There’s a new art supply store in town. Bloomington Fine Art Supply, 207 S. Rogers St., is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily except Monday.
Owner and store manager Heather Farmer is a Bloomington resident and graduate of Indiana University with an M.A. in arts administration. She worked in that field at IU for a decade, she said recently as she served customers.
“I’m an artist myself,” Farmer said, “and I’d been kicking around the possibility of store for a few years.”
“There’s definitely a market here, and it just seemed a little crazy to me that we didn’t have an independent art supply retailer. And I thought this is a good fit for me and I’ll give it a try.”
Her new store fills a niche for artists’ supplies since Pygmalion’s closed in 2020 and Griffy’s closed earlier this fall.
Bloomington Fine Art Supply has huge front windows and looks across the street at the FAR Center for Contemporary Arts. The space she rents previously was Army Navy Surplus, then Hoosier Workwear Outlet, Farmer said.
From September: Griffy’s Art Supply to close after leaky roof damages inventory
Measuring 2,300 square feet, her store is big enough, Farmer pointed out, to include an informal working space for artists to sit down and practice their talents, plus a display wall for artists to show their works for sale.
Farmer hopes to display works from “local artists, if possible,” she said. “People who haven’t exhibited before, a lower barrier than at a traditional art gallery.”
