Sisters Makers debuts with grand opening on Friday

Creative-minded entrepreneurs, rejoice. A new nonprofit is forming in town, offering downtown office and studio space along with ambitious plans for resources and events. Sisters Makers kicks off with a Grand Opening this Friday, June 28.

With the help of local partners and supporters, a makers group spearheaded by Shannon Thorson secured a discounted lease on the City of Sisters-owned building at the corner of North Spruce Street and East Main Avenue, the former Chamber of Commerce building.

The mission of Sisters Makers is to support artists, makers, growers, and innovators with facilities, education, and advocacy. Some small entrepreneurs have already joined up, gaining access to space in the building, which also hosts vendors in collaboration with Sisters Farmers Market.

"I'm excited. It's going well," Thorson told The Nugget. The Makers building rents artisan and office spaces at roughly 30 percent below market rate, along with floating work space featuring locker storage and common space for classes, meetings, and pop-up retail.

"We're not a hobby shop," Thorson clarified. "It's a very intentionally focused effort to help grow creatives that are moving and shaking."

Developing a Sisters Makers District and promoting Sisters Country as the "Artisanal Capital of Oregon" are specified in the Sisters Country Vision established by local community and governmental entities five years ago.

"If we're going to develop Sisters as Oregon's artisanal capital, we need to create a feeder system to build up our own artists," Thorson explained. "We don't want to build this solely on the backs of wealthier artists that move in from other places. Artists here need support to succeed and stay in this community."

Thorson said she was grateful to the City of Sisters for its role in securing the building. City council members showed "huge understanding that as Sisters becomes more expensive to live in, we must supercharge our own entrepreneurs," Thorson said. "The gap between income and cost of housing here is greater than even in really rural, low-income communities."

"People don't really realize that," Thorson stated. She has found that many people assume "everybody has money" in Sisters.

"That's very much not the case," she said. Homes in other small towns like Maupin are more accessible to purchasers such as new entrepreneurs and young people. Local entrepreneurship, Thorson believes, can support multigenerational living in Sisters.

Photo by T. Lee Brown

Colorful grow lights illuminate Leafy Luxuries microgreens and their growers, Winter Robinson (left) and Christian Zundel, plus Buddy (center). The company is among Sisters Makers' first cohort of members.

Leafy Luxuries is one of Sisters Makers' first member-tenants in the new building. Founded by Winter Robinson and Christian Zundel, the company grows nutrient-dense microgreens, selling at the farmers market and to restaurant chefs, among other distribution channels.

Said Robinson, "I'm excited to be one of the first people in the Makers building. It's going to be a really great opportunity for artists, builders, younger people in general to really do stuff in the community. I feel like this is the first of its kind here in town."

"The building is nice," added Zundel. "For us it's a central location; I'm excited about the additional visibility. Our stall in the farmers market is right there."

Sisters Farmers Market and its parent organization, Seed to Table, helped Thorson with the collaborative effort to lease the new Makers building (Click here to see related story.). The building opens directly onto Fir Street Park, where the market takes place on Sundays in season.

"Shannon is great to work with and really flexible with us," market manager Willa Bauman said of Thorson. "She's a strong supporter of Sisters Farmers Market, which we really appreciate."

Thorson often refers to a familiar sight in the Pacific Northwest: fish ladders. Salmon and steelhead swim up rivers to mate, dig their redds, and lay their eggs. But dams prevent the fish from returning upriver to be productive and fertile, to ensure the health of their species and bring important nutrients to the forest.

Fish ladders were added to help fish get where they need to go. These passageways enable at least a small percentage of fish to go up and around the steep dams to their spawning grounds. Without the ladders, the fish wouldn't stand a chance.

Small entrepreneurs in the maker, craft, agricultural, and arts sectors often face similar obstacles. They struggle upstream, blocked by out-of-reach real estate costs, lack of business knowledge, and competition from large corporations that engage cheap labor outside the U.S.

A town that wants access to genuinely local goods-which are attractive to residents and tourists alike-may need to provide structural support.

"We're here to be a fish ladder for those who know where they want to go," a Makers statement explains, "leaping and lunging to get there, but need a helping hand."

Eric Strobel is the Sisters Area Director for EDCO, the nonprofit Economic Development for Central Oregon and a key collaborator in the Makers story.

"It's awesome," Strobel said of Makers. "I see Makers through an EDCO lens, as an incubator, producing small businesses that are educated, that are wanting to scale, and wanting to produce."

In collaboration with local experts and possibly Central Oregon Community College, he envisions Sisters Makers providing essential education and resources.

"(Learning) how to write a business plan, having speakers come in-that doesn't really exist here," said Strobel. "We have authors and music coming here, but this doesn't exist yet."

The launch event will be the first time Sisters Makers participates in the monthly 4th Friday Artwalk, a program of Sisters Arts Association. Friends & Vine will provide food, beer, and wine.

Live music will be featured, along with a preview of the visitor information displays currently in development by Explore Sisters.

For the opening, Roundhouse Foundation curated artworks by Alfonso Fernandez and Christie Lower in the Makers building. Lower is from Eastern Oregon, where the animals and landscape inspire her needle felting and textile sculptures. Fernandez is a visual artist who comes to Central Oregon via Baltimore, Minneapolis, and Veracruz; he positions his work as "redefining cultural boundaries through art."

Sisters Makers Grand Opening will take place Friday, June 28, from 5 to 7 p.m. at 291 E. Main Ave. All are welcome; no entrance fee or RSVP is required. For more information, visit http://www.sistersmakers.com.