Shop Local and Handmade at the Artisan Gift Shop

We have some lovely new items here in the Artisan Gift Shop at River Arts. We are loving the new succulent soy candles by local candle maker, Lindsey Toye (also known as GenuineGemini). We also received a new load of pottery from our beloved Heidi Bielenberg, who this week just jetted off to an artist residency at the Mendocino Art Center in California! Go Heidi go!

There is something so special about shopping local and handmade. You’re able to find items that you can’t find anywhere else, and because all of our artists are Vermont based, you are reinvesting in our brave little state’s economy. Thanks to the effort from our Gift Shop Committee members, we’re turning our attention on how to make our tiny boutique even better. We don’t have a storefront window or a huge amount of foot traffic, but we hope that you help spread the word about our little artisan gallery. We strive to be an affordable place to find unique and creative gifts. Nothing in our shop is over $100 and we are always looking for new artists who want to showcase their work locally.

We are taking new submissions for the gift shop!

River Arts Artistan Gift Shop is an artist focused consignment shop - with 70% of the sale going directly to artists. When I began selling my pottery a few years ago, I was shocked when I tried to sell my pottery in other craft shops that took a 50% cut or more from the sale of the item. As a nonprofit committed to our community, know that we reinvest any proceeds from our Gift Shop into our programming, offsetting the cost of supplies for our classes so that tuition can be lower. We also plan at least one expanded holiday sale each year to give artists a larger platform to sell their good to our community. We’re excited to see the products from your new covid crafting hobbies!

Pssst….. I want to share my dream with you. What do you think about a seasonal Art Vending Machine, featuring our gift shop artist’s work, installed for the summer on main street? In a recently visit to Mass MOCA this past August, I was delighted to find an art vending machine curated by a local artists collective outside of a small coffee shop. My thoughts were “oh my god, River Arts needs to do this”. As a satellite location for our Artisan Gift Shop, the Art Vending Machine would engage with folks who wouldn’t necessarily come in the doors here at River Arts. And who wouldn’t delight in the experience of buying a handmade good from a funky mural painted vending machine! I would absolutely love to engage with students to paint the machine so that the vending machine itself became a work of art. If anyone wants to donate a vending machine or the funds to purchase one to make this public art dream a reality, that would be really awesome.

-Lisa Wolfgang, Co-Director of Programs and Events