Meet Me in Morristown, the monthly summer sidewalk fair, ended the 2022 season Thursday evening the way it started in May– sunny and warm. But there was something new this time:
Friendly competition.
As people browsed art displays and watched Music Beyond Measure perform jazz and blues outside the Vail Mansion, they also had the option to cross South Street and peruse Morristown Marketplace, a fair comprising about 50 artisans outside St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church in Morristown.
“It’s a happy accident,” Marketplace organizer Christina DiGiacomo said of her event’s timing on MMiM night.
Slideshow photos by Katharine Boyle and Kevin Coughlin. Click/hover on images for captions:
The Morris Plains resident, who works at Morristown’s Fred Astaire dance studio, established BrilliantConventions.com in 2019 to promote makers and merchants. Some came from as far as New York, Pennsylvania and the Jersey Shore on Thursday.
“We’re just helping small businesses stay afloat,” said DiGiacomo, who has produced monthly events at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall.
Morris Arts Executive Director Tom Werder welcomed the idea of such collaborations when MMiM returns next summer.
“We think it’s great. It makes it better for the people who are here for Meet Me in Morristown,” he said. His nonprofit has co-sponsored MMiM with the Morristown Partnership since 2013.
“We have every intention of building on it and making it bigger and better” in 2023, Werder said, including enhancing daytime attractions to promote downtown shops.
Werder spies a trend, and said it’s good for artists and for the downtown. During last month’s Meet Me in Morristown, the 1776 by David Burke restaurant also scheduled an outdoor event.
“We’re just happy that people want to do something on the night of Meet Me in Morristown,” Werder said.
One of the Marketplace tents outside St. Peter’s was staffed by Laurie Pettine of the Morris County Artists Network. The Mendham sculptor formed the nonprofit last year with a mission of finding venues for emerging artists to showcase their works.
Pettine said her network is not a rival of Morris Arts.
“They’re the big daddy. We can never do what they do,” Pettine said, citing decades of artist grants and major shows supported by Morris Arts. “We just offer artists opportunities to connect with each other on our level.”
I had no idea it was a separate event and was SO happy to see so many artists and vendors out for MMiM! Would love to see more things like this downtown on a more regular basis, not just in the summer