Pico Market Exchange

About

For more info on Market Exchange: marketexchange.18thstreet.org
& https://18thstreet.org/exhibitions/
For more info on the Pico Pop-Up: https://picopassport.com/

Market Exchange is a collaboration between Santa Monica artisans and Cog•nate Collective that creates platforms for empowerment by establishing alternative economic forms of self-determination for local crafts people and small businesses. This collaboration is dedicated to honoring the richness of artisan production in Santa Monica towards developing a community-envisioned and community-directed marketplace that will amplify the works of local artisans and artists, while providing sustainable economic opportunities.

The installation Manos a la Obra – hosted virtually at marketexchange.18thstreet.org and in-person at Pico Pop Up (2917 Pico Blvd in Santa Monica) as part of the exhibition Un Mundo Nuevo en Pico – brings together handmade items that were created and curated by an inter-generational group of women artisans from Santa Monica. The group’s work celebrates the resilience and the power of working women, whose daily social, emotional, cultural and artistic labor in our neighborhoods sustains the power, and vivacity of our community. This installation is comprised by and dedicated to working women and the expansive forms of labor they enable on Pico Blvd, and every street.

A portion of the sales from the handmade products sold during this exhibition will fund the collaborative’s long-term goal of establishing a community artisan marketplace.

The Pico Pop Up is a project of the Pico Improvement Organization (PIO) and supported by the City of Santa Monica’s Art of Recovery program. As part of an ongoing effort to transform vacant storefronts, Pico Improvement Org is reimagining the former Nancy’s Nails storefront at 2917 Pico Boulevard into a Pico Pop Up art gallery featuring local artists and artisans, with the goal of eventually welcoming a permanent vibrant creative small business to the Pico Blvd. community. PIO celebrates the diverse neighborhood and incredible merchants along Pico Blvd in Santa Monica, with its colorful murals, restaurants, coffee houses, pet spas, bars, fitness studios and so much more. More information here: www.picopassport.com.