This past weekend we held our annual
Indie Reno Spring~Summer show. Indie Reno is a collaborative of local artists and craftsmen dedicated to growing our individual creative ventures by encouraging our community to buy local and handmade. Our goal as a group is to come together to create opportunities for our members for exhibiting, marketing and sales of our handmade works of art. Indie Reno started out as a small Etsy group, but over the past couple of years, we have expanded to include a diverse roster of artisans. At our events, you can find everything from jewelry, to printmaking, to steampunk accessories, to hula hoops, to handcrafted frames. There's fused glass artists, mosaic artists, and several craftsmen that make the hippest kids clothing, accessories and toys. We have knitters, potters, metal sculptors and soap makers. We even have a henna artist that creates beautiful, intricate designs while you wait. We are adding new artisans to our group weekly and our winter show is slated to be the biggest yet!
COMMUNITY
One of the greatest things about our group is the element of community. Everyone is encouraged to participate in our endeavor of moving the group forward and we appreciate the fact that everyone has something to offer and has valuable input. I like that I have been around the block and can offer advice to the new members who are just getting their business off the ground, and in turn I have received invaluable advice from them as well. We are finding that there is so much support not only within our own group, but other similar groups in our area. It's exciting to be part of a grassroots movement that is sweeping our town in more ways than just art. We are happy to be riding the wave of our community's rally of supporting local businesses!
Indie Reno is growing and so is our clout. We are getting more and more press and people actually know who we are (woohoo!). As a group, we are able to negotiate with some of the bigger events, where as individuals we may not have a chance of participating in. For example, this weekend on June 30th we will have a row of booths at the 2nd annual Reno Block Party. For pretty much all of us, the entry fee would have been out of our league, but the organizers not only gave us a price break, but are allowing nine of us to share a six-tent block to create an "Indie Reno Boutique". Among the other events we are involved in, we organize the art vendors at the original Food Truck Fridays held every first Friday at City Center. We were recently the featured group of craft vendors at the Great Basin Food Co-Op's grand opening event. And we are
very proud and excited to be asked to be the exclusive artisan group for the Crafters Row section of the Great Reno Balloon races this September!
Our host for the Indie Reno Artisan Market was The Holland Project. The Holland Project is an art gallery/music venue/classroom/place of nurturing, dedicated to encouraging creativity among our younger generation.
If you are a Northern Nevada artist or craftsperson, we'd love for you to be a part of Indie Reno!
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