The History of
Cutie started in April 2022! After selling things in the park a few times before, founder Kaitlin Fritz decided to invite about 4 other vendors and they all sold their stuff at cal Anderson park. fritz called it cutie “fest” even though it was only for a few hours and it was only a few people.. mostly this was to be cheeky but also because fritz SAw it maybe getting bigger some day…
The next cutie fest was in June of 2022 and there was about 12 vendors! Over doubling in size. Shown above is Kaitlin’s haul of cutie stuff going back home with her in her buddy lenna’s truck.
The third cutie fest was in September of 2022! It birthed the now home base of the “cutie tent” where folks know to find Fritz and also get some free supplies and meet new friends! There were about 25 vendors at this fest, which again over doubled since the last one!
founder Kaitlin fritz and her mom
Over that next fall and winter Kaitlin got tons of dms from local artists and small vendors looking to find out when the next cutie fest was. So she made it’s own instagram and started planning for spring! April 2023 came around and Kaitlin was able to buy a few large tents to share with young vendors who didn’t have their own tent. And over 150 vendors came out to sell!
But the wind was wild and it was record breaking for that day. Tents were blown over and broken (including all of kaitlin’s) and vendors kept having to chase down products that were blowing away until things were finally shut down mid afternoon.
This didn’t stop cutie though! The community continued to grow and in 2023 the schedule of April, June and September continued. Growing every time!
The first ever cutie fest raffle basket
Kaitlin created a non profit called the cutie foundation at this point so she could help foster the rich community she saw blossoming. this meant getting free art supplies to those who need them and also opportunities & tools to young artists looking to further their careers in the art world. the goal being to set them up for success in the art world rather than taking their money.
With extremely limited funds herself, Kaitlin finds creative ways to fund this and is continuously looking for funding so that the financial strain of starting an art career can be taken away from young artists and Given to those who have the finances to help.
In 2023 the cutie community started to get regular artists vending, fondly referred to as cuties.
Now cutie is growing to more venues and will eventually have it’s own that will function as a space where young artists can have their art sold for them and they can collect one hundred percent of the sale. It will also function as a community center that will host all ages art events and a be a place for daily art making, housing a library of free art supplies to take from.
Pictured: Volunteers Tyrel Stendahl, sara joy and Levi Erdman
“…And the rest is still unwritten”