One afternoon last semester I was catching up on the “news” in my newsfeed on Facebook when a particular status caught my eye. My friend Marissa posted a link to her Etsy page, where she sells her hand made jewelry. Curious to see what goodies her virtual shop had in store, I clicked on the link and was quite impressed. The following day I ran into Marissa in the library and told her how much I loved her jewelry. She happened to be wearing one of her hand made pieces, which got me thinking… why don’t I interview her about her jewelry for Her Campus in order to help promote her line?
The conversation progressed and Marissa and I eventually started talking about selling her jewelry on campus. She then informed me that there were other students who made jewelry, photography, pottery, art, and all other types of crafts. We then decided that students should have the opportunity to sell their work at Brandeis. There are so many outside vendors that come and sell great crafts and jewelry in the SCC, so why not give students the same opportunity?
After Marissa and I were in agreement that we should try and plan an arts and craft fair, we presented the idea to Stephanie Grimes (head of Student Activities). She was on board and introduced us to the president of the Entrepreneurship Club, Nathan Feldman, and the rest they say is history. All four of us took on different responsibilities (I helped with PR via Her Campus of course and arranged to have cookies and lemonade sponsored by Sodexo), Marissa helped recruit the vendors and reach out to the Fine Arts Department to spread the word, Nathan helped coordinate with the vendors, and Stephanie Grimes helped book the space, and arrange logistics like the tables, PR, and much more.
After months of planning, the event finally happened last Friday and it was such a success. There were eight vendors who sold a variety of goods—from origami earrings, to knit headbands, to photography, to clothing. The event provided the community with an opportunity to see the creativity Brandeis students possess and all the original art they make. I am so happy with the way everything came together and hope that this will be the first of many more Student Vendor Arts and Crafts Sales.