one.”

Market-goer Avery Zinn also emphasized the significance of on-campus art-centered programming for students who aren’t involved in MSU art programs. “For someone like me — I'm a history and political science student — this is not my area of expertise, so I got to go in there and I saw a bunch of political art,” Zinn said. “I think it's important for a bunch of students to come here to see where their field can interact with art.”

Zinn said that she came to the Art Market to support her friends who were selling art. She emphasized the pride she felt after seeing the hard work student-staff and artists put into preparing for the event.

Hailey Clawson — an art student at MSU and Zinn’s friends — spoke about the challenges and rewards of participating in an event like the Art Market.

“I know a lot of us artists work so hard to prepare everything and it takes a while to set up,” Clawson said. “But it's so worth it to see people around campus wearing my necklaces. It's just really exciting to be able to have art and give it to people.”