Arcades Project Ithaca was founded in spring 2011 by a curator, a visual artist, and two literary writers and small press publishers who were all living in Ithaca at the time. Their vision was to bring together some of the region’s finest visual artists, small presses, art books publishers, book artists, and makers of multiples and editions in a single curated event that imitated an indy art market. Each event was planned in a different space with a different theme; in all, Arcades Project occurred four times, with the culminating event in spring 2013 hosted by guest curators. Three of the four events were hosted by CAP and all were lively, visually stimulating events attended by hundreds of people, and artists and vendors reported substantial profits from their participation. Arcades Project set out to draw attention to a need for networking between a new generation of artists, small press publishers and the general public, as well as between these artists and publishers themselves. Since Arcades was founded, Ithaca has seen the rise of other pop-up independent art market events such as Art in the Alley, Awesome Indie Market, and Standard Holiday Art Market. The Arcades founders feel they fulfilled their mission and are ready to move on to other projects. We’d like to thank Brett Bossard, Karen Brummund, Wylie Schwartz, David Nelson Pollock, Danielle Marie Winterton, Mara Baldwin, Clara Chapin Hess, Robin Schwartz, all of our participating artists and vendors, and everyone who visited an Arcades Project for funding, participating in, and contributing to our marketplace experiment.
Arcades Project 