Art-PI brings colorful art market to life

As students attending one of the oldest technological universities, artistic talents hidden among the student body are easy to overlook. This past Friday, however, GZ Basement and RPI Art Club collaborated on a unique event that brought to life the creative spirit at RPI.

GZ Basement is a unique student-run DIY music and arts club that is dedicated to providing a space for all RPI student artists to produce and share their art. The club is known for its concerts, open mic nights, art shows, and other events that showcase and promote the art of its members and others within the RPI and Troy community. RPI Art Club shares the mission of providing opportunities for student artists to work on their art, regardless of medium, in a collaborative, supportive setting. Together, these two clubs provided an opportunity for up-and-coming student artists to share their art with the community while also making a profit.

For around two hours, students across campus were invited to explore, enjoy, and purchase art created by their fellow students at an intimate market set up in Mother’s on the first floor of the Union. The ambiance of the room was both warm and welcoming with dimmed, low lighting and a live jazz band. Tables were set up around the perimeter of the room, allowing plenty of space for students to meander, discuss with artists, and make their purchases.

There was a large variety of art around the room with many unique crafts on sale, ranging from jewelry to photography to food. A popular item found at many booths around the room was crochet animals. In recent years, crochet, which was once considered an activity reserved for elderly women, has made a comeback with the younger generations. Cute crochet animals definitely had their place at the market.

Animal features were not only reserved for the crocheters present. Hana Mali ’26 had a wide selection of pottery available, including many pieces that creatively incorporated animals. Mali began working with pottery in high school and has continued to sculpt since then.

An event like this would not be complete without the opportunity to eat a yummy homemade snack, which could be found at Jamie’s Baked Goods’ table. The event menu included scallion pancakes, coconut pie, brownie muffins, and a few other treats. The food went quickly with many satisfied looks around the room from market goers.

For some artists, the market was their debut. This was the case for Laura Laurent ’26, who was selling her homemade candles. Laurent saw the flyers for the Art Market around campus and had been excited to share her candles with the community. These candles are made primarily with beeswax, some soy wax, and essential oils for the scent. Laurent allowed me to smell many of these candles, with my favorite of her scents being vanilla rose and lavender.

The most unique art present at the event belonged to Tyler McCabe ’26, who was selling chain mail. McCade started out with his passion for working with armor. In October, he attended a GZ Basement Halloween concert in a full suit of armor, which is how he found out about the club. He has only started working on his chain mail jewelry in the past month after complaints from his dorm neighbors that his armor work was too loud. McCade was actively working on jewelry at the event to ensure that purchased jewelry fit his customers just right.

The Art Market was a great opportunity for artists around campus to get together and share their craft, an opportunity that can be difficult to find at RPI. A member of GZ Basement, Avi McGrady ’28, spoke on the importance of the event to him and his peers: “We just thought it would be cool to have some kind of art thing because there isn’t many of those on campus that rally student artists and things like that very often.” The dedication of the artists, GZ Basement, and the Art Club was evident, and the support for the event across campus really made the market come alive.