One season ends while another begins for the Kenosha HarborMarket — and that’s great news for lovers of local artisan goods.
The HarborMarket’s last outdoor market of the season is Saturday (Oct. 30), but the market has a new home lined up for its indoor market starting the following week — Saturday, Nov. 6 at the Kenosha Union Club, 3030 39th Ave.
The market announced the indoor location recently, as it moves from the Kenosha Masonic Center, where it held its indoor event in 2019 after 13 years at the Rhode Center for the Arts. There was no indoor HarborMarket during the pandemic in 2020.
“We will be a weekly shopping destination,” Executive Director Andrea Forgianni said this week. “We will have a little bit of everything, from produce to proteins. Most of the vendors, people will recognize from our outdoor market.”
The indoor HarborMarket will be open Saturdays through April 30, 2022, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., but will be closed for the holidays on Dec. 18, Dec. 25 and Jan. 1.
The new location is more centrally located to residents across the city and area, and includes more convenient parking. It is also on Kenosha Area Transit Route 5.
“This truly is a best-of-all-worlds situation,” HarborMarket Board President Kristeen Morgenroth said in a release. “We’ve got ample parking, a building that’s handicapped accessible, a spacious layout and a newer facility. That offers the perfect setting for our diverse array of vendors.”
Kenosha Union Club President/Recording Secretary Bradley Kalcic said the site’s board of directors is excited about the partnership. “We are looking forward to hosting these future events and growing our new relationship,” he said in the release.
Added Forgianni: “They are very gracious hosts. They have never hosted a weekly event like this before, and they have been very helpful. I consider them a partner because we couldn’t do this without their generosity and support.”
“We will be a weekly shopping destination.”
– Andrea Forgianni, HarborMarket executive director
Vendors are fully on board. The market is already at capacity through the end of 2021, with more than 30 vendors, and they have begun “flowing outside,” Forgianni said. Several weeks in 2022 still have openings.
The indoor market is also accepting SNAP/EBT, with more than a dozen vendors participating in the program and the market offering a matching program of up to $20 per week for customers.
Morgenroth said the re-establishment of the winter HarborMarket after a yearlong hiatus is further fulfillment of the event’s nonprofit mission. “This isn’t just about having a place for the market,” she said in a release. “It’s about serving the community with the market.”
