About Crafted in Bowie
How We Will Craft the Next Chapter
Crafted in Bowie is the new brand for Old Town Bowie, representing a community-powered revitalization effort led by Inncuvate in collaboration with the City of Bowie.
Mission
To establish Old Town Bowie as a thriving hub for artisan manufacturing, cultural expression, and entrepreneurship rooted in community values.
Vision
To become the Mid-Atlantic’s most vibrant maker district—an inclusive, walkable, and culturally rich destination where people come to create, learn, shop, and connect.
What is a Maker District?
A maker district is a neighborhood built around small-scale manufacturing and artisan businesses, places where products are imagined, made, and sold in close proximity. These businesses produce a range of tangible goods, from hot sauce to handbags, furniture to fashion, employing generally one to twenty employees (a size that fits well into the fabric of Old Town Bowie’s storefronts).
Artisan and small-scale manufacturing businesses are essential for creating thriving neighborhood centers, downtowns, and job centers. A cluster of these small production-based businesses can serve as a highly effective anchor for long-term job creation and community development. Because they provide higher wages than typical retail or service jobs, reinvest locally, and bring unique products to market, they help a neighborhood stand out and remain unique even as it evolves.
Old Town Bowie is rich in history and potential, with an opportunity for revitalization that will bring new life to the community. Instead of adopting a one-size-fits-all solution, the City of Bowie and Inncuvate began with intentional community listening. Neighbors requested cafés, markets, and small shops; makers sought affordable space, mentorship, and a means to be discovered. The goal is now to implement a place-based economic development approach that rebrands Old Town Bowie as a small-scale manufacturing and maker-centered destination.
Inncuvate and the City of Bowie convened community partners, mapped underutilized buildings, and designed a practical sequence of activation—markets and micro-festivals to create foot traffic, pop-ups to lower risk, shared production to reduce costs, and a certification that signals quality and place. The name Crafted in Bowie emerged as both a promise and a stamp of pride.
