The backstory
The event first launched at music venue Armadillo World Headquarters in 1976 with 50 vendors with the intent to save the venue from closing.
While the event brought the headquarters four more years, the space officially closed in 1980 and the experience moved across the city. The venue shifted from South Austin, Austin Opera House, Austin Music Hall and Austin Convention Center before landing at Palmer Events Center in 2010.
From Dec. 13-21, the bazaar will fill the Palmer Events Center from floor to ceiling with a variety of art ranging from jewelry and ceramics to woodwork and paintings accompanied by live music, seasonal cocktails and food.
In previous years the event highlighted music legends such as Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen and Count Basie.
“It’s such a creative high,” executive producer Bruce Willenzik said. “We have artists say it's the well spring of creativity. I get around all these other creators and we bounce off of each other. The energy just grows and we come out of there so inspired.”
Willenzik has been the brains behind the operation since its inception. He’s been able to watch the event and its vendors expand throughout the years.
“I got to see so many young artists, both exhibitors and performers, grow and prosper as they built careers—many to national prominence coming from the show,” Willenzik said. “I got to see our exhibitors evolve. Now we have a really wonderful assortment of better quality gifts and a selection of fine art that would be worthy of any of the top galleries in the country.”
Producer and general manager Anne Johnson has been in the Armadillo scene since she was a child. As the daughter of two Armadillo employees, she started her career at the bazaar at five years old passing out flyers to local businesses in a Radio Flyer Wagon.
“Some families have Christmas dinner or their Christmas traditions. We had Armadillo,” Johnson said. “My dad always told us that Armadillo was what our Christmas was about and the way he funded our Christmas and that's where our Christmas presents came from.”
Artist and longtime attendee Greg Davis has his fair share of transformative memories from the bazaar. In one of his early years selling his photography at Armadillo in 2009, an employee with National Geographic viewed his pieces and one year later, Davis was offered a contract with the publication.
“It's really important for me as part of my business to have that direct connection with the collector who gets to come and meet me personally and I get to share with them and I get to also witness how they're moved by the work itself,” Davis said. “I feel like that's what we do as visual artists when we're standing in front of our work and the Armadillo allows us that.”
Looking forward
The bazaar has impacted generations of employees, artists, musicians and attendees alike. Willenzik hopes the legacy tradition will continue to evolve alongside the city’s artistic community and culture.
“We want to continue to have this institution thrive so that it can still be an influence and make our city the city that we want it to be,” Willenzik said.
- Dec. 13-21
- Palmer Events Center, 900 Barton Springs Road, Austin
- www.armadillobazaar.com
