“Okay. Are we ready?”
That’s Mickey Woolery. “I am your instructor today and this is all about to get dirty. We are going to get messy.”
A small group of strangers are sitting at a big table and we're about to take an acrylic paint pour class.
“Have any of you done this before at all? Yay! I love it when you're brand new.”
We're in the studio half of the bookstore Books on the Vine in Boise. Depending on who’s adding up the numbers, independent bookstores are struggling to survive. As many as 6,000 stores closed over an eight year period that ended in 2020.
That trend is true in the Treasure Valley, as stores have struggled, facing rising rents, loss of store space and online competition. Books on the Vine is fighting that trend by combining a bookstore with an art gallery, a painting studio and art classes like this one in an effort to survive.
I believe that everyone is an artist, and no matter what age you're at, you can make something masterful.Mickey Woolery
“There are a lot of different types of techniques,” said Mikey. “I'm going to show you three of them, and then you get to pick which one you want to try.”
Books on the Vine is the inspiration of Kayla Burns. She worked for years to save up enough money to give it a go. The very small staff is rounded out by her partner, Zach Tweedy, Kayla's mom Mickey and puppy dog Bia, who’s the official bookstore mascot.
“We have just about everything. Banned books, poetry, a lot of plays, nonfiction, fiction, sci fi, fantasy, classics,” said Kayla.
“Mostly used, but some new, but I'd say like 95% used,” Zach chimed in.
The space is half books, half art gallery.
“I wanted to find a place in town where I could hang mom's art without her knowing, and then take her there for Christmas and have her see her art hanging somewhere. And it's hard to find places like that. Where you can just hang something, in public, and see if it can sell,” said Kayla.
And you can make art here. “That's the fun part,” said Zach.
Two 3D printers whir at the back of the store, building small figures you can paint. They do birthday parties, couples paint swaps, rock painting ... anything to get people started painting and doing art.
This little crew has struggled at times to keep the bookstore open. And Kayla and Zach say without the art classes, they wouldn't be able to keep going.
“Some of our biggest weekends we had when she first opened was art and paint classes,” says Zach. “I mean, we sold books, but like, consistent profit was coming from doing the paint classes every weekend.”
Four of us are taking tonight’s class. We pour layers of paint on a big canvas and swirl it around to make a kaleidoscope of colorful waves. Mickey says you really can't fail with this technique.
There's no such thing as failure.Mickey Woolery
“That's really pretty, I like that. Yay! That's a keeper,” encourages Mickey.
Her art hangs on all the walls, along with painted clocks, jewelry, and even colorful handmade drink coasters. Kayla's always looking for fun ways to bring more people into the shop.
“We do a stuffie sleepover where kids bring in their favorite stuffed animal and we set them up in little beds, and we use my kid's baby blankets to tuck them in, and we read them bedtime stories. And then we turn off the light and they stay the night in the store. And then the next day when the kids pick them up, they find that their stuffies have had adventures in the bookstore, where they drink coffee and get into snacks and paint their own self-portraits,” said Kayla.
She found the idea online from a group of other bookstore owners who are constantly networking to find new and innovative ways to keep small bookstores afloat.
In order to survive, new and existing stores have had to adapt and get creative. Filling unique niches, opening alongside bars, bringing in bestselling authors, hosting game nights, even offering cooking classes while selling cookbooks.
As we finish up our individual paintings, Mickey is scraping up all the leftover paint.
It's going to be your new happy place.Zach Tweedy
“I don't like to waste it. And I don't want it to go in the trash or down the sink because, you know, we want to try to minimize that,” she said.
At the end of the night, we all get cups of that leftover paint to pour on a gigantic canvas for a group painting that stays at the store. While the painting class helps pay the bills, Kayla and Zach say they want Books on the Vine to be more than just a business.
“Hang out and sit and have some tea, read a book,” says Zach. "You know you always find something here. There's never not something here for you if you like books or art or anything else in between.”
Books on the Vine is taking part in Small Business Saturday on Nov. 29 in Boise.
