What can’t be denied is the fact that the Cherokee Business District continues to “get it” when it comes to grassroots marketing and promotion. While there’s still room to grow, with plenty of empty (yet enticing) storefronts sitting alongside those that bustle, the area’s been alive with street parties and special events throughout the year, with at least one more major 2011 event planned for this weekend.
On Saturday, December 3, between the ample hours of 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., the Cherokee Print League calls upon the collective retailing spirit with a host of open houses along, primarily, the western side of Jefferson. This has an area rife with more-than-a-fair-share of print-oriented businesses. Some of them will be selling directly from their storefronts, while a few additional spaces will be utilized to handle the wares of printers who don’t enjoy their own retailing space.
We asked a wide variety of participants to send their thoughts on a handful of questions related to the fourth annual event, and heard back from a few of them, including: Jeff Vines of STL STyLehouse, Jenn Carter of Aisle 1 Gallery, Eric Woods of the Firecracker Press and Evan Sult of Sleepy Kitty Arts.
How do you feel the event played out last year?
Vines: For STyLehouse, last year seems like a blur. I remember a lot of activity on the street, and a lot of people from all over the metro area who were discovering Cherokee Street for the first time.
Carter: Last year was very cold. This may have affected everyone's willingness to roam around the streets from venue to venue.
Woods: It was the biggest Cherokee Print League Holiday Sale to date. We had over 50 artists showing in more than a dozen venues on Cherokee Street. There was some unexpected buzz around town that the Cherokee Print League was something St. Louis could be proud of. It was nice to see printmaking being noticed as something St. Louis does well.
Sult: This will be the third year Sleepy Kitty's been a part of the Cherokee Print League Holiday Sale. Both prior years were excellent experiences. We set up at Foam Coffee & Beer (where we'll be again this year), and there's nothing like watching the crowds of people start showing up, their glasses fogging as they walk through the front door, out of the cold and into their first stop of the day. Last year it was busy all day long, and we barely had a chance to look up long enough to watch the time go by.
What differences are in play this year, either in a macro sense, or just relating to your approach to the sale/event?
Vines: We hope to make this event even bigger this year. We'll have a Print League passport that shoppers can take to each venue. The first shoppers to get their passports stamped by all the participating venues will win gift certificates for Blick Art Supplies. We'll also be giving away Cherokee Print League totes at each venue, so shoppers will have a cool, lasting memento from the event and a practical way to carry their newly purchased goodies. And speaking of goodies, several food trucks will be stationed on the street serving up grub for hungry shoppers.
Carter: This year has brought a lot of press to Cherokee Street. We opened March and are located at the corner of Texas and Cherokee, adding yet another stop between Jefferson and the other west side Cherokee businesses.
Woods: The Cherokee Print League was started in 2008 during a conversation Matty (Kleinberg) and I were having about the SGCI Printmaking Conference that St. Louis would host in March, 2011. The idea then was to help establish Cherokee Street as a hub for printmaking, through sales and events, so that when the conference arrived folks would naturally come to Cherokee. The conference has come and gone (it was amazing) and the Cherokee Print League lives on. I think we'll build on the success of last year's sale and try to capture some of the magic that happened in March for the conference.
Sult: The biggest difference this year, I think, is that Cherokee Street's printers are still feeling the glow from the tremendous SGC (Southern Graphics Council) event that occurred on the street this last spring. The street was packed with printers, print industry folk and print enthusiasts from all over the country, and it really felt like the long history of Cherokee Street as a shopping destination had met its future as a Printers' Row and artist residence. It was glorious, and it was inspirational to get the art galleries and printers motivated for the holiday event this year. There's a new sense of scale, I think, for all of us, and a sense that we now, maybe for the first year, do represent a modern Printers' Row in St. Louis. I think the whole street is feeling the difference.
Are you still seeing new people drifting down to Cherokee for retail shopping/other services? Or lots of familiar faces, with a sprinkling of the new?
Vines: In a community as close-knit as Cherokee, we are guaranteed to see a lot of familiar faces. But there's definitely been an influx of newcomers in over the last year. If you check out the giant "Where ya from?" map on the wall at STyLehouse, you'll see that Cherokee's magnetism has attracted visitors from every corner of the world.
Carter: Aisle 1 Gallery had a great summer and fall. There seemed to be a longer string of beautiful Saturday afternoons, which is the only day we are open to the public aside from our Friday night exhibition events. Great weather seems to be the deciding factor for drifting traffic. There is a healthy mix of those you seem everyday, those you 17 times per day, and the random groups of friends and families who stop in after brunch at Black Bear, or a coffee at Foam.
Woods: We see new faces all the time, which is testament to the size and diversity of St. Louis. People are curious and they seem to be young and old alike. Last week a young man from New York, who was in town for work, came in to buy posters. This week, two older gentlemen from St. Louis stopped in to say they'd seen our work in New Orleans. We have our regulars, but it's always nice to stumble upon new people who are interested in Cherokee Street and its bloom.
