Friends,
HFM annual spring meeting took place Saturday March 27th at Kent Free Library. The board of directors passed along decisions which were then formally voted on by the general membership. A new board of directors was elected and opening date and fee structure were approved. For more information click on the link for a Word document transcript of the meeting minutes.
Fritz Seefeldt.
Fritz Seefeldt, manager of Haymaker Farmers’ Market, dreams of working beneath a new canvas this September.
About two weeks ago, the market’s board of directors presented the idea for a mural in an application for state funding to the Ohio Arts Council.
The proposal would turn the underside of the state Route 59 bridge, now covered with graffiti, into a structural mural, designed by Elaine Hullihen, a local artist and Kent State graduate.
“There will be agricultural scenes as well as scenes from the farmers’ market and downtown Kent,” Seefeldt said. “And it will also involve the community in the painting itself. We’re going to have volunteers doing the painting — citizens and students — hopefully Kent State art students.”
Seefeldt, who developed the concept with help from Jeff Ingram, director of Standing Rock Cultural Arts, a local art awareness group, said he drew inspiration from two places.
The first was a mural by Kent local Edwin George, a Native American Folk artist who received an individual artist’s grant from the Ohio Arts Council in 2005. The mural, entitled “Love,” is painted on the northern wall of Scribbles Coffee Co. on North Water Street. ? Seefeldt’s second inspiration was an overpass he discovered while traveling through North Carolina.
The colorful mural along the heavily traveled Lexington Avenue depicts the history of the Asheville area in what is called the Asheville Mural Project.
To bring Asheville’s idea to Kent, the board’s next step is to propose the project to Kent City Council and the Ohio Department of Transportation.
Seefeldt said he anticipates full support from council. Ward 5 councilwoman Heidi Shaffer holds a place on the market’s board of directors and is already in support of the project.
“I think the more public art a place has, the more it expresses its character,” she said. “It’s sort of an example of grassroots public art. Rather than a statue being commissioned by a city administration, I think it’s very different. It’s more like this comes from the people.”
Shaffer also said the project would benefit the city in ways beyond visual appeal.
“The peeling paint on the support of the bridge (has) really detracted from the beauty of the farmers’ market,” she said. “And I think that the manager was concerned about peeling paint and children. So it was more than just an aesthetic issue, it was also a safety issue.”
Also on board is Kent City Manager Dave Ruller, who has created buzz about the mural recently through his blog.
In his March 3 entry about the mural, Ruller wrote, “It’s just crazy enough to be perfectly Kent.”
Coinciding with downtown revival initiatives and a recent uprising from the local art community, the mural would be a year-round fixture of the city, offering a unique backdrop to those who work and shop at Haymaker Farmers’ Market May through October.
The biggest hurdle, Seefeldt said, may be gaining approval from ODOT, which owns the bridge. Materials will have to be analyzed to determine their affect on concrete, and all specifications must be submitted to the department. ?? Despite the hurdle, Seefeldt is hopeful.
“I think they are likely to approve because there have been precedents for projects like this on public bridges before,” he said. “One example is the I-240 overpass in Asheville, N.C. That’s a federal highway, governed by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.”
Seefeldt said if the board does not receive the state grant, the project may be pushed back a few months, but he is confident that Kent residents and market-goers will see a change in landscape soon.
Contact public affairs reporter Samantha Laros at slaros@kent.edu
Friends,
Dave Ruller has always been supportive of our market here in Kent and I wanted to pass along his most recent “Kent 360″ blog update that features our proposed mural project. Artist Elaine Hullihen and I met with Dave this past week and discussed the public art project and how the city fits into the picture. There are still many details that will need to be sketched in as things progress, but I believe we’re quite a few brush strokes closer than two weeks ago. I appreciate the role that Dave plays in facilitating positive change in our diverse city and look forward toward more city/market interaction in the future.
Please feel free to comment and reply. This market is about all of you, the vendors, friends and members of our community.
Fritz Seefeldt.
My mention of the Haymaker Farmer’s Market interest in an art mural on the columns beneath the Haymaker Bridge earlier in the week sparked a fair amount of interest from folks. People seemed to feel that the Market was on to something good and they were letting me know that we (aka the City) needs to do more to promote public art projects like this since art runs deep in Kent’s DNA — both formally with the art education programs and professional galleries like the KSU Gallery and the McKay Bricker Gallery, and at the other end of the spectrum with a glom of indie artists randomly found around town doing their own thing in unexpected places (like streetcorners or at the Professor’s Pub).
I tend to agree that the City needs to do whatever it can to advance the arts — both the formal and informal forms of creative expression. I don’t make that statement to be politically correct or for some philanthropic agenda, rather if we’re serious about selling the Kent experience as an eclectic mix of characters, places and sensory stimuli then art has to be part of the community conversation and stake it’s claim at the alter of eccentric Kent. The adjectives and descriptors of art — quirky, surprising, confusing, thought provoking, and even shocking — also happen to pop up when talking about many aspects of Kent so in that regard art resonates and even amplifies the Kent ethos (or milieu for the high brow artists among us.)
