Family friendly bar and restaurant Fizz Ed opened its doors to ring in the first of the month this past Friday. However, it wasn’t just hungry customers that found themselves packed in the Howard Street establishment.
On the other side of sitting tables and delicious food was the First Friday Art Market, an event including a plethora of booths largely made by artists of the Boone community for students and locals alike.
The art in these booths ranged from all types, and utilized many mediums. From stickers to posters, prints to clay pins, all booths had a variety of art to choose from. Many booths also had a sliding scale of a “pay-what-you-can” method to make the art accessible for anyone who wanted to support a booth and purchase art.
Artists Abby Fritsch and Meredith Jane Purdy shared a joint booth at the market. They sold poster prints of loved country music artists, such as Zach Bryan and Dolly Parton. They also sold Boone postcards and eclectic stickers of Fritsch’s cat, Gumdrop.
Artist Taylor McIntosh had original prints at her booth, as well as Palestine flag pins. All the proceeds from the pins purchased would go to a fundraiser to support Palestine.
The market was arranged by Ashlynd Scavotto, who has organized similar art markets in the Boone area since September of 2023. At Scavotto’s booth, she sold a variety of different pieces, from her trademark “human bean” stickers and T-shirts, to fun beaded jewelry pieces.
Scavotto is a senior at App State studying studio art, and identifies as an interdisciplinary artist. She has been operating her own business for her art for the past three years. With her experience in the art business, she wanted to find a space in the community where other artists like herself could find opportunities to sell their work and find a place for their art in the Boone community.
“It’s opened up a lot of opportunities to connect with other artists,” Scavotto said. For the markets Scavotto has organized, she wanted to create a space that could be open and accessible for anyone to vend, regardless of means or prior experience.
“For the markets it’s a sliding scale fee of pay what you can, but with a recommendation of $20 to vend,” Scavotto said. “But if someone can hang fliers, or bring food if the markets aren’t held in a restaurant, they can help out with the market in that way. That way, anyone who wants to can participate.”
Scavotto went on to discuss how much she values the art community of Boone, and credits much of the success of the art markets to the hard work she and her community put in to providing these opportunities for the community.
“I think one of my favorite things is when someone has never vended before, and they sit next to someone they’ve never met and they end up leaving with that person’s contact info or end up doing art trades,” Scavotto said. “It feels really good to provide that space for people in the community that have never sold their art before.”
Scavotto mentioned she wants the art community in Boone to grow, and she elaborated on her passion for showing up for the art community. “I love to give advice to people just starting out and be that person to help that I didn’t have,” she said. “Being able to communicate with other artists and growing relationships with so many other creatives in the community have been great takeaways.”
