Local Roots

For over a year Evan Webster Ink has been screen-printing in Brookline, MA. I’ve always felt a part of the local community but there was a small problem: very few people knew about the company.

This summer I responded to an open call to artists from Ferris Wheels Bike Shop to create bicycle-related work as part of Jamaica Plain First Thursdays, a monthly kind of mixture of an open studio and an artist market. Two graphic designers and myself created four bicycle-related t-shirts just for this event.

We matched up neat shirts and sweatshirts with designs and ink colors. It was exciting to print the posters, postcards and take care of all the other small details required to set-up for just two official hours of display and selling. Overall the event was, most importantly, fun and secondarily a success. We sold a good amount of apparel and handed out all of the postcards. Beyond that, I got to interact with a bunch of people who live and work just a couple of miles from where the screen-printing gets done.

It’s always important to have strong local roots. The difference between now and the past is that fewer businesses spend time nurturing these roots. I’d like to continue doing events like JP First Thursday and would like to enroll you to help me find great ones to do. Are there any events or open markets that you know of that I should attend?