Buy One Handmade Gift in Gallipolis, Support a Whole Chain of Neighbors

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GALLIPOLIS, Ohio: When you buy a handmade gift at The Artisan Shoppe and Studio, director Kelsey Kerr wants you to know the money does not stop at the register.

“Purchasing handmade gifts for the holidays, or any occasion, has a trickle-down effect that mass-produced products wouldn’t be able to touch,” Kerr said. A single purchase supports the nonprofit shoppe itself, the individual artisan who made the piece and their family, and the local economy that keeps the money circulating. It also lands in the confidence of an artisan who, as Kerr put it, has likely spent years learning and perfecting their craft.

The shoppe is only half the operation. The Artisan Studio, added in 2015, gives those same artisans another outlet and gives the community a place to learn. Along with guided classes, the studio is open space where community members can come create on their own, and it can be reserved for private events and parties. Around the holidays, classes take on seasonal themes, and Kerr says they double as a gathering place for friends and family who do not get many other chances to get together. Participants often head home planning to make more gifts themselves.

The organization started small. In early 2014, it began as a small artisan market, born because the local farmers market at the time would not accept artisans under its bylaws. This past May, the shoppe returned to those roots with a once-a-month artisan and farmers market outside the shop, running May through September and giving first-time vendors a place to set up alongside seasoned ones. There will be no market during the winter holiday season, Kerr said, but it will be back in the warmer months. Art that once rotated through gallery shows is now sold in the shoppe space on an ongoing basis.

Then there is the neighbor inside the building. Retro Bros., a vintage shop dealing in vinyl records and the art of comic books and video games, shares the space at 749 3rd Ave. The pairing grew out of the shoppe’s pandemic closure and reopening revamp, when family member Steve Thomas suggested adding retro items alongside the artisan work. Steve partnered with Retro Bros. manager Retro Moe to build it. Kerr says both operations give people with interests outside what is typically viewed as Appalachian culture a place to feel at home among like-minded people.

The Artisan Shoppe and Studio is at 749 3rd Ave. in Gallipolis. More information is at theartisanshoppe.org or by phone at (740) 853-2370.

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