AUSTIN, Texas — While many people hit the malls and online shopping for Black Friday, some Austinites chose to shop local at the Blue Genie Art Bazaar instead. The Art Bazaar with 200 local artists is officially back for the holiday season.
“A lot of people in the community have made this a tradition for their holidays, and they come back with their families every year,” said Lani Gonzalez, Managing Director, Blue Genie Art Bazaar.
The Blue Genie Art Bazaar started back in 2001, when the four owners of Blue Genie Art Industries decided to open their shop and have other employees sell their art as well. Every year, the group gets more than 400 artists to apply to sell their pieces at the market, choosing around 200.
The Art Bazaar has hundreds of pieces of art, ceramics, candles and a multitude of other holiday gifts.
“We love that people are kind of putting back into the community,” Gonzalez said. “I know that there's not like Black Friday deals here, but you get really unique stuff and really high-quality stuff made by people in the community."
The shop will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day from now until Christmas Eve. It will close at 6 p.m. on Dec. 24.