Artists’ Row Season Opening Market Weekend & Launch Party
Friday, May 5, 2024 7-9pm - SPRING PREVIEW PARTY:
Come join us on Friday evening from 7pm-9pm for a preview party! ChagallPAC will be loaded with new work for the 2024 season, including our May collection "Fire, Flowers, and Fiber." Poet Shari Caplan will be delighting us with poetry from her new book "Exhibitionist." Holy Crow will provide some typewriter poetry and surrealist games. Afterwards, we will have some light refreshments.
In Exhibitionist, the reader is invited to explore poems as installation; in this museum, the personal and the persona poem variously expose and mask aspects of the speaker as she probes her bisexuality, her evolution into motherhood, and how our relationships to art and desire are linked. Drawing from painting, performance art, theater, and literature, these poems, and the collages which serve as landing spots, deal thematically with the body treated as object versus whole human, how our gaze shapes our lives through desire, and how much an artist is expected to expose and expunge of themselves for the audience's catharsis.
Shari Caplan (she/her) is a poet, actor, and event producer with a passion for enlivening our collective imaginative potential. She's the author of "The Red Shoes; a Phantasmagoric Ballet on Paper," (Lambhouse Books, 2023), and "Advice from a Siren" (Dancing Girl Press, 2016).
Saturday, May 4, 2024 10am - 6pm – Market & Activities
On Saturday, May 4, 2024 Artists’ Row will come alive with activity! Starting at 10am, visitors are welcome to Artists’ Row to meet local artists, participate in art making activities, listen to live music, grab a bite to eat, and shop! Join us for a day that will be FANCY, PRANCY, and DANCEY. Do you feel Fancy? Wear your finest hat, stroll through the gallery! Check out the new collection of frippery and finery from Grace and Diggs, our resident hat maker. Add some fabulous jewelry from the collections of Fairy Forest and Holy Crow.
1-3pm: Hobby Horse Race down Artist's Row led by Annie and the Fur Trappers
Are you feeling prancy? Beginning by Lobster Shanty at 1 p.m., get ready for a Derby Day Hobby Horse Race! Participants will race to the other end of Artists’ Row, to end their game at Chagall PAC. The fun will be MC’d by the swing band Annie & The Fur Trappers. The live band will play swing numbers between races to keep up the heartbeat! Don't have a Hobby Horse? We’ll have some on hand for you to take a ride. Any steed is welcome, even broomsticks! Afterwards, make some good-luck arts and crafts with the artists of ChagallPAC at the “Winner’s Circle” table. learn more at www.chagallpac.com
3:00pm: Whistle Pig Morris
Feeling Dancy? Perfect, because we have Whistle Pig Morris coming to show off some traditional English folk dance! Whistle Pig is a Morris team practicing multiple styles of folk dance in Somerville and Cambridge. We're proudly queer-led and queer-focused! You can find out more of what that means at whistlepigmorris.com
Sunday, May 5, 2024 10am-5pm – Workshops & Salons
10am-12pm: Natural Dye Workshop
Sign up today for a Natural Dye Workshop at Robbersdaughter Studio. In collaboration with Hauswitch, Robbersdaughter is offering a natural dye workshop exploring the process of bundle dyeing on Sunday, May 5th. Participants will create a naturally dyed silk alter cloth. All dyestuffs + textiles included. Pre-registration is required. First workshop begins May 5, 10-12pm. Learn more by visiting: www.robbersdaughter.com/workshops
4-5:30pm: World Poetry Salon
ABOUT ARTISTS ROW
Artists' Row is an incubator and public space for artists and the community to come together and celebrate public art and creativity. Featuring a restaurant and four revolving artists’ stalls, there is something for everyone to enjoy. The Artists’ Row Initiative is a seasonal program run by the City of Salem’s office of Arts & Culture that provides space for artists and artisans looking to build their audience and/or business through daily engagement with residents and visitors to Salem. salem.com/artists-row
Current Makers on the Row:
Lobster Shanty: a local dive bar that secretly has class. Great food, great service all served in a very casual atmosphere with absolutely no pretense. Award winning lobster rolls, an all-new patio and our famous lobster-tini make The Lobster Shanty a MUST VISIT when in Salem!
Shindig! isn’t just a store, it’s a pop culture experience! Have fun as you shop upcycled clothing, custom pins, patches, original art and whimsical sculptures. You’ll probably find something you never knew you needed. Whatever else you do in Salem, make sure to swing by Shindig! shindigstudios.com
Robbersdaughter + Melon Rose Studios: two botanically based businesses operating out of one studio in Salem.
Melon Rose is a full service floral company run by North Shore native, Melodey Mathews. With designs for all occasions and scale, Melon Rose is dedicated to making your wildest, most colorful dreams come true. Find out more at www.melonrose.co
Robbersdaughter offers striking botanical design + installation inspired by the organic + rebellious forms of nature. Robbersdaughter is a full service studio collaborating with clients to create unique botanical designs for commercial + editorial display, event decor, and nature based art activation. Rooted in local sourcing + seasonal availability, Robbersdaughter partners with neighboring flower farms and utilizes sustainable, informed foraging practices. As much as possible, work created by Robbersdaughter is designed with decay in mind. Plant waste is utilized to create unique wares + textiles. In addition to botanical design, Robbersdaughter offers workshops teaching methods of nature-based art making: plant weaving, foraged floral arrangement, natural dyeing, and paper making. Find out more at www.robbersdaughter.com
ChagallPAC is an interdisciplinary art studio & gallery space, where you can shop for art, handmade artisan crafts & jewelry, and even see live music! Featuring 15+ local artists, who run the shop! ChagallPAC features reiki-charged jewelry made with healing crystals, vintage and magical, handcrafted wire jewelry, hand-carved wooden sculptures, handmade wands, terrariums, original photographs, mosaics, mirrors, decorative items, curiosities, and objects d’art. Discover a collaborative and artistic space that is the amalgam of multiple artists’ imaginations! Learn more at: chagallpac.com
Julia Csekö, Salem’s PAiR 2024, will present the participatory public art installation Transcending Borders - Immigrant Experiences and Dreams between June and September. She will also hold regular open studio hours from May to December. The Artist Row studio will be a community gathering point for sharing and celebrating immigration stories. Additionally, Csekö will curate storytelling events and family-friendly workshops throughout the year.
This event is possible with support from The Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Julie Barry (She/Her)