Bozeman Art Market Inspires a New Community

Since June, up and coming Bozeman artists and young entrepreneurs have collaborated to host the Last Tuesday Art Market on the final Tuesday of each month, the most recent of which was hosted Tuesday, Oct. 26. The Last Tuesday Art Market was created by a pair of MSU students, Lily Meadows and former student Kellie Swanson. Each market is hosted by one featured artist and food and beverages are usually provided for attending guests. This week’s market showcased the work of several different students including Meadows, Berry Berryman and Bailey Carkeek.

Meadows is a graphic design student and sells her handmade fleecewear consisting of hoodies, hats, pants, shorts “florts” and even panchos. Her business has taken off since she first started making fleeces for friends as gifts. “They started wearing them and people would see them and say they wanted to buy one,” Meadows said.

She was able to create pieces that were fresh, fashionable and functional for the outdoor community, and Bozemanites just so happen to crave all of those qualities. “Ski culture and outdoor culture is the way that it is, like people see something unique and they want that because everyone in that culture wants to be unique in some sort of way,” Meadows explained, “and it’s also just kind of the right thing at the right time, and fleece is a really great material for the outdoors.”

Berryman is a landscape design student and sells her handcrafted clay earrings and bolo ties. “I had knee surgery, and I was bored, and I just needed a hobby,” Berryman said.  “I think what it was was that I wore a few to work just for fun and then people actually liked them and were like ‘oh I’d buy these from you’ and that’s how that happened.”

These art markets have brought together many people from artists to consumers. “I’m definitely surprised at the community that it’s built, I guess the community that I’ve become a part of,” Berryman said. This environment gives local artists the chance to sell their products locally versus operating solely online. “I really did not think I would be doing this much and like organizing these things and meeting all these cool people that want to do it too,” she said.

Carkeek is an art student and sells festive stickers, patches and journals along with more of her funky, fun art. “I’m an art student so I’m always making stuff, and I started with stickers of just some of my paintings,” Carkeek explained. “I just started giving them to friends and family and realizing people really liked them, and that’s kind of what started it all.”

Meadows took inspiration from her father’s artwork and had grown up going to several art markets. She collaborated with Swanson, who makes alternative process photos and clothing, such as cyanotype jeans, to create the Last Tuesday Art Markets. “We just started talking about having a collaborative space where people can come, we can sell our stuff and there was this big idea,” Meadows said. “We also talked about doing a market that was community based instead of a for-profit thing. Everybody works together to help everybody else and promote everybody else.”

The first of these markets took place on June 27. Swanson and Meadows scrambled to organize the venue at Swanson’s home. They were able to set up the art booths at Swanson’s studio in her garage with food and beverages for the guests, all on a whim. Once it was finished, the artists finally had a place to showcase and sell their work. “The first one was so small, but then there was such a good turnout that we were like ‘let’s just do more, let’s do another one and another one’ and it was really Kelly’s dream and Kelly’s execution initially and it was like okay, this is what’s going to happen,” Meadows said.

These markets have given these local artists the opportunity to dive into their passions and turn them into successful businesses. Swanson was featured on the cover of the Montana Woman Magazine for its September/October edition. “She’s offered to help me build a website and she’s been such an inspiration to people to help other small businesses grow too,” Berryman said “And I mean she’s done so well too.”

These small businesses are all Instagram based, which gives them the opportunity to promote themselves and each other. With each shared post and/or story, these artists have created a “spiderweb”, as Meadows said, around Bozeman linking each of their companies together to create the Last Tuesday Art Market.

“Everyone brings something new to the table and works with different clientele and it just works, it just flows,” Meadows said.

To purchase locally made products or keep up with the next Last Tuesday Art Market, check out the artists’ Instagram pages:

@indyoo_fleecwear

@beryyclayco

@baileycarkeetart

@ksx_art