Hello! Somehow you stumbled across a project called Artschmart, either walking down the street, scrolling on the internet, or maybe a friend told you about it. However you got here, I’m so glad you found it. I’m happy to say it exists, because for years it was just an improbable idea that I was carrying around in my head. I called it the Idea Store, inspired by 826 Valencia’s wonderful, playful Time Travel Mart with it’s secret workshop, Leslie Henslee’s Frankenartmart, Tim Hunkin’s arcade with its coin-operated art machines, and my time building exhibits at the Exploratorium in San Francisco and the Wonderful Idea Company that I co-founded with Ryan Jenkins. Ten years ago I stepped away from my career to start a family, and it felt like stepping off of a cliff. It was a decision that I thought could make it impossible to come back to the creative career I was walking away from. For ten years, I took care of my two daughters, and I filled up a sketchbook with ideas for the Idea Store. My youngest is in preschool now, and few months ago I started to share my idea with people. I tried to explain the idea to anyone who would sit still long enough to listen. The Idea Store would have a playful storefront that looked like a store for ideas, but was really an art space in disguise. There could be shelves of ideas for sale, jars of notions, half-baked ideas that were half-price, and bad ideas would be discontinued, or kept on a high shelf. There would be interactive art machines and a space for people to make art together, maybe even a small table in the window, like Frankenartmart’s arterrarium. There could be a hidden entrance to a secret workshop, and art vending machines. Everyone listened patiently, and talking about it made it feel a little more real and possible. Then, a few weeks ago, I ran into Hannah Orth at a coffee shop (Hannah is an amazing ceramicist and our daughters are in the same cooperative preschool) and I told her about the Idea Store. It turned out she runs a ceramic studio called Mudworks, and part of the space is an unused storefront. Amazingly, that same day she gave me keys to the space to try it out. I was walking on air for days, dreaming of all the things we could do in the space. The Idea Store felt too much like an inside joke for a real space, but I wanted something that still felt playful and hinted at the inspiration behind it. The name Artschmart came seemingly out of nowhere, but it felt right.
And so, without further ado, I am proud to announce that Artschmart is a playful participatory art space in El Cerrito California. It has a door, it has a mailbox, it even has a small table in the window. It’s perfect, and I love that it’s surrounded by people making art out of clay, it feels really creative and protean and inspiring. It feels like anything is possible, if we can just figure out how to pay the rent.