Arts This Week: Sunshine Fruit Market
By Ben Larsen
PODCAST:
Visible Records will host the sunshine fruit market this Sunday, May 17, from 11am to 4pm with live screen printing from 12pm to 3pm.
Ella Powell:
This Sunday May 17, the Sunshine Fruit Market will take place at Visible Records from 11am to 4pm with local artists and live screen printing from 12pm to 3pm. For Arts This Week, we spoke with the event organizer, Hazel Addams.
Hazel Addams:
My name for art is Hazel Addams, two ds. I run Wednesdays Whimsies, and I organize the Fruit Market at Visible Records. It started off in 2024 with Chris from Baker, No Bakery and Critter Butts. We needed a queer market in pride month of 24’ and they started that and organized it, and then last year, it became a monthly market with a handful of us. So it’s gone through its little transition stages, but now it’s a monthly market, and I’m primarily the one who organizes it. Meg is amazing as an Events Coordinator to help me out with making sure that any other things aren’t scheduled at the same time, which right now, the May market on the 17th is going to be outdoors, because they have a gallery change happening right now. 5000 by Hampton Boyer is set up. It’s beautiful. So you have until the 16th to check it out. And then Aida Lizalde, all day is setting up for June 12. So they have Come Tierra Canta Fuego, which is Earth eater and fire singer. So that’ll be set up by the time the next market happens. And in the meantime, keep your eyes on Instagram for Visible Records and the website.
Ella Powell:
For the market, what types of vendors will you have?
Hazel Addams:
So we have a Queer and Ally vendor set. We do primarily like focus on our queer vendors first, and then we fold in some other cute like supportive community members, other studio members at Visible Records can apply. And we have wonderful organizations like the Women’s Initiative, they come through, and they have mental health resources that they talk about during the event. We have a queer soccer organization that comes through, CQS, pickup, V sellers, runs that. So it’s like a fun queer recreational soccer situation. So, so cute. We just have so many people come through. It rotates. It’s rarely ever the same set of vendors every month.
Ella Powell:
I didn’t realize that this is a monthly market as well. That’s really cool.
Hazel Addams:
Yeah. Originally it was for Pride Month, and then we saw a need for it, because most of the markets that we go to are in Richmond or they have to go to Culpeper or Lynchburg. It’s not many markets in Charlottesville that are queer focused. So like, it’s very nice to have.
Ella Powell:
Yeah, absolutely. So does it normally occur on a specific day in the month?
Hazel Addams:
Roughly around the third Sunday of every month from like 11 to four, but we do have it set up a little later in the day for July because of how hot it gets, so for comfort of our vendors and to maybe get more foot traffic, that kind of thing. But yeah, like, the only time we take a break is usually August and September.
Ella Powell:
Yeah.
Hazel Addams:
Especially September, because it’s Virginia’s pride month too. Yeah, that way people can focus in on more of their things. And we usually host a mixer so that vendors can hang out with each other and not behind a table. Yeah, we try and be really community focused with like, how we organize it, so I asked for accommodations or allergies or anything like when people are filling out the forms initially, so that I can make it really comfortable for them when they set up. We always have snacks, like there’s a kids activities session.
Ella Powell:
Oh, that’s That’s smart.
Hazel Addams:
Yes, Stevie Mayer does that the most. And they are so fantastic. They have education around kids, developmental stuff. So, like, they really curated crafts and activities for kids to do during the market so that parents can hang out.
Ella Powell:
Yeah, that’s awesome. And so all of these different resource centered vendors are there pretty much every third Sunday as well.
Hazel Addams:
Yeah.
Ella Powell:
That’s awesome.
Hazel Addams:
We have a rotating group of people just to make sure that people are getting to do their other events. That they want to do, but that it’s always something that…
Ella Powell:
like consistent?
Hazel Addams: Yes.
Ella Powell:
That makes sense. And is the pop up free screen printing kind of like a special thing that’s coming to this market?
Hazel Addams:
Yeah? So Charlie and I have been collaborating for their screen printing to happen during the fruit market. So if the market runs from 11 to four, then Charlie is next door screen printing from 12 to three at infinite repeats. And there’s commercial grade equipment that Charlie can use the whole time. So like, it’s a very quick turnaround, but they’re also a member of Infinite Repeats, so you can become a member to use the equipment there.
Ella Powell:
Yeah, really cool.
