A more than century-old building in the heart of downtown Zanesville’s Art District now houses The Elk’s Eye Art Market, a juried art retail market featuring unique work from over 20 Southeastern Ohio artists.
The three-story building originally built in 1913 and home to the Elks Lodge until about 2011, entered into a sheriff’s sale two years ago. The building had been declining for a decade and was at risk of being torn down. Carol Bridwell purchased the property and envisioned bringing the iconic Zanesville building back to life. After two years of working through the restoration process, the opening of The Elks Eye Art Market was celebrated through a big reveal with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house on Friday, August 4.
“So what we’ve tried to do is restore a classic Zanesville building back to its original glory,” said Carol’s daughter, Stephanie Bridwell. “We’ve converted it into an art market because with our art community, a lot of people come on First Friday but it is hard to find those artists when they are only set up in that three-hour window. So what we’re trying to do is have something with regular hours so when you want to come and buy a piece of art we’re here Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday and we have a variety of art. That was one of my mother’s goals, to bring that variety of art.”
The building has about 5100 square feet of space for artists’ work to be displayed for sale. A plethora of artwork can be found within the market’s walls, including ceramics, paintings, stained glass, hand-woven rugs, duck decoys, beer bottle cap art, metal work, fiber, jewelry, wooden bowls, pottery, and photography.
“I think people are going to enjoy seeing something new. We want to show that it (art) is a lot of different varieties. And we want to appeal to a different crowd and just let everybody know that what you like is welcome,” explained Stephanie.
Stephanie’s grandmother was an art teacher in the 80s and 90s. Several of her paintings are now part of the market. Additionally, Carol also has some of her work, colorful hand-woven rag rugs, available for sale. One artist had one of his pieces displayed in the State House while others have never shown their work before. “We have some people that are going to be undiscovered treasures for the community,” stated Stephanie.
Stephanie added, “The coolest part of this is talking to these artists and hearing their stories and how much they enjoy the process of creation.”
The Elk’s Eye Art Market is located at 22 South 4th Street in Zanesville and is open four days a week, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. You can find them on Facebook at Elks Eye Endeavors.
