Our History

from pop-up to

permanent

We started as a holiday pop-up shop…

In 2013, Heather Parrish and Joe Birdwell joined forces with a host of artists and makers from the Montgomery area to create the Tallapoosa Street Goods Artist Shop. This shop was located in a then-vacant commercial space and lasted for the month of December.

The pop-up shop appeared each December in various locations around downtown Montgomery. Each year a vacant commercial space was chosen and the pop-up moved in. Some of the spaces had not been occupied for years and seemed to be rather forgotten. And then the artists moved in - breathing life back into those spaces.

In 2015, the name was changed to the 5 Points Makers Emporium, and in 2016 it became Pop-Up Montgomery. While the name changed over the years, one thing remained - the dedicated artists that showed up each year to present their works to the River Region.

The December pop-up of 2017 was held at 1228 Madison Ave, and the decision was made to stay open as a permanent shop named Product of Montgomery. In January 2018 the permanent shop was born, and has been going strong since!

After 5 years of shop life, Joe decided to take a step back from the day-to-day operations to pursue other ventures. However, he remains as one of our member artists. We are forever grateful to Joe’s dedication, creativity, and hard work over the years!

With roles changing, Heather joined forces with Aleah Goode and Melody White to continue to grow the shop. In the Spring of 2019, the name was changed to Southern Art & Makers Collective with plans to expand our artist family to include artists and makers from across the Southeast.