Every Saturday afternoon, the West Campus food truck park fills up with a variety of vendors selling art, vintage clothes and handcrafted jewelry.
Hosted by The Glassmith and advertising alumnus Baxter Wright, the West Campus Vendor Market is held every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and often features free pancakes and live music. Wright said he hopes to build a community of student entrepreneurs, where UT students can start their own businesses and sell their creations.
“I lived in West Campus for so long, going to school out here,” Wright said. “I wanted to find a way to stay true to (my) roots.”
Ken Ketchum, an arts and entertainment technologies sophomore, sells digital prints at the vendor market. Ketchum said he started drawing at a young age and began selling his work at art markets in his junior year of high school.
“I like to be experimental with texture and composition,” Ketchum said. “I draw in black and white a lot, but I’m implementing color where I can.”
Billy Marsden, founder of The Glassmith — a glassblowing studio and smoke shop that operates out of a West Campus trailer — said when Wright asked him to use the space to host a vendor market, he enthusiastically agreed.
“(West Campus) is like the fountain of youth,” Marsden said. “It’s so tight. It’s a small area, everything is stacked on top of each other.”
Avy Friedman, Wright’s cousin and the founder of Double Take Gems, sells jewelry made of bottle caps, charms and buttons. Friedman said that she collected bottle caps with her dad growing up and started selling her jewelry in 2021 to donate to mutual aid causes.
“I love a creative outlet, and I ended up working in a job that’s essentially making crafts all day,” Friedman said. “Since my stuff is super colorful and more abstract, I love hearing people’s interpretations of it.”
At Lily Sanchez’s stand, each customer picks out 16 to 20 charms, which Sanchez uses to make an Italian charm bracelet. She also sells handcrafted jewelry and clothes and has a stand where customers can make do-it-yourself crafts.
“My demographic is mostly college students,” Sanchez said. “I’m 19, so anything I do is inherently going to be targeted towards them because I try to do everything within my style.”
Oscar Salazar, who owns the vintage clothes shop R & L Vintage with his sister, also performs as a drag queen. Salazar said he often does his vendor events in drag.
“I try to mesh the two together to create a brand,” Salazar said. “It’s pretty challenging — I have the full glitz, glam and heels and I’m trying to set up my clothes and table. But once everything’s set up, … it’s easy to spark a conversation.”
Wright said he wanted to be a creative outlet for the West Campus community, providing a space for new entrepreneurs to sell at a market and musicians with the opportunity to perform their first-ever set.
“We want to give the West Campus community a spot to wake up to on Saturday mornings,” Wright said.