Stores With Stories: MUSEjar
The birthplace of the Arts & Crafts movement, the Roycroft Campus and home to the imagineer, Elbert Hubbard, it’s no wonder the creative spirit runs rampant in the quaint Village of East Aurora. Vanessa Frost – owner of MUSEjar, an art supply shop and studio, on Elm Street in the heart of village – is a true torchbearer of that notion of imagination and community.
Vanessa Frost, owner of MUSEjar
MUSEjar, opened in 2013, offers not only the materials to be creative, like canvases, sculpting tools and hard-to-find paints, but also carries wares crafted by some of the region’s best makers, jewelers and designers. Frost also offers classes and workshops to help folks discover their inner-artist and meet with other creatives. Workshops range from beginner-level tutorials to in-depth sessions based on calligraphy, Shibori dyeing and much more.
Frost explains, “Being an artist and needing a place to go for inspiration and supplies. Having the internet at your fingertips is great but having a place to go, to touch and smell the supplies is different and very necessary. A place to meet and talk to fellow creatives is more valuable than you think. A place to get ideas and have someone to bounce ideas off of. Or find a book and get inspired by other local artisanal goods. Art is all encompassing and inspiration can come from so many different places.”
And while Frost has lived in many different places, she states that there’s no place she’d have rather planted the seeds of MUSEjar than in East Aurora. She says, “After living far away, your priorities start to shift, or at least mine did. I realized how much i valued being close to my family. So initially i moved back for that reason. What kept me here, was the fact that East Aurora has the support of a small town but the energy of a city. The village is alive and filled with so many wonderful and creative people that want to make changes in a new direction. I realized this was a place MUSEjar could thrive. This place truly lives up to ‘it takes a village’”.
As MUSEjar exists by the mantra of “supply, inspire, create”, a stop in the shop will fulfill any needs you have to bring your imagination to life.
