The independent gallery curators of Ellemnop.Art and owners of Mid City Beer Garden will join forces next month to host the Beer Garden Pop Up Market and fill what they see as a gap between the area and its artists.
The event will make its debut on Sunday, April 16, and its founders plan to showcase different creators each quarter.
The series is designed to coincide with Beer Garden’s Sunday brunch. As the busy bodies of Mid City arrive to dine, they’ll find a clear pathway to 16 vendors set up in the popular eating and drinking spot’s parking lot. Each market will feature one selected creator of an art form, and every three months, the pop-up will exhibit an entirely new group of makers.
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“It’s the perfect trifecta,” Keidrick Alford of Ellemnop.Art says. “It just makes sense. If they love art, they love food, they love some drinks—combine the three.”
The curators also teamed up with BREC to welcome all ages at the pop-ups. Children will find entertainment at the market with a “craft-and-go” experience booth that will encourage them to make creations of their own. Though the beer garden typically doesn’t allow anyone under 21, families and kids will be able to attend the pop up outside in the parking lot.
“We didn’t want to have families excluded,” Kelli Paxton, co-owner of Mid City Beer Garden, says. “We think of ourselves as a public house and a place of gathering for the community to come and share ideas.”
The idea behind the new pop-up is simple: Alford says he saw a need within the area as Mid City Makers Market shifted its focus away from markets. He says the Ellemnop.Art and Beer Garden team are looking to fill the space that the recurring market had created.
“People get excited about Mid City in general,” Paxton says. “It’s a place that the creative people flock to. They want to be a part of generating this energy here. It’s a matter of neighborhood pride.”
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Beer Garden Pop Up Market is focused on joining the community while giving its not-so-known local makers a place to shine. Vendors will include a candle maker, an apparel designer, a creator of crystal jewelry, an abstract artist and several other art makers of different mediums for the community to discover.
“The biggest piece of the art scene is the actual community that supports it,” Alford says. “Baton Rouge especially, is a space where people love to commune over food and drinks, and find these common grounds. It makes sense to host a collective of artists directly inside of the community.”
The first Beer Garden Pop Up Market will take place Sunday, April 16, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Mid City Beer Garden is located at 3808 Government Street.