Center Street in downtown Logan will have some 20 vendors on Wednesday for the Center Street Market.
LOGAN – Mark Smith a retired elementary school teacher picked up a paint brush after leaving the Logan School District three years ago and has been painting since then.
Smith will be one of the artists selling his goods at the new Center Street Market in Logan.
Every Wednesday, starting May 12 and continuing for 19 weeks, the historic Center Street will be transformed into a market from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Logan Downtown Alliance is promoting the remodeled area with its shaded tables as a gathering place where mid-week people can find various locally-homegrown small businesses like artisan food producers, clothing makers, crafters and the artists can sell their goods.
Smith’s paintings and prints fit within the business models the Center Street Market is trying to promote.
“Three years ago I retired from teaching and started painting,” he said. “I always enjoyed art and planned to paint after I retired.”
The Logan High School and Utah State University graduate had had some of his work in some of the local galleries and participated in Summerfest and is currently painting downtown historic properties.
“Gary Saxton saw my painting of Center Street and asked if he could use it for a poster for the Center Street Market,” Smith said. “I will have a booth on Center Street with prints of my paintings for sale.”
Saxton, the Downtown Alliance executive director, said the businesses on Center Street have been invited to put merchandise on the sidewalk as well to promote their products.
“We just want people to come to visit downtown and be able to shop there weekly,” Saxton said. “It is the kind of market that people can get what they need from local producers every week.”
Since the historic Center Street was remodeled it has become a downtown gathering place with outdoor shaded tables for people to sit and socialize. With the Wednesday sales, they expect people to take advantage of what Center Street has to offer.
“The Gardener’s Market is more garden produce, fruits and vegetables,” Saxton said. “We want this to be a more relevant market with meat, breads, dairy more of what you get at general market.”
He said they expect some people selling home decorative items may also be there.
“We have 14 vendors already signed up with spaces for 20,” Saxton said. “We want enough space to have some physical distancing until the COVID thing passes.”
As the pandemic loses ground, they may add more booths.
The Downtown Alliance wants to invite people to come ready to eat breakfast lunch and dinner at one of the local restaurants or one of the food trucks that will be on hand.
Cache Valley Bank is a marketing partner and Cache Valley Media group is a promotional partner for the market.
For more information got to logandowntown.org.