The iconic downtown building that once housed the Chicago Music Store is going to relive its department store days Saturday, April 21.
If you've taken a stroll down Congress Street in the last few weeks, you've probably noticed the bright yellow lettering and magazine-worthy window displays announcing the upcoming Cultivate Tucson.
The 2018 Cultivate pop-up market will be held in the old home of Chicago Music Store, 130 E. Congress Street, on April 21, 2018, in downtown Tucson, Ariz. The one-day-only market will feature 44 local vendors from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is Cultivate's fifth market. Photo taken April 18, 2018.
The biannual pop-up market fills abandoned spaces with Tucson makers and artists for a day of community and shopping.
This year, they're right in the heart of downtown at 130 E. Congress St., a building constructed in 1903. Between 1927 and 1957, the building housed a JC Penney store, according to Arizona Daily Star archives.
J.C. Penney Company store in downtown Tucson in 1955. It was most recently home to the Chicago Music Store.
So that's how you can expect this Cultivate market to be organized — department store style.
More than 40 vendors will span the building's three floors, with home decor separated from kids stuff and so on, said Kristin Tovar, who co-founded the market with Claire Seizovic. This will be the fifth Cultivate market and like others, it has a nonprofit beneficiary. This time it's Tucson Youth Development.
"In the past, we had a lot more paper goods and illustrators and fine arts, and we have a good department for that," Tovar said. "But we have more furniture people and more apparel. The kinds of things that you would see in a department store. Even a shoemaker."
There will also be a huge floral installation by Best Buds Botanical.
Kristin Tovar, co-founder of Cultivate, sets up items for the 2018 Cultivate Tucson spring pop-up market in the old home of Chicago Music Store, 130 E. Congress Street. Those bags with the yellow lettering were printed by Cream Design and Print.
Always with the emphasis on local quality, Cultivate teamed up this year with CREAM Design and Print, a screen-printing and design shop in the Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood. CREAM is one of Cultivate's sponsors this year and stands for Cash Rules Everything Around Me (like the Wu-Tang Clan song).
Run by husband-and-wife team Patrick Foley and Marissa Johnson, CREAM has three full-time employees in addition to Foley and Johnson. You can get a peek at their craft on Saturday, when they'll be doing live screen-printing on site and selling original designs. Also: Those snazzy Cultivate totes with the yellow lettering given to early arrivals? Printed by CREAM.
Marissa Johnson, left, and Patrick Foley, right, have been running their print shop CREAM Print and Design for almost two years.
The team has printed lots of pieces for other Cultivate vendors and typically works with small businesses and local artists (think Why I Love Where I Live, Exo Roast Co., The Loft Cinema, etc.). They love the local collaboration.
"I feel like the people who are going (to Cultivate) are people who value high-quality, local handmade — all the things that our shop represents," said Johnson.
Foley has been screen-printing as a hobby since high school — a gig that eventually made enough on the side that he could leave his full time job in graphic design and marketing. Johnson eventually joined him, retiring from four years as a high school biology teacher. In October 2016, they opened CREAM. They moved into their current space at 740 N. Main Ave. in June.
But on Saturday, you can find them on the first floor — an important note since the three-story building is historic and has no elevator. Tovar said they're trying to spread the word that the top two floors will be inaccessible for people who can't manage stairs.
The one-day-only market will feature 44 local vendors from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is Cultivate's fifth market. Photo taken April 18, 2018.
You'll also find La Tiendita — a collective of about 10 local, Latinx artists and makers — on the first floor. Tovar called it a "Cultivate within a Cultivate." Artist Alex Jimenez, a past Cultivate vendor, recruited these artists.
"When we started Cultivate, we wanted to represent the best of what Tucson has to offer, and I think in the process of the last couple of markets, we realized we can't do that on our own," Tovar said. "We need people who make up all of Tucson, so Alex has been a huge part of being a bridge and building community so we can come together."
If you go
What: Cultivate Tucson's spring market
When: Saturday, April 21, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: 130 E. Congress St.
Cost: Free — unless you're able to snag an early-bird ticket at the door for $15. But those are pretty much sold out.
More info: Visit cultivatetucson.com
