The Northwest Arkansas Makers Market is returning to the Washington County Fairgrounds this weekend. Ozarks at Large’s Grace Penry has more.
Grace Penry: Bo Dutton is a Northwest Arkansas native woodworker and the founder of NWA Makers, a group of local artists and crafters of all iterations. Sunday, Nov. 2, he’s running the semiannual NWA Makers Market at the Washington County Fairgrounds. More than 350 local creators will partake.
Dutton came in to talk to me about NWA Makers and the upcoming market. He says the idea for the group originated during the pandemic, in a time when social isolation made him turn to new avenues for continuing relationships he’d formed with community artists.
Bo Dutton: I was doing woodworking stuff and had met a few other cool local makers from doing some shows around, and then the pandemic hit and we couldn’t really hang out. So I decided to make us a Facebook group where we could interact and talk and share what we were making or working on. And it just exploded.
It went from a couple of my creative friends to now we have 6,000 local creatives — whether that’s people doing pottery or painting pictures or writing music or writing words or making bread. Everybody’s art is different and unique. That really just blossomed into a really incredible, supportive creative community. And when you get that many people in a room together, even online, it’s just a natural progression to want to get together and show off all the cool stuff we’re making.
Once the pandemic died down and people were able to gather again, it made sense to hold an in-person event.
We decided to throw a market, and we did a market up at Mount Sequoyah. I expected maybe 40 or 50 vendors to sign up, and we had 150. Then we were maxed out, and parking was a mess. It was really fun and really incredible, but we were overflowing, busting at the seams.
So then we started renting out the Washington County Fairgrounds twice a year, and since then we’ve grown. Our last couple markets have had over 350 vendors at each market, and everyone lives in NWA and makes their own product. It’s just really, really cool.
Grace Penry: That’s 350 vendors — that’s a lot of vendors. It must be amazing to see all of those people together too, and everyone being from the region. Can you tell me a little bit more about the importance of this being local?
Bo Dutton: Yeah. I mean, I’m sure you’ve seen numbers of how much of the global economy is dominated by somebody like Amazon or Walmart. Even though Walmart is local, and we appreciate them for all that they do for our community, there’s just a lot of money for things that — say you want to hang something up on your dorm room wall or in your new house that you just got — you can go to Amazon or Ikea and buy something like everyone else has and send your money out of state.
Or you can look around, get something unique made by someone who lives here, and it’s a special piece. That money’s staying right here in your community and gets recirculated through the bread vendor and the girl who makes pottery and the lemonade guy. Everyone’s just sharing back and forth, and it really strengthens our local economy — especially for creatives, where it can kind of be hard to make ends meet sometimes.
On top of that, it strengthens our sense of community, because even just buying your normal things locally supports your neighbors. And that comes with a lot of good feelings.
Grace Penry: You said you do woodworking, right? Are you going to be showing?
Bo Dutton: The first time we did a market, I had a booth myself, and I was going crazy trying to make sure everything ran smoothly because I’m doing it all myself. I’ll hire people to work specific markets if I have certain needs, but essentially it’s just me running around the whole market, trying to put out fires or handle any vendor needs.
It was just too much trying to do my own booth and run the market. I’ve had two kids since we started this, so it’s a little less stress for me to be more on the event-planning and logistics side. I can sit on my computer, on my couch, with the kids crawling all over me and still get work done instead of having to find time to hide in the woodshop.
It’s just a little better suited for a young family, but I do hope to get back to more woodworking and maybe have a booth eventually when the kids go to school full-time.
Grace Penry: That makes perfect sense. Are there any vendors in particular that you’re excited about or that you’ve worked with for a while?
Bo Dutton: Yeah. I’d say of the 350 or so vendors we have, a little over half of them are returning vendors. The same people come back every time, and they all say, “Hey, I want my same space that I had last time so people know where to find me.” Now we’ve got vendors that have been in the same space at this market twice a year for four years now, so people know where to find them.
There’s just too many to choose. Everything is cool. You walk into one booth and see the most incredible pottery you’ve ever seen, and you’re like, “Wow, you made this?” and she’s like, “Yeah, I made it in my garage.” Then you look up, and there are 349 more people after her who have all sat in their garages or little shops and made big lamps out of old logs or painted incredible pictures or whatever it may be.
It’s wild that that many people are making that level and quality of cool stuff all in Northwest Arkansas.
Grace Penry: I’m sensing this environment of inspiration — to even be in a space like that and see everyone together.
Bo Dutton: Yeah, we have a lot of people who are like, “I came and visited this market a couple times, and I talked to somebody who was doing their first market ever, and they were having a good time, so I decided I wanted to try making stuff. Now I want to come sell at this market.”
We have a lot of people get hooked like that. It’s just such a fun community to be part of. We’ve really tried to build it not just as a craft fair, but as a celebration of locally made stuff and local creatives.
You can buy things there, obviously, but it’s also about seeing what people have made and meeting the people behind the work. You might see a neighbor or someone down the street selling hats or paintings, and it’s like, “I didn’t even know you did this!” It’s not just random people — they’re your neighbors and your friends who are out there selling stuff.
Grace Penry: It’s amazing to see the community and to realize that you’re a part of it. Before we finish, could you tell us the details, please?
Bo Dutton: Yeah, absolutely. The market is Sunday, Nov. 2, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Washington County Fairgrounds. Admission is $5 for everyone 17 and above. If you’re 16 or under, you get in free. You can bring your dogs, bring your family, ride your bikes — it’ll happen rain or shine.
We’ve got six covered spaces absolutely packed full of vendors. Make sure you have enough time because there’s a lot to walk around and see. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
At the gate, it’s $5 — doesn’t have to be cash. Follow @NWAMakers on Instagram and NWA Makers on Facebook. And if you’re a creative and want to get involved, just join the Facebook group NWA Makers Club — it’s totally free, no commitment, just come be part of the community.
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