July 2, 2021
By Emily Hamann Staff Writer, Sacramento Business Journal
THE ATRIUM PIVOTS FROM MAKING COVID MASKS TO LAUNCHING A COMMUNITY CENTER FOR ARTISTS
While the pandemic proved devastating for many small-business owners, that didn’t stop the local entrepreneurial spirit. In the fifth installment of our Small Business Big Mission series, we’re profiling founders who have not only started businesses but did so while the economy was largely shut down.
Artists throughout Sacramento saw their incomes evaporate almost overnight during the pandemic. But The Atrium, a community center for sustainably focused artists and creators, found an opportunity to grow.
“The whole shop would not have started if it wasn’t for the pandemic,” said Atrium founder Shira Lane.
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Late last year, the nonprofit moved from an office building on Folsom Boulevard to a corner of the North Public Market Building on Front Street in Old Sacramento. At the same time, it launched a retail store selling local artists’ work.
“I did not plan any of this,” Lane said. “It’s more like, this is where we needed to go; that’s where we went.”
The Atrium’s connection to the Old Sacramento building goes back before the pandemic. Years ago, the city asked Lane to help temporarily enliven the long-vacant public market building by holding some art events there.
Then the city put out a request for proposals for long-term activation of the space. Lane pitched an indoor market with work by local artists as well as attached studio space.
“Artists are crying here in Sacramento for more affordable studio space,” Lane said.
The city chose her proposal, but only offered a five-year lease. The future of the North Public Market Building is unclear. It was built in the 1980s and redeveloped in 1996 to house a public market, which eventually fizzled out. Now, under the city’s newest long-term plan for Old Sacramento, it would eventually be demolished to make way for more open public outdoor and event space.
“This building wasn’t and still isn’t in the best shape and eventually has to come down,” Lane said.
But then Covid-19 hit and The Atrium ran low on options. The Folsom Boulevard building where it was located was in the process of being sold and The Atrium had to move out. The city again extended its offer for Lane to occupy the Old Sacramento building temporarily.
“This place had been vacant for like 10 or 15 years. When I toured it with my board director Bill Blake he was just like, ‘No, no, no.’ That’s all he could say was just ‘no,’” Lane said. “I was like, it’s all we got. We’ve got nowhere else. It’s either this or nothing.”
So, they started to fix the space up to move in.
“It took us about two months and a lot of Bondo,” Lane said. “Sweat, paint and Bondo.”
As the pandemic continued, some of The Atrium’s artists began making masks to meet the new demand. They quickly became overwhelmed, and Lane recruited more people to help fill orders coming in from the online store. Lane said The Atrium was able to pay the artists making the masks a total of about $35,000, which came at a time when few were working.
As summer ended, The Atrium received a $219,000 grant from the city’s creative economy recovery program. It used the grant funding to hire 40 people temporarily to turn the Old Sacramento building into a studio where local artists could bring their products, have them professionally photographed and leave with a polished platform to sell their products.
That was the start of Sacramento.shop, which offered an online shopping experience with products made by local, eco-friendly artists, with the artists not having to take on the burden of logistics, shipping, marketing and web design off the artists.
As retail was permitted to open, The Atrium took its online store to the physical world, transforming the studio into a retail shop.
Now, a once dark, deserted corner of Old Sacramento is an airy art space bounded by plants, a piano anyone can play and tables made from discarded cable spools. Passersby can shop, or request art supplies and sit outside and paint.
“I enjoy being here now,” Lane said. “This is a fun place to hang out.”
The space also houses studios for four artists, down from 18 in the previous space. Upgrading the central part of the building in order to expand would be too costly for a building that’s scheduled to be demolished.
“We’re looking right now for additional space,” Lane said. “We’ll try and stay here in Old Sac as long as we can.”