Everything to gain at first FEAR market

A NEW popup initiative aimed at showcasing Ballarat’s artists and makers is set to launch next month, organised by the owners of Femxle Experience Art Rebellion, or FEAR.

The market is set to run on the first Saturday of every second month, and FEAR co-founder Toni Louise said it’ll fill a gap for Ballarat’s art offerings.

“We’ve been hearing a lot of feedback in Ballarat that there’s not really an indoor art market around here,” she said.

“The BMI art market exists but people are wanting an art market that’s just dedicated to artists and makers, so we were like we have the space to be able to do this for them.

“The idea is to run alongside the Bridge Mall Market which runs on the first Saturday of every month, so we’ll still have that foot traffic but it’s a whole different demographic coming through.”

The market will feature four different artists each event, with Kim Magee and Sarah Mischker, who create under the name Blooming Cat, confirmed for the debut event.

Ms Louise said the popup market will tie in well with their retail, workshop and exhibition space while placing a lens over more of Ballarat’s lesser-known artists.

“Having four artists at four tables, it’s quite intimate and allows people to view the artwork without being overwhelmed with 20 different stalls,” she said.

“We want new and interesting work that you’re not going to find anywhere else, and artists that haven’t necessarily been on our consignment down here.

“We’ve been really trying to think of different events to put on to better support the local creative community and we had our zine market recently which was an absolute success.

“We kind of used it as a test run for this and it did really well so we’re looking forward to the numbers coming into this.”

FEAR’s popup market debut will run from 10am to 2pm on Saturday, 6 May.