Architecture and fine arts students can stop scrambling to find sketchbooks, drawing paper and paintbrushes.
A new art store, called SoMa Art Media Hub, is opening downtown in February. Owners of SoMa, which stands for South Main after the store’s location at 601 S. Main St., are hoping it will be the main art supply store for the Gainesville art community.
Co-owner Celino Dimitroff said he wants to cater to art and architecture students who are lacking a local art store since Central Florida Office Plus closed in June of last year.
“We’re making a space where people are going to want to hang out and come conspire with like-minded folks,” Dimitroff said
Students like Chelsea Rowe used to shop at Central Florida Office Plus daily. When the store closed, the 22-year-old drawing senior had to order her art supplies online.
“Now I just have to drive farther to go to Michaels to get anything on short notice, which is annoying,” Rowe said, adding that Michaels doesn’t have the paper she needs.
Dimitroff immediately saw the closure of Central Florida Office Plus as an opportunity to bring a community-oriented art store to Gainesville. Dimitroff said when he reached out to Charley McWhorter, who is now co-owner, he responded with a “Hell yes!”
Located in a warehouse behind the Hippodrome State Theatre, the store will embody an inviting atmosphere, Dimitroff said. The cabinets and shelving are made from repurposed wood by Dimitroff himself, and the store has wooden floors and an open ceiling.
Architecture senior Sara Schwartz, 21, said she’s had to buy supplies at Magnum Wood, another supply store almost four miles from campus.
She welcomes the competition from SoMa Art Media Hub, saying it’ll provide more options.
“Magnum Wood only has so many things you can buy,” Schwartz said. “I will definitely be shopping there (SoMa).”
As of now, Dimitroff said the store is in the process of purchasing supplies for future sales. Toward the end of this summer, Dimitroff plans to allow other artists to showcase their artwork at SoMa.
“If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t exist,” he said.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 1/15/2015 under the headline “Upcoming downtown supply store to fill hole in art community"]
Celino Dimitroff, co-owner of SoMa Art Media Hub, builds a shelving unit out of repurposed wood flooring. Dimitroff said all the shelving will be handmade with mostly salvaged materials in the store he and co-owner Charley McWhorter plan to open in February. "It's sort of breathing a new life into it," he said.