Sult: Sleepy Kitty is a strange entity; we don't have a storefront, and we don't normally think of ourselves as retailers except for one-off events like this. We mainly do rock posters and posters for events around St. Louis. But we are full-time members of the street, and we partake of its bounty daily. It does feel like the last year has brought new faces along with the familiar faces we depend on seeing. STL STyLe, in particular, seems to have introduced a lot of new folks the street, and the galleries (Aisle 1, Los Caminos, Art Dimensions and Art Monster) reliably draw art students, scholars, and street-culture hustlers from all over the city and region for their opening night celebrations.
While this may seem hopelessly too-large-in-scope, do you personally feel as if there's a sort of weariness re: Black Friday and corporate gift-giving culture? Do you feel that the larger Occupy ideals are manifesting themselves in folks wanting to shop at a more human, grassroots level? (Again, feel free to be philosophical, or just dismiss that one as foolish hackery; I won't take it personally!)
Vines: Cherokee Street adheres to no formula. Shoppers who seek an authentic experience are going to find it here. It's at once friendly and gruff, quaint and gritty, traditional and edgy. In essence, Cherokee is the city, and for unconventional consumers, it's hopelessly charming.
Carter: This year there has been a repetitive call for handmade gifts. Whether people are attending local indie crafts fairs, or spending more time on Etsy, I definitely think there are going to be a lot more hand- knitted monkey caps under the holiday trees this year.
Woods: This will be interesting to see. We close every year, or at least we have so far, for the Thanksgiving holiday and have never seen a bump from Black Friday. With the Cherokee Print League Holiday Sale being the following weekend, we hope to capture sales then. I do think there's been a gradual shift toward folks that want to buy local, and I personally love telling a story with the gifts I buy that are handmade/locally produced. I saw the seed of buying local being planted when craft shows and microbreweries started popping up... well before Occupy, or even before the housing bubble burst. Oddly, maybe that movement helped spur the some Occupy ideals, and we'll see it fold in on itself to morph into something new.
Sult: Paige and I have been talking a lot about the sort of bummer that is Black Friday. Besides the fact that it sounds so dire, it just feels so trumped up and steroidal. I do think that, for ourselves and the people we know, Black Friday is more alienating than tempting. Hopefully the response isn't cynicism; it's a turn toward the personal. The art on offer at Cherokee Print League, or at the Rock N Roll Craft Show, or the Big-Ass Indie Craft Fair, is all made by real people with real materials, by hand, here in the region. If you're feeling like Black Friday is being forced upon you, or that the spirit of holidays is being replaced by a consumer simulation of spirit, I think an event like the Cherokee Print League Holiday Sale is an effective antidote. Not only is the art handcrafted, but you're buying it from the artist him/herself, on the very street where a lot of it is made. There couldn't be a more direct response to the national goal of stimulating the economy. On the national stage, everything economic is murky and confusing and contradictory. On Cherokee Street, it's completely straightforward: you get art; the artist gets money for the art s/he's made. Everyone can feel good about that transaction... and of course, the art itself is unique, so it makes for a heartfelt gift. For my own self as a citizen, that's the kind of transaction I look for: local goods, local produce, local art, bought as directly as possible from the producer. That's the economy that benefits us all most immediately, and keeps money moving around St. Louis, instead of out the door to the shareholders of giant companies trying to convince you that Black Friday is a part of the holidays.
Lastly, were you able last year to get up and down the block? Will you be able to this year, or will you be chained to the oars of your own operation?
Vines: One of the downsides of owning a business on Cherokee is that we are usually tied up at our store, so we rarely get to experience excitement on other parts of the street during an event like this. However, this year I am determined to stroll the street extensively, so I can get a feel for what makes this street so damn cool.
Carter: Chained in; my partner Bryan Walsh will be painting a holiday mural at the convention center with a few members of the Screwed Arts Collective.
Woods: I only got a chance to walk around the first year. Since then we've been hustling at the shop all day. It's fun! I love it.
Sult: I think Paige and I each got a moment to make a run out the door last year. We always try and get across Jefferson to the Cookie Spree that the antique stores host, and also see what Paper Boat has out for show. Last year, I just knew that at least one of us had to get to the table of Delicious Design League, who are based in Chicago and do some of the best rock-poster designs in the country. They were at 2720, along with about 20 other artists, so we got to see what Jason Potter was up to at the same time. We didn't get to make it as far as The Archive and Snowflake Gallery, but we're going to try this year. We sort of feel like it's our responsibility to hold down the east end of the street, letting people know what's available both east of Jefferson and all the way west along Cherokee, so it does behoove us to get out and see who's where. I definitely want to get to Aisle 1, the new gallery of Bryan Walsh and Jenn Carter, to see who has set up shop there. And Firecracker Press and All Along Press are always jumping with visitors. We may not get to see all of it, but hopefully we'll get to hear from a lot of the artists at the after-party, which will be at our own home base of Foam.
