JustArts chatted with Marissa Lazar '14 and Andrea Stern '14 about the upcoming fair they planned for student vendors.

JustArts: So I understand that this is the first time that we've had an arts and crafts fair for student vendors. Where did this idea come from?

Andrea Stern: Well, I was on Facebook and it came up on my news feed that Marissa sold jewelry that she made online, on Etsy. So I clicked on the link and I thought that everything she made looked amazing. The next day I saw her in the library and she happened to be wearing a ring that she had made, and I said "Your stuff is incredible! What if you were able to sell your jewelry on campus?" We have so many vendors that come-outside vendors that don't work for Brandeis. ... I spoke to her about the idea, and Marissa is the [Undergraduate Department Representative] for the Fine Arts department, and she said "That's amazing! Because I have to do an event anyway, so let's make it happen."

Marissa Lazar: When Andrea came up to me, she wanted to interview me about my work, and I was thinking, that's so unfair for me to be interviewed about my Etsy page when I have a bunch of friends in the Art department who have their own websites, sell their own photography, sell their own jewelry, mini sculptures, everything. ... So when she came to interview me, we just rambled back and forth, and this idea formed in five minutes.

JA: How long have you been planning the fair, and what has gone into that process?

AS: Way into the semester. I think that there were definitely emails that went back and forth, and then we got [Director of Student Activities] Stephanie Grimes on board.

ML: And then there was a boy from Entrepreneurship Club, Nathan Feldman '14, who was working with the art professors in the department, trying to set up a student-run art show for artists to be their own marketing agents too. We got in contact with him, and we all put our ideas together, and that's actually really how this came up.

AS: It's been a collaborative process. We've met a couple times. It took a couple months-we didn't want this to be rushed. We met last semester, but we said we didn't want to do this that semester-we wanted people to use their breaks to make art, to have enough to sell and really be able to show off all the great products that they make.

ML: Taking it from someone who is in art classes, and my business is on the side. You have paintings that are due constantly and have to work on the side. You don't have the time to do it on your own time at school, so we were like "oh, you can do it during the break." And now we're joking that you can get a Valentine's Day present because it's so early!

JA: Besides Stephanie Grimes, have you reached out to any faculty or staff members while planning?

AS: We're really hoping we can get faculty and staff at the event, so that way they can really see the work that their students do.

ML: [Feldman] was really working with a lot of the faculty originally, with his idea, because he's not in the Art department and felt like he didn't know as much about the department, so he did a lot of research and he came to the table with some advice from our teachers. A lot of our professors sell their own work in galleries and different spaces already, so we spoke to a few of them about some advice, but we're just really hoping that they'll come and be good customers.

JA: What sort of art will be in the fair?

ML: We have a range. We tried to advertise to people outside of the art department as well. ... There is one boy [Gustavo Lopes '15] who has his own clothing company, so he will be selling clothing. It's called NlightN. ... There's two people selling jewelry, myself included. There will be, I think, some people selling photographs they've made, some people selling prints. I think there's one table that's going to be a mix of different crafts, too. Metalworking Club will be there, too.

JA: Can you tell us when and where we can come visit?

AS: The [Shapiro Campus Center], Friday, Jan. 24, 2 to 5 p.m. in the Atrium.

-Rachel Hughes