Hazel Addams:
So we collaborate on which designs happen during the fruit market, and we try not to duplicate the same two designs and the same like seasons. So if spring and summer have a handful of designs, then, like, there’s no duplicates, And in fall and winter, there might be some duplicates from the first season, but they’re never the same combination at the same time. So you don’t miss out on a screen printing option. We’ve also been doing a stamp passport, so like, you can go table to table and meet our vendors or organizers. It helps with the social interaction around markets, and it’s so cute and wholesome to watch everybody get to, like, Can I have a stamp? Or do you want a stamp? And I’ve had some of the vendors be really excited to make, like, a custom stamp. So hopefully that happens this time around. But I had a little box of stamps for everybody to pick out, and then if everybody has gone to every table, then they get a cute little treat at the end of the market.
Ella Powell:
That’s cute and that’s really fun.
Hazel Addams:
It’s been really wholesome. It’s like adding that little bit of whimsy.
Ella Powell:
Yeah, and I feel like just all the different things that coalesce all together. It’s really cool.
Hazel Addams:
I very much wanted it to be a community first event, yeah, that grows from there, instead of starting it off as this is the market, and we’ll add the community stuff later. Yeah. I wanted it to be very you can ask for anything you can, you know, support each other, and then we get more and more as it goes, some growth from that. But I wanted the foundation of it to be community.
Ella Powell:
Yeah. I saw there’s like a community garden tour and then kind of set time after the market, like, as a community Hangout, like, yeah, that’s pretty cool, yeah.
Hazel Addams:
So sometimes people partake and sometimes people don’t, and it’s never a pressure to hang out after Yeah. Like, fun to eat some pizza and maybe watch a movie for a couple hours to, like, regulate yourself before you have to immediately drive home.
Ella Powell:
Yeah, it’s good to have the option.
Hazel Addams:
Yeah, yeah, which is also why I’m like, it’s community first, and it’s an option, even if that option doesn’t always get chosen, it’s still me being like, Hey, I’m gonna be here till seven. Let’s hang out, if you want to. And if not, no worries.
Ella Powell:
So Visible Records as an organization, would you like to share a bit about just your overall mission in the community?
Hazel Addams:
I am just a small cog that is Visible Records. I personally do the free closet that’s at Visible Records. And then they host plenty of different artists, and they have studio members, and so many studios, and all of them, I think, are full right now. But if anybody needs a studio space, keep an eye on the website, because sometimes there’s openings. They do fantastic things in this community, especially hosting spaces for leftist events in general. Yeah, there’s a community fridge out front that’s there 24/7, accessibility, the community garden, which is common field crew. They stock fresh vegetables in that refrigerator all the time, and people drop off snacks all the time and food and meals. And then people just drive up and grab what they need and leave what they don’t. And it’s so nice. It’s so nice.
Ella Powell:
That’s that’s a great thing to offer. Is there anything else in particular that you’d like to share about the markets?
Hazel Addams:
My goal as an organizer is to have as much community as possible and many third spaces where, like, it’s not mandatory to spend money
Ella Powell:
Yeah
Hazel Addams:
But like, you want to spend money on your local vendors, makers, it’s an option instead of a big box store. And if you know that we’re there every month, and you know who’s going there, you can be like, ooh, let me just get this from them. Ooh. My favorite part is that in the wintertime, for around Black Friday, we have like, a three day market where we run the market for our vendors so that they can continue to do other markets at the same time, but that we run it for them. And so then for three days, there’s a little shop set up in Visible Records where people can buy stuff. And it’s so nice. It’s my favorite aspect about it.
Ella Powell:
No, that’s like, that’s really thoughtful, too. And it’s cool that, you know, because I feel like a lot of markets, it is kind of that pop up aspect where, like, maybe you’re just in a random parking lot or something, yeah, but this one, you’re connected to the space, yeah, yeah. So that that’s really cool.
Hazel Addams:
Yeah. As somebody who does pop up markets myself, I wanted to have that experience and knowledge go towards the organizing.
Ella Powell:
Yeah.
Hazel Addams:
And as somebody who’s autistic, who knows that I will forget to eat something, having the snacks out for our vendors, just to be like, yeah, Hazel organized. I know there’s gonna be food. It’s just my favorite part about it. I’m just like, I’ve done this. I’ve done this for three years, and I continue to do it, maybe not as frequently as I used to, thank God. But for anybody who’s still constantly doing that grind, I want it to be as comfortable as possible.
Ella Powell:
Visible Records will host the sunshine fruit market this Sunday, May 17, from 11am to 4pm with live screen printing from 12pm to 3pm. Visible records is located at 1740 Broadway Street. You can find more information at visible records.com. Arts this week is supported by the UVA Arts Council in Piedmont, Virginia Community College, PVCC Arts presents a rich array of dance music, theater and visual arts programming. Learn more pvcc.edu. For WTJU, I’m Ella Powell.
