Urban Chic
Hipsters take note: There’s a new market to check out in Bethesda. Inspired by such successful vintage and artisan markets as Clover Market in Philadelphia and Indie Craft Experience in Atlanta, Bethesda residents Debbie Sonnenreich and Julie Greenstein came up with the idea for URBNmarket.
URBN brings together Etsy-style artisans, craftspeople and small business owners who sell upscale, handmade and vintage items in a wide range of prices every couple of months at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad Ballroom. The next market is Dec. 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Sonnenreich and Greenstein, both 47, were roommates at the University of Maryland and remained close over the years. After they graduated from college in 1989, Sonnenreich worked as a negotiator for the Claims Resolution Management Corporation in Virginia before opening My Sweet Confections, a Bethesda-based cookies and confections business. Greenstein worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative aide and as a lobbyist and advocate for health care and nutrition groups, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
The two friends held their first URBNmarket in May and a second one in July. Wares at past markets have included jewelry, beauty products, vintage clothing and housewares, handmade clothing for adults and children, glass sculpture and artwork.
5020 Battery Lane, Bethesda, www.urbnmarket.com.
Get Artsy
Channel your inner DIY yearnings at Make Meaning, a studio for children and adults where you can dabble in various art forms.
Walk-in options include candle making, glass making (for those ages 9 and older), soap making, ceramics painting, plaster painting and cake and cookie decorating. Prices range from $9.99 to $98. The studio is also available for events such as birthdays, showers and corporate get-togethers. An adults-only, two-hour BYOB pottery painting night is scheduled weekly from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturdays. Cost is $25; you choose from several preselected items. A storytelling and craft-making session for kids under 5 runs from 10 to 11 a.m. Tuesdays; cost is $15.
4809 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda, 301-828-1086; www.makemeaning.com.
The Real Deal
Roy Lichtenstein. Frank Stella. Gene Davis. Art aficionados can find works by these top-name contemporary artists at Bethesda Fine Art, a new gallery that opened in March.
Potomac resident Lori Rapaport opened the space with her mother-in-law, Margot Stein, a longtime art dealer and gallery owner who divides her time between New York and Florida.
Rapaport, who’s in her mid 40s, grew up in Silver Spring and graduated from Penn State University with a marketing degree and then got her MBA at American University in Washington, D.C. She did environmental research at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in D.C. and The Nature Conservancy in New York before opening the gallery. She does not have formal art training, but she says she has learned much from her mother-in-law and has worked with her in Florida.
The gallery, on the airy second floor of the PeriPoint Building off Old Georgetown Road, offers paintings, prints, sculpture and works on paper by major 20th-century artists. The collection features Washington Color School artists, who brought the attention of the art world to the District in the 1960s with their focus on stripes, washes and blocks of single colors on canvas.
Most works range in price from $2,000 to $30,000. 5001
Wilson Lane, Bethesda, www.bethesda fineart.com.
Chic Covers
Fall’s statement coats prove that outerwear can be more than a way to keep warm. From bold colors and unexpected textures to exaggerated collars and eye-catching prints, here are four coats that stand out from the crowd. By Robin Fisher
Robin Fisher is an image consultant and personal stylist based in Bethesda; she can be reached at robinfisher@polishedimageandstyle.com.
OPENINGS & CLOSINGS
Roosters, a retro men’s barbershop with leather chairs, wood paneling and old-timey lanterns, has opened at 7135 Arlington Road in Bethesda. Haircuts include hot towels ($46); shaves include hot towels and a splash of cologne (with a straight razor, $41; or ProGlide, $48). Facials, hair coloring and gray blending are also available as are haircuts for boys ($24). …Silver Spring has lost one of its most venerable businesses: Dale Music, a family-run sheet music store that opened in 1950, has closed. …Also closed is Booktopia, a children’s book and toy store, in Bethesda’s Bradley Shopping Center.
