In the course of its 15 years, the Riverside Arts Market has become a beloved community gathering place beneath the Fuller Warren Bridge where residents can shop local and small businesses can get to know their patrons and fellow merchants.
Following the retirement of RAM’s longtime director, John Silveira, former market manager Chloe Kuhn has assumed the mantle of leadership for the weekly market and is looking to RAM’s future through a different lens.
Kuhn first discovered RAM while trying to pass the time between overnight shifts at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens when she didn’t want to face the 90-minute commute back to her home, at the time, in Gainesville.
Now, as market director, Kuhn uses all her previous professional experience, including that of an educator, to propel RAM into its next era. This includes its new designation as an invitation-only market.
This new process, Kuhn said, helps alleviate some of the staff workload of processing and vetting applications but also eliminates a lot of the uncertainty for those vendors waiting to hear back on said applications, while ensuring a certain standard for the market experience.
“[Vendors] can know that they can trust the quality and trust that we’re going to be taking what they do very seriously,” Kuhn said.
Kuhn said discussions are also underway to introduce new RAM initiatives to support small businesses. One is to follow existing support models from other local or national markets by establishing a support fund that would be available to merchants.
“…Vendors can dip into [this fund] when they’re faced with unforeseen circumstances or just support in getting things for their business, like workshops, clinics,” Kuhn said. “Leveling the playing field so that small businesses can have the same access to things that some of these larger corporations can get.”
Additionally, Kuhn said she’d like to see an emerging business program. Initial thoughts for the program involve high school or college students with an interest in exploring careers as artists or makers, but are unsure how to make that their reality.
“Having the market be a place where we could really facilitate that kind of relationship between an emerging artist and somebody who is making it their full-time career, opening that door, showing that this is a real pathway that someone can go and do,” Kuhn said. “…Just showing that there are avenues to be a professional artist.”
Kuhn continues to view the market with an educator’s mindset and sees the market as an ongoing learning opportunity for guests, whether they come every week or are visiting for the first time. Continuing to foster partnerships and collaborations with local organizations, businesses or entities is one way Kuhn said RAM can continue being a place of learning.
Looking to the future, Kuhn said RAM would love to introduce market tours for people to have opportunities to learn some of the stories behind the market’s vendors and history, even reaching beyond into state history.
“There’s a lot of stories that we can tell using the market as our guide,” Kuhn said.
RAM is held every Saturday beneath the Fuller Warren Bridge from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., rain or shine.
