Bow Little Market
"Where the little guy is a big deal!"
Our first season, 2010.
The Bow Little Market is now going into its fourth season. It started with my walking partner, Patty Sweaney and I deciding that we were done counting our fears and that it was time to do something.
I said, "Whatever we do needs to start at the community level healing the feedback or connections between neighbors." Patty said, "Lets start a market!"
Our neighbors, Elaine and John Blackmore and Janet McKinney joined the effort and the market was born. In spite of naysayers, we were determined and felt an urgency to get started. Through our convictions, commitment and hard work we have succeeded. There were some days that first season that I feared it would just be me sitting at a table under a tent on a country road with not much more than a dream of resilient rural community (it never got that bad). But from our humble beginnings, a little more than three years later on the cusp of our fourth season, we have made it.
The market is an all volunteer run effort without any of the funding that often comes from city government. It creates the time and space needed to nurture informal, neighborly interactions that eventually deepen into a supportive network. We encourage homes to become centers of production rather than consumption, and the Bow Little Market is an easy, flexible arena to try and bring your product to the public. We remain as free from fees and regulation as possible so people new to cottage industry and farming are allowed the maximum amount of freedom and flexibility to innovate and cooperate.
The market includes all...even kids!
Kid vendors setting up. Summer, 2012.
We have free kid's activities and vending. As a mother, it is essential for me to include my children in my positive actions. I feel I can be honest and open with them about climate and economic instability as long as I show positive response. They are learning to be a part of a functioning community. They are learning how to be producers, not just passive consumers of material goods and entertainment. They are learning the reward of working hard, bringing their product to market and connecting with their customer. Many of our youth are apathetic and disappointed in the world. They come of age, hear the news, see their parents stressed and unhappy and think, "I don't want to be a part of that!" Which is fine as long as they don't stop there, but instead continue forward and define what it is they do want. The Bow Little Market is a place where children can help to envision and create a future that is worth participating in.
The market is art...it is performance art, it is commercial art, it is revolutionary art.
Before my actions through the market, I read books, digested theories, meditated on change, while I paper cut and created art for my own selfish process. This was an important time for me and helped me identify where my energies would be best spent and prepared me for concrete, positive action. My artistic talents are now used to amplify my message, send a vibration and summon a future that I help to create.
Signage, posters and flags have been my central artistic outlet. Flags and pennants have helped create a visual presence (otherwise known as smoke and mirrors) and an atmosphere of joy and celebration. I have made community pennants and flags with the intent to celebrate the individual neighborhoods in the Samish Watershed while creating a sense of greater unity.
Signage, posters and flags have been my central artistic outlet. Flags and pennants have helped create a visual presence (otherwise known as smoke and mirrors) and an atmosphere of joy and celebration. I have made community pennants and flags with the intent to celebrate the individual neighborhoods in the Samish Watershed while creating a sense of greater unity.