It is with heavy hearts that we are announcing the closure of our retail location in Northern Liberties. This was not an easy decision to make, but we believe it is the best one for us personally and for Art Star. Due to the pandemic, we had to press pause on our events and decided it was best for us to remain online only and closed for in-person shopping. Because of this decision, it no longer makes sense for us to have two locations. This has been a difficult time, but we aren’t ready to give up and by consolidating and simplifying we’ll be able to weather this storm.
We would have loved to stay in Northern Liberties, but it makes the most sense financially to close this location and keep our spot at the Bourse. We’ve secured a second location there to use as an office, so we can continue to operate our online store and virtual bazaars. We plan to set up the additional space so products available for purchase online will be easily visible to folks coming to the Bourse. We’ll also be tweaking our original space there so that customers can easily pick up online orders. If you live in or near Northern Liberties, you will still be able to pick up your orders close by at Once Worn Consignment at 906 N. 2nd St. (thanks, Jen!). Once we feel comfortable, we plan to reopen our retail space to the public at the Bourse.
We’ve watched Northern Liberties evolve over the 16-plus years we’ve been here and we felt welcome since day one. The residents here really embraced us, had our backs, and supported our little dream. We’ve built lifelong relationships with many business owners and neighbors, and have enjoyed watching families grow and wonderful businesses thrive. We have loved being active members of this neighborhood and the strong sense of community here has made this one of the toughest decisions we’ve had to make. Even though our retail location here is closing, we plan to remain a part of this community by hosting pop ups in the neighborhood and also by continuing our partnership with 2nd Street Festival.
Though this sounds like bad news, we believe it is actually a positive. It has given us a chance to reevaluate and restructure our business so that we can continue to support our independent craft communities for many years to come. In the meantime, we hope that you will continue to support our business and our growing roster of independent artists by shopping online. We will be working hard to add more handmade goods to our store and virtual bazaars. We look forward to what the future holds for Art Star and thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your continued support.
Megan Brewster and Erin Waxman
Art Star proprietors
