Catacombs Art Market

This cave of wonders digs deep into the local art talent

Courtesy of Dale LLoyd, pixel8gallery.com

The Catacombs Art Market provides a fun and accessible way for local artists to sell their wares. These creations were just some of the offerings at the last market in January. Pixel 8 Gallery

By Darren Orf

April 22, 2010 | 12:00 a.m. CST

Walk down the creaking stairs in the back of Artlandish Gallery, and the area below stands out in sharp contrast to the vibrant shop above. A series of tunnels and passageways snakes along, and bright paintings hang on the stone walls. Once home to a packaging company and later a speakeasy, this underground area now hosts the Catacombs Art Market.
With the departure of the Twilight Festival in 2008 and the Festival of the Arts in 2009, artists are finding it hard to display and sell their work. “There is a real necessity for artists to be able to exhibit,” says Lisa Bartlett, local artist and owner of Artlandish Gallery. From this necessity, the idea for the Catacombs Art Market was conceived. The event is held four times a year to coincide with Artrageous Friday, a downtown gallery crawl, as well as once every December for the holiday season. The market features live jazz music and bands from mid-Missouri.
More than 40 booths will fill the tunnels and rooms as approximately 60 artists exhibit and sell their work. Local potter Lynn Woodward is a Catacombs Art Market veteran. “Everybody wants you to promote yourself,” Woodward says. “It’s goodwill and networking. I don’t mind the sales either.” Other exhibits, such as Art in the Park, are more expensive and juried, allowing only certain artists to participate. With a low entry cost of $30 and an everyone-is-welcome attitude, the Catacombs Art Market is more accessible and convenient for artists.
One thing this market certainly has is variety. Pottery, paintings, sketches, photography, stuffed animals and decorative gourds are just a few of the pieces on display. “I’m just amazed how large our art community is at a time when it’s hard to be an artist,” artist Josie Sullivan says. There will also be several vintage and antique items, which will provide more of a flea-market experience. The Catacombs Art Market is the perfect experience for both the striving artist and the adventurous shopper.
The event not only provides a forum for local artists to display their work, but it also helps them focus on a greater cause. The market will help raise money for Theatre NXS, a local nonprofit organization, and Sullivan. Two years ago, she found a tumor on her pituitary gland. “The pituitary is kind of like the furnace of your body,” Sullivan says. “It was causing double vision, and I was losing my peripheral vision. Being an artist, that was really scary.” After doctors discovered that it was growing, the tumor was removed in January. Burdened with medical bills, she began receiving help and donations from Bartlett and other artists.
Sullivan will have her own booth at the market with watercolors, assemblage work, photography, metal lunchboxes and collector toys on display. All proceeds will go toward her medical expenses. Some donations are also coming from the artist community that views her blog — artists she’s never met before. “My family is far away and couldn’t be here for me,” she says. “I don’t know what I would have done without some of the people here.”
The Catacombs Art Market is anything but dust and bones. It’s an exhibit, a fundraiser and a celebration of the town’s art community. “It’s really refreshing to see,” Bartlett says. “Columbia is a cultural mecca in mid-Missouri.”