El Mercado Cultural

El Mercado Cultural is an initiative organized by Fleisher Art Memorial to encourage the Latinx community’s participation in commerce and the arts through cultural markets. The focus is to promote multiculturalism by celebrating the heritage and the talent of Latin Americans in Philadelphia. El Mercado accomplishes this by highlighting the arts, artisanal wares and crafts through cultural preservation and exchange in markets where people connect and build relationships and customers.

The market participants are invited to attend advertised local markets held in various places around the city, and once a month at Cherry Street Pier during the outdoor market season, to showcase their cultural pride and artisanal skills through their wares. By exploring different spaces throughout the city we aim to giving them exposure outside of their own communities in order to foster cultural understanding and boost our local economy.

They are provided with spaces to sell, free of charge, as well as marketing and mentoring resources, giving them a starting point to further develop their entrepreneurial skills. They are encouraged to work together and establish a dialogue in order to develop a support system for each other and to act as cultural ambassadors for the community.