Marie Sowards, founder of Tribe Café & Atelier, behind the counter of her Springville café, where coffee and creativity meet.

Lots of restaurants and coffee shops will hang your art on their walls. It doesn’t cost them anything. But Tribe Café & Atelier in Springville goes a step further. They’ll brand your work: not content with just decorating their walls, Tribe has found a way to put artists’ work in customers’ hands, one cup at a time.

Tribe launched in late 2022, the dream of former barista-turned-entrepreneur Marie Sowards. She first discovered her love for coffee behind the bar at Java Express at age 17. She also discovered a sense of community. She wanted both when she moved to Springville, Utah. Without a storefront or trailer, she began by selling bottled coffee and drinks from a humble booth at local markets and pop-ups. Soon, she upgraded to a custom coffee trailer, serving made-to-order drinks with beautifully printed cups—and that’s when an idea sparked. “We were already paying for custom-printed cups with our logo, and realized we could also feature local artists’ pieces on it too without additional cost,” Sowards says.

Enter the artist cup competition: a winning artist’s design is printed on 1,000 cups, turning every latte, matcha or cold brew into a mobile art exhibit. “This became a way to support creatives and stay true to our mission while only being in a trailer,” Sowards says.

A custom-printed cup at Tribe Café in Springville, with artwork by Jairo Dealba, who was the winner of the Tribe’s second artist cup competition, which features local artwork on 1,000 drink cups.

By summer 2024, Tribe had become a staple at Springville, Draper, Orem, and Lindon markets before finally settling into a semi-permanent home at Springville’s Lemon & Sage Marketplace. The coffee shop has created a cozy and inviting atmosphere in the front. Only after you’ve roamed around Tribe for a minute, sipping your chai while admiring the artwork, do you notice Lemon & Sage’s full production kitchen is operating in the back.

While the coffee draws you in, Sowards hopes the art will make you linger. Currently inside, you’ll find works by Amy Buchert and ceramics by Cruz Quintero. Seasonal artist spotlights have also included Emi Fukino, IZZI, and Jairo Dealba, the winner of their most recent competition.

As Sowards says, “Supporting local art is not an add-on for us; it is central to our identity.” Inspired by her husband Zakk’s background in art and a shared belief in intentional, thoughtful work, the atelier side is envisioned as a space to serve the local art community—through displays, artist meet-and-greets, workshops, and networking events.

Tribe Café’s inviting interior doubles as a rotating gallery space.

“Seeing people connect over a cup, or watching them leave inspired by the art they’ve discovered—that’s what fuels the long hours and constant challenges of running a small creative business,” Sowards says. “The name Tribe comes from that feeling of connection. A tribe is a chosen community built on shared values, mutual support, and a sense of belonging.”

Tribe could have set up shop in Salt Lake City, with its larger pool of coffee lovers and creatives, but Sowards is confident Springville is the right home. After all, Sowards says, what better place to build a creative café than the city known as Utah’s Art City? By 2026, Tribe hopes to open its own dedicated permanent space—a home where the café and atelier can both thrive, offering expanded events, deeper community ties, and broader support for local artists and makers.

In the meantime, Tribe is still mobile: they intentionally show up in spaces already celebrating art and creativity, like the anniversary event for Villa Ceramics in Orem or their trailer stops at Poppy’s Gifts and Books in Spanish Fork.

Once the current batch of 1,000 artist-designed cups runs out, Tribe plans to reopen applications—hopefully by August or earlier. Keep an eye on their Instagram page for the official announcement and to find out when they’ll be stopping by a market near you. And stop in for a cup on your way to the Spring Salon.

Tribe Café now operates from a semi-permanent home inside Springville’s Lemon & Sage Marketplace, a space that supports both culinary and creative ventures.

Tribe Café & Atelier is located in Lemon & Sage Marketplace, 151 S. Main St., Springville.

All images courtesy of the author.

Shawn Rossiter

The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.