September 5, 2023

Art Toolkit at THING

It was such a joy to meet a new community of artists and to share our products with festival-goers from near and far.

By The Art Toolkit Team

An assortment of watercolor supplies is displayed on a wooden table, and in metal grid shelves above.

We were thrilled to join the THING Vendor Market this August! THING is a music and arts festival at historic Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, WA. The annual event features a tightly curated lineup of diverse performers, including a distinctive mix of music, comedy, visual arts, and speakers.⁠

Five people grouped together in a white market tent smile at the camera with Art Toolkit products and images around them.
Everyone took turns working shifts in the bright, colorful Art Toolkit booth.

With a few in-person events under our belt earlier this summer, our team set out to make an inviting and inspiring booth to display our products, sketching supplies, and examples of artwork to get festival-goers excited about making art during the weekend! Art Toolkit founder Maria Coryell-Martin led Daily Demos, where folks had the opportunity to try our products and sketch views of the park and festival.

A loose sketch of a crowd of people painted purple with big dark green bushes and a stage in the background, with THING Music Festival Port Townsend written in the foreground.
A sketch of Jeremiah Greene stage by Cassedy Mahrer Owen who was happy to share her art!

It was such a joy to meet a new community of artists. Fellow market vendors like Thunderpants and Type Townsend sneaked across the market path during slow moments to purchase their own Art Toolkits! Although our in-person events are all-ages, we’ve never seen so many people of different ages engaging with art in the same place! Groups of teenagers came through to see what our booth was all about; kids scurried around, eagerly filling up demo pages with bold brushstrokes and drawings of little cats. Everyone loved playing with the configurable watercolor palettes we had laid out to try, and the ZigZag books were a hit!

Snapshots from our booth

Have glimpse inside!

An open paint-filled palette with sample drawing supplies and a paper that says "Try me!"
Festival-goers tried the Explore Palette Plus in our booth and at Daily Demos with Maria.
A wooden table covered in drawing supplies like pens, palettes, and sketchbooks arranged neatly.
We brought a selection of sketching supplies like brushes, pens, and pencils.
A wall with art, a photo of someone in the arctic, a banner reading Art Toolkit, Art Anytime Anywhere, and art toolkits on display.
A corner of our booth with a favorite image of Maria sketching in the Arctic.
Hanging baskets and wooden boxes filled with Art Toolkits next to a hanging plant.
Pocket Art Toolkits were the popular size at THING, but don’t the A5s look so bold and beautiful?
An open folio palette with dozens of mini paint pans and lots of extra space to fill with loose pans on the table around it.
Our Folio Palette can fit 60 Mini Pans of paint.
Heart-shaped stickers with the Art Toolkit logo, stacks of business postcards, and a newsletter sign-up clipboard on a table.
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All in all, THING was so much fun and so much work! We knew it was a big undertaking for our small team, but we pulled it off and are super proud of our very first booth. Thank you to the Seattle Theatre Group for putting on the event and to everyone who came by to say hello!
An artist sites on a rock, dipping a paintbrush in a Pocket Palette.

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