When Public Art and Farmers Markets Meet, Everyone Benefits
Attracting customers, creating a tourism destination…public art and farmers markets can be a natural fit.

The pig’s name is Rachel. Yes, children love to get their pictures taken next to her, on top of her, kissing her. Yes, she lives at the entrance of Seattle’s Pike Place Market. No, she’s not a real pig.

Rachel the Pig at Seattle's Pike Place Market. Credit: Project for Public Spaces.

In the summer of 2001, Rachel spawned fundraising replicas. “Pigs on Parade” brought 200 fiberglass replications of Rachel to the streets of Seattle. Sponsors could purchase a pig and work with a local artist to decorate it. Or, they could decorate the pig themselves. Afterwards, the pigs were auctioned off with proceeds again going toward the Market’s social service programs.

Quite a few accomplishments for a bronze pig. Above everything else, Rachel is an example of how effective public art at farmers markets has myriad benefits for markets and communities.

CADE’s farmers market mural. Credit: Cindy Dunne

“We did a survey that demonstrated that people shopping at farmers markets also shop downtown,” says Kevin Hodne, Executive Director of CADE. “Markets really take people from the malls to the main streets.”

Since the CADE-sponsored market could bring new people downtown, CADE determined that it needed to “market the market” by painting a mural on the side of an old building. Working with the local Arts Council, the city of Oneonta, and the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, CADE raised money to paint over a dilapidated Coca-Cola mural.

After a collaborative process, the group commissioned a mural that would reflect the historic nature of Oneonta. Designer Cindy Dunne created a mural resembling a turn-of-the-century food crate label and an early 20th century-style typography. Since Oneonta is known as the “city of hills,” Dunne added images of animals and produce to visually display the sense of bounty that accompanies the markets. Local artist, Cynthia Marsh, labored in 100 degree heat to paint the mural.

A farmers market was created around public art on Chicago's Daly Plaza. Credit: Project for Public Spaces.

Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and sustaining public spaces that build communities. Their 2006 public markets grant program, created with collaborative funding from the W.K. Kellogg and Ford Foundations, aims to help markets, especially in low and moderate income communities, become more economically sustainable and community-centered.

Art, in itself, cannot singlehandedly make a market economically sustainable or community-centered. When a market is successful, however, art can infuse another layer of experience, creating another reason to shop there. Additionally, public art is collaborative, involving the community and market planners in designing a truly unique public space that will attract economic activity and tourism.

What is public art, though? According to PPS, public art is commissioned in a very public process and funded with public money. Also, public art is generally “one-of-a-kind,” often associated specifically with its place.

“I would say that a work of art is public not just because it’s in a venue,” says Nikitin. “It’s public because of the process that creates it.”

Specifically, the process needs to involve the community. If community members plan to visit the market every week, they will be living with that market and its art indefinitely. If the community helps create the vision, identify appropriate sites, find additional partners, the market and its art will belong to the community, ultimately creating a place embraced by the community.

Like Rachel the Pig is beloved by Pike Place Market visitors. And how CADE’s mural immediately identifies its market. And how Nuestras Raíces, in a splendid use of community interaction, created a mural that speaks to the community’s Puerto Rican and agricultural roots. To learn more about Nuestras Raíces’ mural, see “By and For the Community.”