Village Art Supply
Village Art Supply Embraces their Space and Community through Service, Services and Enchantment.
In Santa Rosa California, the most populated town in Sonoma County famous for its wine, micro-breweries, Alfred Hitchcock film locations, the Charles Schultz Museum and the most resilient people you can find, there is a very special store on the East Side, Village Art Supply. As you will see, there isn’t another store like it. Zak and Kristen purchased Village Art in 2012, not really understanding what they were in for.
“We spent the first couple of years refining our product offering and getting to know all of the amazing manufactures, distributors and retailers in our industry. About five years ago, as we were making product placement changes, we had a visit from our MacPherson’s rep (George Bethurem), who said that every time I came to the store he felt like he was in an Enchanted Forest. Zak and I looked at each other and smiled. When we shared that comment with our team, we got an ecstatic- Yesssss! So we started the transformation.
For the next four years, we had numerous pizza painting parties and many late nights creating magic on the floors and throughout the store. For months craft paper concealed the secret works being created throughout the store as little by little sections were revealed for customers to see.
Our store has come a long way towards transforming Village Art into an amazing shopping experience, which we lovingly refer to as the Enchanted Forest. You will find dragons, owls, fairies and more. We love seeing people’s expressions when they come into the store for the first time, especially our youngest customers who love following the footprints and may even take a swim in the river by Fairy Falls. As customers make it back into our Services Department they encounter George, our flame breathing dragon who comes to life with his fiery eyes.
In addition to the fun and creative space we have built, we also pride ourselves in offering a wide variety of products and services to include fine art materials, craft supplies, children’s art supplies, greeting cards, ready-made frames, custom framing, giclee’ printing and a ton of fun gift items. We do carry quite a bit of the Royal Talens product such as Amsterdam acrylic paints and the new acrylic inks, Rembrandt Soft Pastels and the Ecoline Watercolor Brush Pens. We brought Amsterdam in about five years ago to replace a well-known student grade line. It has been a welcomed upgrade and sales continue to be strong on our sets and open stock acrylic paint.
Even though we have an enormous product offering, our main focus has been and always will be our SERVICE. We love helping customers find that special something or introduce them to the prefect tool that they didn’t even know about before coming into our store. If you make it to Santa Rosa, CA, stop in and say hi…even just to take in the sights and sounds.”
“One of the things I feel is important to Kristen and Zak’s success is their offering of services. They have a photo room set up to take photos of customers work and turn those into amazing prints. This is such a difference maker for artists, to have proper digital copy of their work and have this turned into a long lasting pigmented copy of the original. Not many stores offer this level of service to go along with their framing business. It’s this kind of offering that makes Village Art pretty special. They have embraced their customers’ needs as much as the store experience.”
-Kirk Gillespie, Royal Talens
Every trip to Village Art Supply is inspiring and you can always find something different. Beyond the store walls Zak and Kristen have managed to assist the community by working with suppliers to donate art supplies to all those affected by the devastating fires of 2017. Village Art fosters creativity, learning, fun and healing for all their loyal customers and for those who will undoubtedly discover them soon!