Experience the artisans of Garden City at your own pace with our tailor-made map. In the last few years, our artisan community — artists, craft breweries, cideries, and wineries — has grown exponentially. These businesses are bringing new people into our city, not only to visit their locations but also other businesses in the community. Since many of these visitors (and residents) use the greenbelt as their transportation corridor, this wayfinding program helps them “find their way” to these artisans and surrounding businesses. Look for the colorful signs labeled “Taste,” “Create,” and “Play” or pick up your map near the historical marker by Joe’s Crab Shack.

The Visual Arts Collective, or VAC, offers a showcase for performing arts, contemporary arts, and cultural programs. You’ll find a constantly rotating selection of carefully curated interactive art experiences, including concerts by artists as varied as Jason Isbell, Yo La Tengo, and local favorites Dark Swallows and Sun Blood Stories.

Bespoke furniture handmade in the heart of the Garden City’s Surel Mitchell Live-Work-Create District. We love to create unique pieces and have conversations that start with, “can you …?” Furniture is in our lives and we interact with it daily; it should be something special, something with a story, and a maker with a name rather than a factory.

Zion Warne is known for colorful, sculptural glass art. Zion has been an artist for more than 20 years and shares his passion for the craft with students and buyers. He creates site-specific installations, too, if you’re looking for just the right piece for your space.

This space was once the home of local arts legend Surel Mitchell, who passed away in 2011. Surel’s Place now continues her work of fostering and promoting art, attracting artists in residence from throughout the country and abroad. The organization hosts up to three free or low-cost workshops per month, serves artists through its Art Event Program, and fosters a spirit of creativity throughout the community.

In 2011, a young woman named Soly Palm found a piece of scrap metal. That discarded junk became a beautiful pair of earrings. That beautiful pair of earrings became Fluff Hardware, which became a “for purpose” business. That means Soly and fellow designer Jenny Hefner use their beautiful, hand-crafted jewelry to fund an equally beautiful purpose: to foster confidence, courage, and leadership in women and girls. Each sale helps support a local cause that is transforming lives, much like Soly transformed that first piece of scrap metal.

The work of ceramicist Kayla Morgan comes to life through an intricate process known as agateware. Mixing clays of different colors produce a marbled effect similar to that of agate, and no two pieces are exactly alike. The artist credits her grandfather for introducing her to some of her greatest inspiration, taking her to search for garnets, agates, quartz, and petrified wood in the mountains of Idaho when she was a child. Kayla’s fondness for geology led to her fascination with agateware several years later, and she is now dedicated to mastering this slow, labor-intensive technique.

A Virginia transplant living in the foothills of Boise, Suzanne Fluty’s ceramics pay homage to the unspoiled landscapes and wide-open skies of both the Blue Ridge Mountains region and the American West. Fluty says, “My ceramic work is informed by clouds and how sunlight shifts across their surface, sometimes subtle and sometimes dramatic … I’m inspired by imagery, color, and emotions experienced from simply being outside.”

Ever wonder why an artist feels compelled to create? For oil painter Betsie Richardson, the answer is clear: “I make art to remind people of the joy that exists all around us and to reflect the higher consciousness I see in you – that you may see it, too.” Richardson finds joy in everything from fresh produce to stoic bison to an impending storm, and captures her subjects with an exquisite blend of reverence and humor.

Lisa Stover’s award-winning, handblown glassware infuses the everyday with color and joy. This begins with the glassmaking process itself, which requires equal measures of dedication and play to finesse the fluid, molten glass into its final, static form. For nearly two decades, Stover Glass has brought this age-old craft into the modern era with a unique range of pieces. You can even try it for yourself with one of Stover’s hands-on classes!

Nothing evokes emotion, memories, and the human experience quite like music. Audio Lab supports this essential artform with state-of-the-art multi-track recording, mixing, and mastering for in-studio and live performances. With more than 45 combined years of experience, the team can also handle sound design, editing, and composition for film and video. In fact, the founders have worked with everyone from Crosby Stills & Nash to the Foo Fighters, Eric Clapton to Beck.

Blacksmithing is alive, well, and beautiful! Madacsi Studios specializes in highly crafted ironwork created through traditional and non-traditional blacksmithing techniques. Owner and operator Susan Madacsi is on a mission to inspire appreciation for this traditional American art with colorful, textural wall work, sculptures, and vessels that feel fresh and timeless. Her creations adorn homes, galleries, and businesses around the world.

Public art is a priority in Garden City, where the Garden City Arts Commission asked local artists to create public benches for installation along the Greenbelt and in city parks. These benches range from the uber-modern to the magical and feature each artist’s unique interpretation of their surroundings. Look for the public benches in these locations:

• Heron Bench – Heron Park, 3858 Reed Street
• Greenbelt Sherbet – end of 50th Street on the Greenbelt
• Blue Bench – Mystic Cove Park on the Greenbelt
• Trio – E. 40th Street and the Greenbelt

• Underneath –  located at Riverside Park at Glenwood & Riverside Dr.

Garden City’s Hourly Rental Commercial Kitchen
Our facility aims to offer Treasure Valley caterers, bakers, food truck owners, personal chefs, and confectioners a hub to grow their food business in a certified commercial facility. We are film-production ready.