Preston Arts Center has been in business for three generations spanning 83 years. There is more to an independently-owned and operated businesses than its inventory, and Preston Arts Center is not only an art supply store. It is a part of the cultural ecosystem of the entire Kentuckiana region.
Despite the appearance of big box art and craft supply stores at the turn of the millennium, and a shift toward digital media since then, Preston Arts Center has stayed in business. In March, they moved from their location on Bardstown Rd. near Interstate 264 to a destination location at 8101 Warwick Ave. in Lyndon.
A recent post on their Facebook page read, "Red Alert. Red Alert. This is not a drill." The caption explained that the business was in desperate need of immediate patronage. Owner Andrew Preston says "I really don't want to scare everybody," but he and his family — and their staff — put strenuous effort into their recent relocation. "And it's scary when you don't see instant results," he says. "Not everybody has found us yet. We've tried to tell people. Our own good customers are still finding out. So we are finding ways to communicate to them."
Moving The Past Into The Future
"Preston" is not a reference to a location in Louisville — it is a family name. The original owners were, Roena, a child of Hungarian immigrants, and Andy Preston, a child of farmers. After working for years as a court reporter (Roena) and an automotive mechanic (Andy), the couple realized that they could advance no further in their careers and decided to start their own business. They opened Preston Paint and Wallpaper in New Albany, IN in 1941.
Their grandson, Andrew Preston, is the current owner. He recalls the grit and determination of his grandparents when he says they opened their business just before the Attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. "This can't be as bad as what they went through, because they couldn't even get paint after after Pearl Harbor. The war machine revved up and all paint went to the U.S. military."
In 1978, a fire devastated their business and the Prestons decided to retire. They passed on their entrepreneurial legacy to their son Don and daughter-in-law Kathy, who have owned the store for 40 years, and are still active in the business today.
"It's the only thing I've ever known him to do," Andrew says of Don. "My dad is the best salesman, and he's the nicest guy I know. My mom is more of the business mind. She's a math person and she does the books." He pauses before sharing that his mother is battling stage four breast cancer.
"Sometimes it just feels like there's 80 years of pressure coming down." The Preston family has been through challenging experiences before, and according to Andrew, their current plan is to pull their way out of it — just like before. "The great thing is we've seen an outpouring of support from the community. It is always the community that does it."
Growing Up And Growing A Business
Preston says growing up in a business is interesting because he could see his parents dedicate their entire lives to their business. "You then have to ask: Can I be as invested as the people who risked something to make it happen? What am I willing to risk?"
He says it is still possible to revolutionize the business, to renew it in a way that will attract new customers, particularly younger people. His sister-in-law Victoria recently joined Preston Arts Center as the visual manager. She had previously worked as a visual designer for Anthropologie in Houston. "She's done a lot of stuff already. She painted the stairs is a beautiful spectrum. We have these silhouettes on the wall that people have been filling in, painting their own designs inside as an interactive art piece."
The other reason Preston Arts Center moved was to accommodate their classes, all of which are full. They added a dedicated children's classroom so they now have three classrooms instead of the two they had at their old location. 'We're educators, in a way, because we've always done classes ever since my grandmother opened the store." Roena Preston taught ceramics and painting. "A big part of our mission is we want to teach people how to do stuff."
The family has also discussed the possibility of partitioning it arts education into a non-profit organization. "We realize that you can't run a non-profit to sell supplies. But it's a possibility we could split it into Preston Arts School and still have the retail store in the same space. Then there's the potential to write grants and it would be a different kind of structure that we wouldn't be so reliant on selling paint brushes."
Andrew laughs when he acknowledges that "art supply stores are a poor return on investment by the square footage. You need a lot of space to put your wares out, and it's not like it's not a super high volume business. Artists are one percent of the population." There is a recurring question in the art materials industry about whether a city is large enough to support an art supply store. "That's such a strange question," he says.
Andrew says the Preston Family has never aspired to become "the biggest art materials seller in the world." He thinks aspiring toward limitless growth is "a strange idea for a business anyway." His family and staff are happy, despite his mother's current health, and the slow migration of customers to their new location. "We like our customers and we like interacting with them in person." Kentuckiana creatives who have heard this clarion call can visit Preston Art Center at 8101 Warwick Ave.
