Today is the last Last Thursday before Christmas and you should go. I love Last Thursday more than almost all other Portland events. Local artists and performers get to set up booths and do their thing on Alberta St. without having to reserve or pay for stalls or performance spaces. It’s guerilla art at no cost to the artist. Despite Alberta St.’s imminent and controversial gentrification, Last Thursday is still a chance for no-name, no-money artists to get seen and make a buck. Most of the artwork I have bought in Portland, I got at Last Thursday. I adore having local genius up on my walls.
We are past Black Friday, but intense holiday shopping continues, and I’m sure there are many readers out there who feel a pang of guilt and anxiety when I say this, because they haven’t even started yet. Neither have I, really, and I’m proud not to be part of the hysterical consumerism binge yet. I want to encourage everyone to buy local items as gifts and decorations. Sure, you can get convenient one-stop shopping at the mall, but what if you put in a little extra effort to make sure you buy local, sustainable, and recycled products? Since Portland artisans tend to be conscientious, you can often buy sustainable and recycled products simply by buying local talent. But let’s concentrate on the importance of the local-ness factor. A traditional holiday shopping trip might take you to the mall where you pay your money to a multi-million (inter)national chain. Some of that money does go back into our economy through taxes and wages to the workers who live in your neighborhood. But the rest of that money goes to this giant nebulous chain that sucks up profits and distributes them elsewhere. And those standard metallic ornaments in your shopping cart? Check the box to see where they were made. China? India? Indonesia? I can almost guarantee you they were not made in the US and certainly not in Portland. You are probably paying a lot for a product made at a tiny fraction of the cost, where the workers may be being exploited (they’re far away so you will never be able to tell for sure) in a place with very few pollution regulations.
When you buy locally made products, you know that the money is going right back into the local economy through taxes, wages, and probably the profit (the company owners aren’t as likely to go spend it somewhere else). You know that it is being produced under pollution and workers’ rights regulations. You could probably go check out the company to see if it meets your satisfaction, if you wanted to. And if you buy something that isn’t mass produced, but made by a local artist, you know that it is unique and you are supporting the arts in your community. How much better will you feel after your Christmas shopping if you have a personal story for every ornament on your tree and every gift under it?
There are lots of places and events where you can buy items made by local artists. I will blog about more of them later, but I want to encourage people to go out to Last Thursday tonight. It’s a good opportunity to spend your money on local artists and businesses. Know that it’s almost like giving a present to yourself when the economy benefits.
Last Thursday is on NE Alberta St. starting at about NE 15th St. and going upward until about NE 30th St..
No Comments