Culture Collectives Grand Opening

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Bob Koch

The Culture Collectives Pop-Up Shop is located in adjacent storeftongs at 440 and 444 State Street.

It's hard to believe, but it's already time to start thinking about holiday gifts. Along with the return this fall of many yearly arts/crafts/vendors sales, the city of Madison Downtown Business Improvement District has helped coordinate a pair of pop-up shop locations on State Street. Curated in collaboration with the Madison Black Chamber of Commerce, Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce and Latino Chamber of Commerce of Dane County, Culture Collectives features 11 small businesses owned by people of color. Offering items from art to clothing and accessories and more, the storefronts are open daily from 10 a.m.-6 p.m., through the holiday season and continuing into 2022. The grand opening event from 4-9 p.m. is part of the October edition of the Madison Night Market; a ribbon cutting takes place at 7 p.m., next door in Peace Park.

media release: The Culture Collectives are now open on State Street! Eleven vendors were selected to pop-up their businesses in the two storefronts located at 440 and 444 State Street. While these businesses are open now Sunday through Saturday from 10am-6pm, the official grand opening of the Culture Collectives Pop-Up Shops is this Friday, October 22, from 4-9pm in conjunction with the Madison Night Market. The grand opening ceremony starts at 7pm at Lisa Link Peace Park next to the shops which are located on 440 and 444 State Street. Come celebrate with us, meet the new pop-up shop vendors, and win door prizes!

The businesses are:

 Ardorposh is a contemporary and modest clothing boutique for women who desire trendy styles.

 Better Footprints is an eco-friendly shop for reusable and naturally made products such as solid shampoo bars, toxic free makeup, reusable straws, bamboo toothbrushes and much more.

 DKs Boutique is a small boutique store that sells unique accessories for all ages.

 El Legado is a company that offers clothes, accessories, jewelry, and genuine handmade items shipped from their home countries.

 Intuition Productions is a multi-media edutainment production and merchandise company.

 Madame Chu Delicacies is a company that offers handcrafted products specializing in Southeast Asian delicacies.

 Marche-Isa Co is a small shop selling clothing and accessories from Africa.

 Nobbits USA is a company that sells high-performance shoelaces.

 Oceans Laugh is a company that sells flower bath kits and jars.

 OnlyOne Photography is a company that offers photography services and art for wall decoration.

 Restoration Soap & Bodycare is a soap company that produces natural and sustainable sourced products using unique oil  blends, purees and botanicals from around the globe.

“I’m excited that we are able to provide this opportunity to these small businesses, all owned by people of color,” said Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, “These vendors are unique and diverse. Most of their products you cannot get anywhere else in the city, which is why these pop-ups will enhance the special shopping experience on State Street.”

The Madison Pop-Up Shop Program is a new city of Madison initiative to support small-scale, less-resourced businesses and fill vacant storefronts as the community recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This program, announced earlier this year, is a collaboration between the City of Madison, JD McCormick Properties, the Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce, the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Dane County, the Madison Black Chamber of Commerce and the Madison’s Central Business Improvement District.

“I am so proud of our partners in making this pop-up shop program a reality,” said Saran Ouk, City of Madison Office of Business Resources Manager, “This collaboration is helping to create opportunities for small, minority-owned businesses in our community, helping customers access unique shopping experiences and increasing foot traffic to State Street.”