Watertown Arts Market
The Watertown Arts Market, an event hosted by the Watertown Business Coalition in partnership with the City of Watertown, introduces the public to Watertown’s working artists, cultural organizations, and the wide variety of unique products they produce that enrich our lives. The Watertown Arts Market provides a safe, free, and fun environment to showcase their work, purchase one of a kind items, enjoy live performances, and make art. In an atmosphere of celebration, peppered with artist demonstrations and delicious food, visitors to the market can immerse themselves in their art community.
In the height of the pandemic, the Watertown Business Coalition hosted an online artist town hall to see how we could help support the arts during the unusual times. One idea that was brought up by Jackie Dentino was an arts market where all the artists in Watertown could be showcased for the community. With Kristen Kenny serving as the chair of the organizing committee in tandem with a team of other dedicated volunteers, an event started to take shape. They worked to secure Arsenal Park as the location and got all the behind-the-scenes wizardry done to coordinate over 70 local artists and cultural organizations. The first Watertown Arts Market was unveiled on August 21st, 2021 and was a resounding success. With over 800 people coming to see the remarkable creative talent and cultural work being done in the city, visitors were able to enjoy food, live music and literary performances, buy unique locally made art, and most importantly just have a good time while supporting local creatives. The Watertown Arts Market has now turned into an annual summertime staple. The City of Watertown joined in as a partner in 2023 when the event drew 1,400 people. We look forward to continuing to support a growing vibrant community event that bolsters local creative businesses. We believe in getting people together to talk about challenges facing our businesses. We’re rarely alone in our challenges. WAM is one of the highlights we point towards to show the power of coming together to solve a problem. Learn more about WAM at its website.
