AFTER 70 YEARS

SWAIN'S HAS CLOSED!

All of us at Swains wish to say goodbye and we thank you for letting SWAINS serve you for the last 70 years, in many different forms over those 70 years.

 

Although many of you know things had been challenging for SWAINS for the last several years, things had been consistently improving in our wonderful new space. June had been our best month yet and we felt confident we had turned a corner. Then July and August came and sales and customer visits dropped significantly. So much so that in our fragile condition we were not able to withstand those poor sales week and with suddenness we were forced to quickly and without warning shut down on Thursday the 22nd. We were given permission to have a one night sale on Saturday the 24th and then that would be it. If it came down to this we expected to have over two weeks notice rather than the two days we received.

 

Great things were about to happen at the new place. Of course Scott Gandell and SILA had made SWAINS brand new gallery their new home base for their annual competition show and classes and workshops. We were close to an agreement with a regional children's art school to open a branch in a room at our new location, we had hosted a great musical event with @sofarsoundsla and were about to host a second one in the gallery. A parking lot art fair, which we were prohibited from doing at our old location was in the works for October and many other classes and workshops were in the planning stages. Customer artwork hanging on the store walls was a bonus at the new place. Things were happening and it was an exciting time but in the end we just couldn't overcome the large debt load the business had carried from the purchase in 2010.

 

Some people have speculated the location was a problem but quite to the contrary once someone came the first time, saw what cool things we were doing, and enjoyed the simplicity of our private gated parking lot and improved freeway and Disney and DreamWorks easy access they always left saying they would be back. Yes the air conditioning in the summer was lacking but that was also something we were in the process of repairing.

 

Thanks to everyone. Keep art in your heart! It's been rewarding.