For five Saturdays between Dec. 20 and Feb. 14, the previous Sears building hosted the SEARS Winter Market, standing for ‘Seasonal Entertainment Arts and Recreation Space’. A selection of food, activities, and vendors, planned and executed primarily by the Office of Downtown Development (ODD), included a kids’ Big Wheel track, board game learning sessions, and live music. Ike DeClue, ODD executive director, discusses the community push for this initiative.
“It came out of the study for downtown Columbus called Downtown 2030,” DeClue said. “The firm Sasaki was hired to do a new master plan of downtown, and through their community input sessions, this desire for the summer farmers’ market to start earlier or last longer was something that kept bubbling up.”
Benefitting both prospective market visitors and businesses, the market helps revive the downtown community.
“So for most businesses downtown, January and February are pretty slow, traditionally, and they understand that,” DeClue said. “The early feedback has been that they’ve seen an increase in business on those Saturdays. People don’t just go to the market and leave; they may go to a coffee shop, they may go to Viewpoint Books, and that sort of thing.”
ODD incorporates a drive to work with local businesses into the market as vendors, entertainment, and more.
“We really have preached-and continue to preach- the importance of supporting small businesses,” DeClue said. “We’ve talked to close to 100 vendors that we’ve gotten at least some of a relationship with.”
These partnerships have extended to various establishments in the community and neighboring communities.
“We talked to kidscommons and the [Herron School of Art and Design] and really solicited a lot of input,” DeClue said.
Sophomore Kimale Freeman shares his experience visiting the market.
“I didn’t expect it to be so busy, and I liked the variety and creativity of the options for the booths,” Freeman said.
Freeman relates the market to opening up opportunities for students through variety.
“I think that the winter market can help students find different career paths by visiting,” Freeman said. “Example- the winter market sells jewelry that can be pleasing to the student and make them wonder how they could possibly make this on their own.”
These interests can be realized through the programs at North, including the C4 classes.
“Then they could take North’s jewelry class and find out that they like making jewelry and possibly consider it as a career opportunity,” Freeman said.
DeClue details how ODD expanded the market and was able to make it more accessible to the public.
“Another great thing about [the market] is that it’s free,” DeClue said. “[C]ertainly there’s a lot of stuff to buy there if you want to; however, if you don’t have a lot of money, you could enjoy it just as much as the people who are there buying a bunch of jewelry or whatever.”
The market featured recycled elements of Columbus character throughout the area.
“The other thing, because this is a pop-up, everything you see there-with the exception of some of the lights that are strung across-were all things that were repurposed from something else,” DeClue said. “Those red Adirondack chairs were actually a part of Exhibit Columbus at one point, just sitting in storage. The tables in the eating area were from the Oktoberfest that my office put together last fall.”
DeClue details the market’s limited planning period, unlike its precedent(s).
“We had about five weeks from the conception of the idea until the first market date. It was a sprint for sure, but we’re happy that people enjoy it and it’s been something for people to do.”
As the season comes to a close, DeClue recognizes the market’s effect not just in Columbus, but in other areas.
“We’re not only attracting people that don’t come downtown a whole lot, we’re getting people from neighboring communities that are just looking for something to do on a cold Saturday afternoon,” DeClue said. “We wanted to make sure that everybody felt welcome.”
