Attic 506 hosts rooftop market as part of second Friday open studios tour

“Worse case scenario, it’s going to be some amazing photos because it’s a beautiful space,” said Chris Musina, one of the organizers for Attic 506, an art space that hosted a rooftop market on Friday.

Musina and Ben Alper, a photographer, are in charge of the organizational side of Attic 506. He said around November of last year the two of them took over that position, while also emphasizing that Attic 506 is more collaborative than exclusionary. 

The rooftop market was an extension of the open studios event that occurs on the second Friday of the month in Chapel Hill, which Attic 506 also participates in. Musina said open studios is an art walk where many art spaces in Chapel Hill and Carrboro are open in the evening for people to visit.

“I think it’s just a great way for local people, students, other artists to just see kind of what’s going on in our little art world here in Chapel Hill,” he said.

The rooftop they utilize is between Local 506 and Beer Study on Franklin Street. It is covered in graffiti and murals, which Musina said fits his aesthetic and helped him handpick the vendors he reached out to for the rooftop market.

One of those vendors is Jill Bowman, who has an apparel company named Maneater Apparel. She said she thrifts flannels and denim, bleaches them and screenprints feminist slogans on the back.

“I like to think that I give it completely new life in that way,” she said. “Making men’s basic shit into badass feminist statement pieces.”

Bowman said she had never been to an event in Chapel Hill, and the rooftop was a neat venue to host the market. She does a lot of other punk markets and pride markets, and she said collaborative spaces like the rooftop market are valuable for creatives to meet with one another.

“I mean, everything is monetized and commercialized, and it’s really important to have these small venues who actually focus on artists, so we have a space to create and hang out with other creatives,” she said. 

Izzy Hall, another vendor at the rooftop market, is a professional terrarium builder and runs their company Garden & Gather. They said the whole concept of a market is to have one of a kind, locally made items, which is one of the reasons they like Musina’s type of market as it is more intentionally curated.

“I feel like we’re all trying to fill a need for people that is also maybe a need for us,” they said. “And so the small spaces like this, it brings the community together a little bit more I feel than the really big markets.”

Many of Hall’s terrariums they had on Friday were centered around the Halloween season, with terrariums made out of erlenmeyer flasks and anatomical hearts. They also said as a transgender person in a typically more conservative industry, they want LGBTQ+ youth to feel welcomed and to show them that they can be successful adults.

“I think it’s really about creating that environment where even though you’re not openly advertising it, it’s kind of unsaid, that it’s a safe space,” they said.

The rooftop where the market was held may be shut down soon, Musina said, as the building it’s on top of is under new management. While there is still access to it, he said Attic 506 will be utilizing the space, as it is one of the coolest spots in Chapel Hill according to him.

Musina said the art scene is a part of what makes Chapel Hill special, and it is a part of the fabric of the community. He said the area has a lot of great restaurants, and the community needs to keep the individual makers of art and music alive.

“I think something that maybe, you know, people need to keep their eye on too is like, think about people who do and make things and do creative work kind of add that really, you know, cool part of Chapel Hill,” he said. “Because if that gets erased, it’s kind of like the city, what does it become?”

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