June 23rd marked a memorable night for the Bay Area Japanese American Community, as well as for Make it Mariko. This was an epic night featuring the introduction to KOHO, Japantown’s new artist & culture collective as part of Japantown’s Cultural Heritage District. KOHO approached Make it Mariko (as a fellow Japanese American small business and creative), to help them produce their official Launch Party.Read More
What a roller coaster year of emotions 2020 has been. In January, we started off the year by losing one of our team members – Marco Jastillana – and could sense that it was going to be a rough one in general. Only to arrive in March to a worldwide pandemic and Shelter-in-place order. The entire live events industry was shut down, and we lost 81% of all our income.
I had no idea what was to come of Make it Mariko, but we weren’t going to sit around and wait to find out. We pivoted quickly with our event partners at AddVirtual, and started producing virtual events in April. It’s been a crazy adventure since then with hardly any breaks.
Now in December, instead of having to shut down our business, I’m SO GRATEFUL to say that we’re celebrating our 5-Year Anniversary for Make it Mariko! I know that many others in the events industry weren’t so lucky, and for that, I have nothing but endless GRATITUDE for our Clients, Event Partners, and Vendors who stood by our side, referred us for virtual events, and helped this ALL WOMEN-OF-COLOR SMALL BIZ THRIVE!
Here’s a countdown of some of our favorite magical, meaningful moments in true Make it Mariko form. ENJOY 🙂
With endless gratitude, joy, and hope,
Gina Mariko
Founder & Owner
In July of 2019, Make it Mariko teamed up with our nonprofit partner Kultivate Labs and won a $250K grant from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) to plan a series of pop up events to strategize for a future Filipino American Arts & Culture Center, Balay Kreative. We’ve been hard at work strategizing for this project as well as going through a series of community trainings called “Trauma Informed Systems” work so that we can better serve our entire community. Read More
As the decade draws to a close, we’re taking a look back at some of the highlights of this incredible year. From the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach to UNDISCOVERED SF Season 3 to nonprofit events for Leap Sandcastle Classic, these are our Top 10 Favorite Moments from 2019! Read More
The 2nd Annual Entrepinays Summit has left us feeling overwhelmed with gratitude for the incredible community that we’re surrounded by. Make it Mariko is proud to be a Presenting Sponsor of Entrepinays Summit every year. On October 5th, we had over 250+ Pinays from across the Bay Area and beyond sharing space at the beautiful Bespoke Event Space for our first day of a weekend summit. This was only our 2nd year, and already we had double the # of days, doubled the workshops, and the people!Read More
As summer draws to a close, we want to take a look back at one of our favorite events and collaborations – Undiscovered SF at Sunday Streets! We teamed up with Sunday Streets to create a summer block party by SOMA Pilipinas landmark, Victoria Manalo Draves Park, that brought thousands of people out on a sunny, Sunday afternoon. Read More
The 2nd season of UNDISCOVERED SF was such a blur — an amazing blur — that we didn’t have time to write or post about it until it was over! As the Co-Founders of UNDISCOVERED SF, San Francisco’s only creative night market that showcases the rising talent of the Filipinx-American community from the Bay Area and beyond. Make it Mariko was excited to take on several new production challenges to expand from our successful first season. From 3rd wave Filipinx food and desserts, handcrafted accessories and threads, and underground artists breaking into the music and art scenes, this seasonal gathering is a celebration of history, culture, and identity.Read More
We had an amazing time as always at the Leap Sandcastle Classic again this year! Thanks so much to Leap Arts in Education for always having us back. Check out some of our favorite photos from the event! See you next year!Read More
This year we were so excited to start offering a new service to our clients — VENUE CONSULTING! For our first venue consulting client, we partnered with Alexandria Real Estate to reimagine a completely empty space and turn it into a beautiful, functioning community event space!
After 9 months of work, construction, pitching proposals, branding, and outreach we finally launched this month to the Bluxome Street community in Central SOMA as Bluxome Center!Read More
San Francisco is known for many things, namely its art and the freedom to be whoever or whatever your soul desires. For 35 years, Creativity Explored (CE) has been creating a supportive environment for artists with developmental disabilities to create from their soul. With two studios in San Francisco, Creativity Explored provides an amazing space for artists to explore and achieve their fullest potential. Thus, it was only fitting to celebrate 35 years of creativity in full San Francisco flair – with lots of color, laughter, pizazz, and community. Read More