Our efforts to market the Kent lifestyle is not unique to us — it’s the core of a lot of city development efforts. Those bold Texans in Austin have taken it so far as to proudly adopt the tag line “Keep Austin Wierd” in a national campaign to be the world headquarters of everything odd. You can’t help but admire the lengths they’ve gone to realize their aspiration — the video of the 6?4? cowboy walking down the street in his raw hide boots and matching thong did me in but clearly they have no fear in embracing their unique sense of style.
Another ambitious city that has embraced the off-beat is Asheville North Carolina. They’ve carved themselves a unique place in the mountains of North Carolina that is equal parts hippie and hill-billy – and it works really well. Great art, great street scene, great restaurants and a surprising mix of people of all kinds of dispositions.
It turns out that Asheville is one of the sources of inspiration for the Kent art mural project that has been adopted by the Haymaker Farmer’s Market. They’ve got their own infrastructure art thing 
going on.
Friends,
Spring is here, and so is the Haymaker Farmers’ Market spring meeting!
We have finally outgrown our living room and will be meeting at the Kent Free Library meeting room, next Saturday 27 March at 2:00 pm. I am attaching a map to this email with the location if you’re not familiar with Kent and where the library is located.
Our agenda will include discussions on:
Please, if anyone would like to add anything to the agenda, let me know and I’ll add it on. The meeting should be over in an hour or so, but we will have the room for two hours. The market board will meet from 1:30 until 2:00 pm before the general membership meeting in the adjacent Wiland Room.
All the best to everyone,
Fritz Seefeldt
Haymaker Farmers’ Market.
map to Kent Free Library-downtown Kent
Jo Anne and I join in wishing you and your loved ones a healthy, happy and prosperous 2010. There has been much joy along with some sadness during this past year. Cheers to better times ahead!
As market manager, part of my job is to facilitate improvements in our market location. Last year we were able to provide leveling of the north lot through generous donations and your hard work, gravel spreading, brush trimming and the placement of 6 permanent benches along Franklin Avenue in front of our market. Continuing in this vein, my friend Jeff Ingram of North Water Street Gallery and I along with artist Elaine Hullihen of Kent, met a few weeks ago and discussed the possibility of improving the appearance and ambiance of our market location.
Jeff, being well connected in Kent’s active arts and entertainment community contacted artist Elaine Hullihen, and asked if she would be interested in being involved in a mural project that would include the columns and lintels of the Haymaker viaduct. At our meeting, Elaine presented some of her ideas in the form of a scale model of the bridge painted with her concept and several sketches of details of those murals. I was very impressed with her talent, imagination and level of commitment not only to the project at hand, but also to our farmers’ market. At her request, I made some small suggestions of additional elements that might be included such as musicians, bakers and most importantly our loyal customers.
Elaine Hullihen and Fritz Seefeldt meet at North Water Street Gallery.
After completing the final concept and organizing it into a package, it will be presented to the city manager Dave Ruller along with Kent city council. Our ward council-person and board member Heidi Shaffer along with our city Service Director Gene Roberts will be over seeing city communications.
I am coordinating the funding and logistics part of the project. I am applying for an Ohio Arts Council funding grant and hope to have it completed in two weeks. We will also be seeking local funding through the city of Kent, private businesses and organizations as well as individuals.
A project such as this will serve to improve the ambiance of our market site, act as a reminder to the community of our market even during off season, allow community participation through funding and actual painting of the mural, and act as a media and public attraction for our Kent downtown business district. Please let us know what you think of this project and any ideas that may help to move us closer toward making it a reality.
All the best to everyone!
Fritz Seefeldt.
We had a great time last weekend and this coming Saturday, December 19th will be our final market until next summer! The market will be open from 9:00 am til 2:00 pm and is located inside the large heated garage behind our sponsors, Williams, Welser and Kratcoski LLC at 11 South River Street in beautiful downtown Kent! We hope you will be able to join us we celebrate the holidays with this special indoor event. We’ll have 35 vendors on hand offering fresh seasonal produce, locally roasted coffees, various artisan cheeses, fresh baked items of every sort and many locally crafted gift ideas just in time for the holidays. The Music @ the Market series continues with live music by Peggy Coyle and Brad Bolton, Jon Mosey and the Celtic Clan of Kent. We hope to see every one there!
Seasons best to everyone,
Fritz.
Bernie Chaykowski at Haymaker Holiday Market, 12 December 2009.
