Art + Farm = A Fresh Kind of Market

When Carlos Pinto and Andrew Inniss stumbled upon the 7,500-square-foot lot at the corner of Summit and Columbia streets in early February, it was, as Inniss says, “a mess,” strewn with used auto parts and other junk. That didn’t stop the pair from seeing it as a potential site for a micro-utopia: “a peaceful, friendly, happy place” incubating “as many forms of art as possible.”

“Everyone has a different version of green,” said Inniss. “We believe in renewable energy, we love art, we believe in art and we like gardening … We’re trying to bring it all together.”

After leasing the lot, they spent more than two weeks cleaning it up – and a lot more than two weeks “plugging…through city red tape.” On Saturday, May 28, they presided over the soft opening of The Columbia Street Art Flea & Farmers Market (attended by three vendors and 30-40 curious locals, coaxed over by a spur-of-the-moment barbeque). Provided their final inspection (scheduled for this week) goes well, they’ll be fully ready to rock this Saturday, June 18.

Market hours are Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m.  to 6 p.m., rain or shine, at least through October 30 and possibly through the December holidays. Vendors pay $25 - $100 per day for set-ups ranging from an easel and chair to a 10’ x 10’ booth.

The market welcomes all kinds of vendors. So far, interested parties have included jewelers, dressmakers, visual artists and food purveyors (one of whom has her heart set on growing her own herbs, right next to her stall, in a set of on-site planters).

Inniss has also been in touch with a number of local farming organizations – including Red Hook’s own Added Value – about holding a greenmarket on Wednesdays or Fridays.  

Neighbors have welcomed the market, Inniss says, in part because they no longer look out their windows onto “a junk lot.” Some have expressed interest in vending. Others have donated useful items, such as a barbeque and picnic table. Red Hook Urban Garden Center owner Sandor Gubis, whose nursery is just around the corner, donated plants to spruce up the lot, and inspired Inniss to train vines up the chain-link fence.

“A big old rusty fence is like a farm,” Inniss says, “it’s like a vertical farm.”

Cucumber plants already sit in buckets at the base of the fence; cantaloupes and string beans are next. Soon, he said, passersby will be able to “walk up and pick some food” – just like in his native Barbados, where there’s food growing everywhere. And all are welcome to use the market’s phalanx of port-a-potties.

“You know what it’s like to try to find a bathroom in New York!” Inniss said with a laugh.

Inniss, who admits that he and Pinto are “overly ambitious,” says they “want to make the lot a model for everything we think is right.”

Specifically, they plan to harvest rainwater, get local musicians to give lessons in a converted trailer and “power up the trailer with a hybrid system” – perhaps solar and wind – to demonstrate that these technologies are both affordable and practical. Potential renewable energy vendors include wind-power purveyor Green Mountain Energy and solar installater Peace and Solar, plus a biodiesel producer and a hybrid car maker.

Perhaps the most powerful – and at this point most visible – force in the market is art. Pinto and Inniss plan to be on site most weekdays, working on their own projects and welcoming other artists – especially those with no studio space of their own – to work alongside them, at no charge. They make most of their art out of salvaged household and industrial materials. Pinto, who was mentored by legendary Philadelphia mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar, has worked with children to install mosaic murals at the Rivendell School (in Gowanus) and at P.S. 217 (in Ditmas Park). He and Inniss plan to offer a permanent mosaic-making workshop at the market site, and to hold outdoor art openings on the third Thursday of each month.

“We want to bring not just healthy foods but food for the soul," said Pinto.

For announcements and updates, or to register as a vendor, call 646.481.2589 or visit www.urbanartfleas.com.