Sydney (cute) art market event organiser ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

Market Gap

As an independent artist myself, I sell my art online in the form of merchandise – stationery, stickers, greeting cards and more. Although this was fulfilling, I yearned for a deeper connection with my customers and audience. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to physically interact with the people who support me?

I was aware of the existence of physical events, where artists could sell their products. However most of these art markets were either themed (e.g. anime, comics) or too broad (e.g. Glebe markets, local street markets). None existed within my niche of cute, original art – think cute characters from Sanrio, Gudetama, Miffy, Pokemon.

So I thought:

"Why don't I just create it myself?"

❓Challenge: How can we conceptualise & deliver a unique art market that is memorable, un-missable, with distinct value, different from other similar events? How can we better support both artists and event-goers, and cater to their interests?

❣️ What we did: We decided on a smaller scale, curated event to support the needs of both artists and attendees.

Why? We realised that most markets catered for the event organisers – having more artists = attract more attendees = bigger event = more money made for the hosts (but not necessarily more money for artists).

However, with more artists, attendees are less likely to have the opportunity to see everyone at the event, it just becomes too overwhelming.

In 2023, we held two HUEHUE art markets at Tramsheds – the first in April, and another in December. It was a huge success and we received countless positive feedback!

• 3000+ attendees over two events – the venue was packed!
• $100k+ revenue overall generated into our artists' pockets
• Collaborated with Malaysian planner brand Mossery to give our artists the opportunity create custom notebook covers
• Sponsored by Happy Cap Studio – a local photobooth studio in Burwood
• Partnered with Ice Kirin Bar – local gelato store

But most of all, the biggest impact we believe we had, was bringing a niche community together to create meaningful connections that exist outside of social media!

It was hard... but I learned a lot!

• With no prior event organising experience, organising HUEHUE was a huge learning curve. I learned how to purchase insurance from a broker, how to hire a venue, how to promote an event (so that our efforts would not go to waste), how to work with a partner to bring our vision to life, how to crowd control and so much more.
• It is one of, if not the hardest things I've ever done – there were countless days of self-doubt leading up to the event, and endless thoughts of "this is going to fail". But ultimately, persistence and perseverance with a dream in mind paid off!