Richmond artists join forces to show their work.
(Photo by Ethan Hickerson)
Sarah Rowland is hopeful. The Richmond-based artist and business owner has spent the better part of the last 14 months working in her basement studio creating custom wallpaper designs virtually solo. But on a recent cool, rainy morning she was out of the basement and gleefully talking about one of her designs recently installed on the walls just inside the entrance to The Flourish Collective.
“This is really exciting!” Rowland says. “Just being here and watching it all happen is incredible.”
Rowland is one of 10 members of the Collective, a brick-and-mortar showroom in Richmond’s Jackson Ward neighborhood that brings together an eclectic group of artisans, craftspeople, and designers to introduce their unique creations and ideas to potential buyers and dreamers. As its founder Stevie McFadden explains, it’s a “showroom for the design curious.”
McFadden, an interior designer who launched her own firm, Flourish Spaces, in 2017, came up with the idea to create The Flourish Collective early last year when she started losing tenants in a building she purchased in 2018 at the corner of Third and East Clay streets for her design business. Last September, she moved her offices to the second floor and reached out to partners in the design community and craftspeople, artists, and vendors she had worked with and pitched her idea of creating a holistic design opportunity.
McFadden explains, “It’s a great space, and the Jackson Ward neighborhood is so vibrant and rich with history.”
“It’s a resting place for some one-of-a-kind piece I just had to get.” — Stevie McFadden
Under the Collective business model, members pay a fee upfront and a small percentage of their sales at the back end. “It has ancillary benefits, too,” says Rowland. “We work together as a community and share information about pricing, business processes, and marketing.”
(photo by Brittany Daniel)
The Collective showroom is a carefully curated series of vignettes intended to create “rooms” using furnishings, art, rugs, and lighting all crafted by either Collective members or representatives of lines the Collective carries, most of which are available “to the trade” only. The Collective gives customers access to these lines, which they would otherwise need to hire an interior designer (a professional “in the trade”) to obtain.
McFadden promises to change the vignettes every few months to keep things fresh. “The idea is for people to see personal, meaningful spaces that reflect their stories,” she says. “Everyone wants to have a living environment that represents the best version of themselves, but many have a hard time visualizing what that is. At the Collective, we can take staples like a neutral sofa and pair it with something unexpected.”
Something unexpected could be unique lighting from Collective members Umanoff Designs or a handmade Turkish rug sourced from Charlottesville-based Holdingforth, whose owner Tracey Love buys rugs and textiles from Morocco and Turkey, chosen for their unique abstract, tribal, and geometric nature.
“We want to work with designers and homeowners who might not want to hire a designer but instead curate their own interior style and are looking for something unique and special,” says McFadden.
The showroom is chockablock with furnishings and art, all offered at a variety of prices to appeal to shoppers looking to splurge or those on a tight budget. McFadden admits that the space also allows her to indulge in her passion for shopping estate sales. “It’s a resting place for some one-of-a-kind pieces I just had to get,” she laughs.
The Collective also has layered in pieces for immediate purchase. An assortment of decorative throw pillows fill racks lining one wall of the showroom. Samples of McCormick Paints, a Maryland-based manufacturer, are also available for sale, with full gallons of the more than 200 different paint hues able to be ordered and delivered in 24 hours.
McFadden has also carved out building space for an Airbnb rental. To promote the Collective, she has furnished the rental with pieces from Collective members and lines represented in the showroom. Guests are encouraged to literally shop their rental. “The Jackson Ward neighborhood and nearby arts district offers such a great Richmond experience. There are artisans all around!” explains McFadden.
There is no question that she is proud of the Collective’s members and affiliate furnishing lines. Walking through the showroom, she pauses to admire tables crafted of wood and concrete by Richmond furniture maker Alicia Dietz and eagerly points out an exotic mural on a back wall painted by local artist Naomi McCavitt who combines scientific illustration and surface design to create expansive works of art on walls.
It’s clear that the Collective is more than a creative consortium of local entrepreneurs. The member partners are family.
This article originally appeared in the August 2021 issue.
