Artist Thomas Lorio hasn’t missed a downtown Baton Rouge Arts Market in nearly 10 years.
“Well, there was one,” Lorio says with a laugh. “I had surgery, but you bet I still tried to go.”
The Baton Rouge Arts Market is chock-full of talented, dedicated artists like Lorio. Those artists and hardworking members of the Arts Council come together every month to put on one of downtown’s most popular events.
Arts Council marketing director Malcolm Robinson worked his first market in October 2015, but says he’s long admired the market’s history and significance in the Capital City.
The market dates back to 1988, but the first couple of years saw slow foot traffic and only about 10 vendors each month, Robinson says. Now, the St. Joseph Cathedral parking lot is brimming with vendors and bustling shoppers every first Saturday of the month.
Lorio, a longtime jeweler and metal smith, says the Baton Rouge Arts Market is his biggest incentive to keep creating. Before he became a regular vendor, Lorio traveled around the South and sold his work at craft shows.
“That got old real quick,” Lorio says. “It’s hard to do crafts on the move. You’ve just got to find that spot and stick to it. You can’t easily haul around sheets of metal and a blow torch.”
Baton Rouge just turned out to be his spot. He inherited his parents’ home in the Garden District and built a studio out of an old carport in the backyard.
He admits his studio is messy, but he’s proud of it.
“I leave things messy on purpose because things tend to fall together unexpectedly,” he shrugs. “Sometimes I’ll pick up a half-finished piece from two weeks ago and turn it into something great.”
The colors, textures and patterns on Lorio’s handiwork are the end product of a long process of heating, grinding, chiseling and shaping metal.
He starts with big, blank sheets of copper, bronze and silver and turns them into one-of-a-kind rings, bracelets, brooches and more.
Like Lorio, many artists are repeat vendors, and the camaraderie at the arts market is astonishing, Robinson says.
“They’re always socializing and laughing with each other, and it’s as if there’s not even competition for sales,” Robinson says.
Lorio says the atmosphere at the market is what keeps him coming back.
“I like the other artists, and I like the crowds that come,” he says. “It’s just fun. It’s a way of life. That’s the best way to describe it.”
The Baton Rouge Arts Market is 8 a.m. to noon every first Saturday of the month, but it’s a six- to seven-hour affair for vendors. Here’s what a typical day looks like for Thomas Lorio:
5:30 a.m. “I wake up, eat a quick breakfast—maybe toast or something—and I pack whatever I didn’t get around to packing the night before.”
6:30 a.m. “Set up. Pitch the tent, set up the tables. And then everyone visits for a while.”
7:30 a.m. “Now you hurry up and get back to your tent and finish setting out all of your work. And then you wait for people to show up.”
10 a.m. “The market is busiest between 10 a.m. and noon. There’s some days when I won’t even make a sale until 10 or so.”
Noon. “Now you reverse. Take all your stuff back down, pack it in the car and head home. I usually make it around 1:30.”
1:30 p.m. “Take a nap!”
WANT TO BECOME A VENDOR? Contact the Arts Council at [email protected] or 344-8558 for more info.
In December, the Arts Council hosts the Arts Market on the first three Saturdays to help out busy shoppers with holiday gifts. Take a look at what some artists are selling this holiday season.
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