San Rafael Summer Market is Back!
5–9 PM on 4th Street between Lootens Place and B Street, including the San Rafael City Plaza
San Rafael Summer Market is back! This year’s downtown summer market is moving to the second Friday of the summer months, coinciding with the 2nd Friday Art Walk. We’re planning these limited Friday evening events to be a major summertime destination for friend, neighbors, the whole family. Bring your picnic blankets to dine al fresco in the grassy area in front of Bank of America and stop by the beer garden.
Art
Feathered Friends: Conservation & Sketching
Presented by MarinMOCA and Youth In Arts
Get ready to embark on a creative and scientific journey through Marin’s vibrant bird life, blending expert conservation insight and artistic inspiration! Get a primer on bird life in Marin, discover local bird sounds, and learn the basics of field sketching.
● Point Blue Conservation Science: With a team of 160 scientists, Point Blue is dedicated to tackling climate change, habitat loss, and environmental threats by developing nature-based solutions that benefit both wildlife and people. Their long-term monitoring in Marin has helped protect a diverse community of breeding birds, ensuring that local species thrive.
● Tiffany Bozic: Renowned for her vibrant, meticulously researched paintings, Tiffany Bozic explores the wonders of biodiversity through art. Her work, inspired by field expeditions and a deep love of nature, invites viewers to see the connections between all living things.
Pathways for Pollinators
Presented by Youth In Arts teaching artist, Shirl Buss
Inspired by sketches and photos of Marin’s vibrant bird, butterfly, and bee life, each participant will create a small model of a pollinator pathway, featuring miniature natural and constructed habitats along the way. Individual models can be joined together into a large pollinator pathway, while participants enjoy 2nd Friday festivities, then they make take their individual creation home.
Shirl Buss is a Youth in Arts teaching artist, designer, educator and urban planner. For more than 25 years, Shirl has worked with children and adults on architectural, interpretive design and community development projects, with a specialty in consensus-based participation in the design process. She is an award-winning researcher and educator who has lectured in design and architecture at San Francisco State University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and California College of the Arts. Shirl has directed programs, facilitated professional development workshops and taught K-college students in schools, museums and informal settings including SFMOMA, Headlands Center for the Arts, Zeum, Asian Art Museum, Museum of Children’s Art and Headlands Center for the Arts. Shirl feels that projects focused on the built environment create a framework for powerful learning about self, about the physical and natural world, and about community. The processes encouraged in the best design and architectural studios – critical thinking, creative problem solving, teamwork and integrative learning – are those which are central to a high-quality educational experience.
Entertainment
Center of market (across from Plaza), 5-9pm
Food and Beverage
Put together a personalized tasting of small bites from Mr. Dimsum, La Esperanza Pupuseria, and our plethora of dessert vendors. Or grab your friends and head over to the beer garden with a burrito or burger from Porchetta/Pibil and Madinah Mealz. Local favorite Pond Farm Brewing Co. will be pouring craft brews to those 21+. And of course, our farmers will be there with the season’s best stone fruits, berries, and veggies for you to stock your fridge for the rest of the weekend.
Interested vendors can submit an application through your Manage my Market account. You can find the link on AIM’s website at: https://www.agriculturalinstitute.org/joinourmarkets. Participating vendors must be small, independently owned businesses approved to attend by AIM. All participating vendors must be growing or producing their own products, be licensed, and insured.
Product Categories:
Food purveyors, emphasizing local and culturally traditional foods prepared on-site
Packaged artisanal pantry items, bottled beverages, baked goods like cookies and breads
Farmers emphasizing summer fruit, flowers, and wine
Artists and makers emphasizing handmake art, clothing, and jewelry
Downtown San Rafael merchants
Non-profit and community organizations