Independent Rock Island bookstore Artsy Bookworm will close its brick and mortar store later this month but plans to grow its events and online sales as part of a new business model.
The shop which opened in “the little house” at 1319 30th St. in 2021, will remain open from 1 to 5 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays for the first three weeks of January, according to an Artsy Bookworm news release.
“When I opened the store, I knew that I wanted to find ways to support local authors and artists and serve a readership looking for books on LGBTQIA+, Neurodiverse, and Black and Native American history, literature, and culture,” owner Tamara Felden said in the release. “Over the past three years, we learned a lot and I have gained a better understanding of what we hope to accomplish and how.”
Ms. Felden said as she was including more local authors and artists in the store, she realized that creating opportunities to highlight their work in the community was an important part of supporting them. A variety of events including single author and artist presentations to group events over the summer and large events in the fall proved her right, the release said.
Growth brought challenges
But as the Artsy Bookworm and its work became better known in the community and its collaborations increased it created challenges. They included the need to staff both the brick and mortar store and arrange for employees to staff events away from the store.
“A small store cannot generate the revenue, even with a variety of additional events, to employ a sufficiently large staff to handle all the things we wanted to do,” Ms. Felden said. “We had to forgo some events, because we couldn’t staff them, and where we tried to do both, the demands created substantial stress for everyone, and we didn’t perform as well as we would have wanted to.”
While she said that she and her staff, whom she describes as “absolutely wonderful!,” will miss the store and the interaction with customers, when it comes to what the store was meant to accomplish, nothing can take the place of the events.
Contact information for The Artsy Bookworm – [email protected], (309) 558-0278, https://facebook.com/bookwormqc – will remain the same through the transition, the release said. A new website will launch soon but online purchases can be made here.
Books will be shipped directly to the customer. Audiobooks are available on the Libro.fm app a few minutes after purchase, and yarn, accessories and more also can be purchased here.
Fans also are urged to visit the Artsy Bookworm’s booth at Progress Palooza in the Village Theater in the Village of East Davenport on Saturday, Jan. 20.