2009 Haymaker Holiday Market flier.
Thanks to the hard work of our good friend Kelly Ferry, the 2009 Holiday Market fliers are edited and Jo Anne had them printed at Wordsmiths here in Kent. We’ll be posting them around town on just about everything that doesn’t move quickly. If you would like to run a few off as well, you can find a link at the bottom of this post or just let me know and I’ll send you the pdf file. As you know, the market is less than a month away and the preparations are well under way. Our site is secured for the events, the musicians have been chosen and I’ve been in touch with the farmers, bakers and candlestick makers. It looks like we’re going to have about 30 vendors on hand again this year and we’ve expanded our winter Music @ the Market to 6 performances! We are looking forward to seeing everyone there and Jo Anne and I would like to wish everyone the happiest of holidays.
Fritz.
It was so nice today that I asked my dad if he wanted to go for a ride in the country to see a good friend. He was excited when I told him about visiting Rafael from the farmers’ market. So we set off to find the bakery of which I had only seen pictures. It was a short drive from Kent in nearby Nelson on the north east corner of the circle. The pictures that Rafael sent to us truly don’t do his bakery justice. It is beautiful, with a large wooden floored downstairs, heavy wooden beams, cherry sheathing on the ceiling, lots of high windows and a full balcony all around the 2nd floor.
Hot from the oven!
The baking part is on the second floor at the back of the building which was formerly a church and then a gymnasium for the Nelson schools before they joined with Garretsville. Rafael gave my dad and I as well as another couple, a full tour of his enterprise with the sounds of Pink Floyd echoing through the ancient building and the delicious smell of his breads baking in the oven.
The last 2 loaves!
The acoustics are amazing as you might imagine, it was a church after all, would really be a great place for a concert. By the time we left after saying our goodbyes and snapping a few pictures , all of the bread our friend had baked for the day had been sold and was on its way to appreciative families. Jo Anne is sitting at the dining room table now and says that I need to be sure to tell everyone that Rafael’s pumpkin bread is VERY good!!! Finally she brought me a piece too and I agree, very, very good indeed!! It would make a nice trip for you and your family and I’m sure Rafael will enjoy showing you his new bakery.
All the best to everyone!
Fritz.
Face Painter extraordinaire, Helena Esparza at Haymaker, summer 2009.
Haymaker Farmers’ Market has dedicated six new market benches that have been donated to the city of Kent. The benches have been installed by the Kent Service Department along Franklin Avenue in front of the farmers’ market site over this past summer season. The first bench has been provided by the farmers at the market in memory of former farmer and vendor, Frank Goodell. Mr. Goodell, who sold his family’s maple syrup at the market for years, passed away in 2008. In keeping the family tradition, the Goodell family still operates a stand every Saturday morning offering their fine maple syrup and related products. The Kent Environmental Council, one of Kent’s oldest volunteer institutions, has sponsored the second bench. Judge Barbara Watson along with Portage County Auditor Janet Esposito have expressed their appreciation for the market through their shared sponsorship of another of the series of benches. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent and the Kent Yoga Center, Brahmrishi Yoga have graciously provided two of the benches. The sixth in the series has been provided through a donation from baker and vendor Rafael Rodriguez and the farmers’ market. Mr. Rodriguez bakes authentic Spanish breads for his many fans at Haymaker every Saturday morning.
The benches are constructed of recycled plastic lumber from the Plastic Lumber Company of Akron. The legs, featuring an agricultural motif were designed by market manager, Fritz Seefeldt and fabricated by Quick Service Welding of Kent. The Remodeling and Construction program at Kent’s Theodore Roosevelt High School lead by instructor Don Titko assembled two of the benches. The manager assembled the final 4 benches.
The farmers’ market runs every Saturday rain or shine, from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm in the lots along Franklin Avenue between College and Summit Streets in downtown Kent. Saturday October 31st will mark the final day for the Kent market’s 2009 Summer/Fall season. Filling out the live performance Music @ the Market series will be guitarist Brian Henke, who will play from 10 am until noon. As always, the concert will be free and open to the public.
The market will reprise with two special indoor holiday markets on December 12th and 19th from 9 am until 2 pm. The indoor markets will be held in the garage provided by the law firm of Williams, Welser and Kratcoski LLC at 11 South River Street in downtown Kent.
Andrea Bussinger plays at Haymaker Holiday Market 13 December 2008.
Friends,
There will be two winter markets this coming December thanks to the generosity of our friends over at Williams, Welser and Kratcoski LLC at 11 South River Street in downtown Kent! We have formal approval for both the 12th and 19th opening at 9:00 am and running until 2:00 pm. The events will be held in the garage area behind the law offices.
Last year, we had close to 30 vendors for both events as well as live music during the markets, making it a perfect social destination before the holidays.
I hope to have a flier available for you to hand out to your customers for our last two markets of our summer season. If you’re interested in taking part in these two special indoor events, let me know and I’ll start the sign up process.
Thanks,
Fritz.
