Seattle, WA. Pike Place Market is open to visitors, and many vendors are offering unique items for sale in-person. This year, due to Covid-19 restrictions, vendors are also offering items for sale online. It’s an online charitable marketplace where you can buy items and have them shipped to your home. Patricia Gray, Community Relations Manager of the Pike Place Market Foundation, explains, “It’s not your typical tourist place; but it’s a real place with authentic people, and that is because it’s actually a living, breathing, village. It’s a village that all works together to support a whole community where everyone is welcome.” Here’s a video about the Market this holiday season:
Creative gift ideas can be found at the Pike Place Charitable Marketplace, here is some “bag o’ coal hand soap” from Furtive Fox.
The Pike Place Market is more than meets the eye: not only is it a serene place to wander while sipping a cup of cold brew and browsing local art, it has a historical charter that focuses on providing low-income housing and services, especially for seniors. The Pike Place Market Foundation initiated a recovery fund in June 2020. The $3.5 million campaign will go toward increasing the size of the community safety net to support vendors in the Market and launch emergency programs to support the senior residents of the Market.
Even Rachel the Pig, the iconic market piggy bank, is sprayed with Lysol. Photo courtesy of the Pike Place Market.
If you visit the Market you’ll find safety measures to keep customers healthy: increased sanitization, social distancing, and mask implementation. The money donated to the Rachel the Pig piggy bank goes straight to the Market Foundation to fund many services, which have expanded during the pandemic. Emergency programs such as food distribution, Covid-19 testing, and shelter-in-place orders for over 500 senior residents of the Market are a few of the programs implemented by the foundation. Since the Covid-19 shutdown, the Market’s social services remain open and deployed emergency programs such as food distribution and Covid-19 testing for neighbors throughout downtown in addition to shelter-in-place orders for more than 500 senior residents of the market. The Pike Market Senior Center, Food Bank, Health Clinic, and Heritage House remain open.
The Pike Market food bank provides much-needed assistance during tough times.
Photo courtesy of the Pike Place Market Foundation.
Now for big ray-of-sunshine news: the foundation is very close to its $3.5 million dollar goal. “The dollars are flying in, and it’s the holiday season so things are really busy. We will announce our grand total in January,” says Patricia Gray. However there is still a long road ahead, and the Market will have to double down on its recovery fund efforts if it wants to continue supporting local businesses and residents. The Pike Place Market Foundation has given out about a hundred grants to the Market small businesses so far, totaling up to half a million dollars of the recovery fund, and on top of that, a worker safety net is available to help vendors cover rent and healthcare costs. When the current eviction moratorium has expired, these artists will likely need more assistance with rent.
If you shop online at the Charitable Marketplace, a portion of the proceeds goes towards the Market Foundation. In this way, shoppers can support local artists while also supporting local residents through the low-income housing provided by the Market Foundation.
Blown glass ornaments made by Motoko and Joshua.
Photo Courtesy of the KOBO Art Garden.
One of the vendors, the KOBO Art Garden, (http://www.koboartgarden.com) is not able to sell in person at the Market right now. The business is run by Motoko Hayashi and Joshua Swanson, a couple that has creatively transformed their garage into an art studio to create their authentic blown-glass artwork. The couple has been selling their art at the Market for fifteen years, and now they must rely solely on online sales through their website.
Typically the KOBO Art Garden hosts a glass-blowing workshop, where people come and learn to blow their own glass creations, which they get to take home. It’s the perfect way to get hands-on experience and become immersed in the art of glass-sculpting. These sessions are temporarily on hold due to the virus, so income has been sparse. Luckily the couple was able to qualify for a loan, but what they really need is the support of locals.
Wavy bowls crafted by Motoko and Joshua.
Photo courtesy of KOBO Art Garden.
As you are finishing up some last-minute holiday shopping, consider shopping at the Pike Place Charitable Marketplace, where you can support local businesses while also funding the Market foundation. Of course, you can still go in-person to Pike Place Market with your cold brew and bundles of scarves, where you can say hi to Rachel the Pig and throw some coins in there too (for good luck, of course).
