For the past 17 summers, the Islesford Dock has served as a mainstay of the Little Cranberry Island summer economy.
This past year, owners Dan and Cynthia Lief opened an island art gallery to capitalize on the visitor presence. Now they are looking to parlay that success into a year-round opportunity for the island’s artists through their latest venture: the online Islesford Dock Winter Market (http://islesforddock.com/).
The market is hard to define, even for the Liefs. “It’s not a gallery, not a gift shop, but maybe something in-between,” Cynthia Lief said. “It is more of a market.” Dan Lief agrees, “It’s smaller than the gallery and has less expensive items. It’s aimed more at the gift-buying crowd.” The goal is to appeal less to collectors of fine art and more to consumers looking for unique gifts with an island feel and connection.
The online store contains smaller works by the fine artists from the summer Islesford Dock Gallery, but also has more of a homey feel than a traditional art gallery, offering pottery, painted silk scarves, handknits, fudge, and even lobsters from a local lobsterman.
The site offers a unified ordering portal for consumers. The Liefs then pass the order on to the artist who will ship directly to the consumer. The Liefs reimburse for shipping and will handle taxes and other administrative duties. The Winter Market does charge a commission to cover overhead, but it is less than the Liefs charge the artists for the physical summer gallery. The Leifs were assisted in the development of the site by Caroline Sholl, a recent Bowdoin graduate and artist who has worked in the Islesford Dock restaurant for years.
In addition to providing another sales outlet for the artists and craftspeople the Liefs normally work with, the Winter Market will also carry items by artists who run their own unaffiliated galleries in the summer season, such as potter Marian Baker. A summer resident, Baker has operated Islesford Pottery, a working studio for Baker and two other island potters, for 20 years on the Islesford Dock.
Baker, who teaches at Maine College of Art in the winter, is enthusiastic about the opportunity to see her items sold through another vendor.
“I don’t solicit through my Web site at all in the winter, and they are going to actively promote these artists, so why not? Our summer season is very short, so this is a good opportunity for some of these artists to bring in a little winter income.” Baker currently has one made-to-order item on the site and has already made a sale.
All of the represented artists and craftspeople have an Islesford connection, varying from occasional visitors to the island to natives who have never lived anywhere else. Cynthia attributes the growth of this loose network to the “Islesford Connection,” explaining, “All roads seem to go through the Cranberry Isles. Someone rents a house for a summer week on Islesford. They’re invited for dinner by someone they meet walking on the beach. Children become friendly and the networking begins. The connections are often surprising, but always lead to interesting relationships.” The most distant of these connections is “MonkeyBiz,” a nonprofit in Cape Town, South Africa that provides an outlet for 400 bead artists and is connected to the Ubuntu Education Fund, a nonprofit started by the Liefs’ son. The Winter Market will offer a selection of MonkeyBiz beaded works for sale alongside island-created works.
The Liefs did not have to actively seek participants, discovering instead that interested people started finding them. If this winter’s experiment goes well, they will be open to bringing on more vendors next year, including artists from Great Cranberry Island. “We would love to have someone from Cranberry, but haven’t had time to seek them out,” says Dan Lief. “We want to encourage collaboration and working together. When they call, we will say ‘yes’.”
The Liefs admit that the Winter Market is an experiment, although one that fits well with ongoing island discussions about strengthening the island’s year-round viability. “Islesford still has a traditional Memorial Day to Labor Day season,” explains Cynthia Lief. “But in order to survive, you have to have longer than a 10-week season. Unless you move south for winter, you have to think about how to keep it going, even if it’s just keeping the name out there.” They plan to close the Winter Market in April in order to not interfere with the regular summer season and businesses.
Dan Lief is upfront about their goals. “I would love to see the island as more of a destination for arts and crafts, having artists spending more time here, seeing them setting up studios. We would like the Dock [Restaurant] to be more than food. We want a reason for people to spend more time on the island.” In these days where diversification is often not optional, Lief sees this as a potential step towards broadening the entire island economy. “We think that lots of people are talking about economic development on islands, and the least invasive kind is arts and crafts. Other islands have done it.” Now it is Islesford’s chance to try.
Cherie Galyean is a freelance writer who lives in Bar Harbor.