"It gives people the opportunity to have an audience," Clour said, "and if they'd like to come up and read short stories and poetry we'd love to have them."

Clour said the poetry reading would have an emcee and Sam McMichael will read a few of his own poems as well.

A recent trip she and Ring of Fire Studio's Alison Dudey took to the Beaver State helped provide inspiration for the markets, Clour said.

"We visited two markets, one in Eugene, Oregon, which is a Saturday market, which I think has been there for 34 years and then we visited the Portland market, which modeled their market after the Eugene market."

Clour said she was fortunate enough to open the market in Eugene alongside its executive director and learn firsthand how it worked, including basic orientation, money exchanges, setting up vendors and artists, scheduling live music and just getting a feel for the event.

"I had no idea how theirs was set up and it's right in front of their courthouse and their city buildings, which is exactly what we ended up doing," Clour said. "I learned so much about their setup."

No arts market would be complete without offerings in the visual arts, and Clour said there will be plenty Saturday.

"We have Kelsey McMurray, who has a clothing design company that does really fun children's clothing along with nice adult things ... We have an established jeweler -- he has been at the Paseo for a number of years -- so I'm excited for him to come and show Norman what he's been doing. I have a high school student who does spray-paint art. He's going to do some performance art during the market."

In a special touch for the season, Dudey and partner Craig Clingan of Ring of Fire Studio will exhibit the fragile fruits of their labors as well.

"They're going to have a blown glass pumpkin patch. So all the pumpkins are hand-blown glass. It's really neat and every one is different."

Proving creative endeavors aren't just for humans, also featured during the market will be works painted by one of the Little River Zoo's occupants.

"They had a monkey over there that painted, and he died recently," said Nancy McClellan, PAS director.

Clour lamented that it wouldn't be possible to see the monkey paint during the festival, but said Little River Zoo staff "will have artwork which they're going to be selling for their foundation" at the market Saturday, as will other non-profit organizations from Norman.

While planning the market, Clour met with the executive director of the Eugene arts market, who has held the position eight years, and with the market's previous director who did the job for 12 years before that.

"They just offered us lots of advice and said we definitely have the potential here in Oklahoma and so I'm hoping to give them a run for their money here in the next 10 years."