By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Hardly two weeks after celebrating the fifth anniversary of the opening of the first Art Supply Depo in Toledo, Jules Webster and her crew has opened up shop in Bowling Green.
The second Art Supply Depo will mark its grand opening on Friday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4 p.m. and an opening party.
The store is open this week 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
As was the case in Toledo, the opening is timed for the start of classes at local universities.
Opening up an Art Depo Supply in Bowling Green was a natural, Webster said. Faculty and students from the Bowling Green State University School of Art as well as artists from Bowling Green were already faithful customers.
Webster saw “a gap in the market.”
“Bowling Green has such a strong art program it seemed a little crazy that Bowling Green didn’t have a specialty art supply store,” she said.
When considering the new store, she checked the numbers at UT versus BGSU. UT has 175 undergraduate art majors; BGSU has 625 undergraduate and graduate art majors.
While artists from Bowling Green would travel to Toledo for supplies, it often wasn’t convenient especially for younger students who didn’t have cars.
Webster said staff has been “hoarding supply lists” from BGSU students in previous years to help guide stocking the shelves.
This location also better serves artists in the surrounding communities of Perrysburg and Waterville, some of whom were reluctant to travel to downtown Toledo, even though as Webster points out, it’s the safest part of the city.
Here they’ll also have ample parking.
With the School of Art less than a mile away from the shop at 435 E. Wooster St. and residential areas in the neighborhood, she said, “we’re in a more vibrant, active community.”
Art Supply Depo, she said, sets itself apart from big box stores in its extensive inventory.
Here artists can buy top quality paper in all sizes, including extra-large sheets. While a big box store may carry the top 25 colors of Prima Color Pencils, Art Depo carries all the colors, 150 of them. The same with Golden acrylic paints.
Some of the Art Supply Depo team take a break from stocking shelves. Back to front, Sarah Thomas, Nikki Eggerstorfer, Katie Delay, and Stephen Owczarczak.
The store’s staff also sets it apart. “Everyone on my staff is a working artist,” she said. “Everyone on my staff is someone I’ve known for a couple years, people I can trust with my customers … trust with my life basically.”
She has added four employees to the three already working in Toledo. All will work in both locations to insure the high level of customer services the shop prides itself on.
“I want our current customers to see familiar, friendly face,” Webster said.
“We have diverse range of ages and skill sets on the team,” she said. “Our mission is to educate and inspire.”
That’s the goal with every customer interaction, she said.
“This is not something I could do if I didn’t have such a great team,” Webster said. “It’s not my baby but it’s everybody’s baby.”
That mission includes workshops which will start in October. She plans to bring some the top teachers from the Toledo shop to teach courses in topics such as soft pastels and painting with a palette knife. Webster keeps the classes to a shorter duration and affordable for those artists unable to make the time and financial commitment necessary for classes at the Toledo Museum of Art.
As at the Toledo shop, the Art Supply Depo will host exhibits of local artists. Painter Randy Bennett, from Bowling Green, will be featured in the first show.
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Webster said the shop plans to integrate itself in the local art scene. Art Supply Depo sponsored an award at the recent Northwest Ohio Community Art show on campus. The shop will also become a member of the Medici Circle, the support group for the BGSU School of Art, the Bowling Green Arts Council and other art groups.
Webster studied ceramics at the University of Toledo. After graduating she operated Shine Ceramics. But throwing pots and operating the business on her own was too much.
Then a friend approached her about starting a business selling art supplies. Art Supply Depo was born. She eventually bought out her partner.
“I realized it was a more sustainable career selling art supplies than making art,” she said.
She continues to create. Now she focuses on painting which fits better into her schedule operating the business.
Webster, who grew up in Toledo, comes from a family of skilled craftsmen and artists, she said. As a Girl Scout, she was always involved in some kind of craft project.
“I was always drawing, gluing, painting, collaging. My parents always encouraged it. They let me make a big mess in the house. I always had a big table I could keep out with all my art supplies on it.”
Now with Art Supply Depo, she and her staff are helping grown up artists keep their own art spaces fully stocked.
