New business headed for walk-in studio at former Artbeat

Details: By Jan Whitted; Category: Business news; Last Updated: 13 August 2020; Hits: 516

Greater Goods Collective coming

Creative Adventures banner: Artbeat

Longtime Arlington arts-business owner is giving up her familiar space in East Arlington to a new enterprise called the Greater Goods Collective.

Jan Whitted, founder at Artbeat in 1996, told YourArlington that Greater Goods will continue the pop-up events she began and plans to expand its offerings to include "small batch" goods from artists and makers around the globe. The new business is expected to open in early October.

"Over the past few months, I've been working hard to ensure that my space continues to be a cultural resource," she wrote.

After starting Artbeat in 1996, Whitted is moving what has been known as Creative Adventures Studio since last fall to Lowell. She expects to become part of the artist community at the Western Avenue Studios, where she plans to "continue to develop and grow my popular sand painting line of kits and other new art-related kits. I look forward to being able to provide in-person art experiences again some day once the health crisis is over."

Her website www.getcreativeadventures.com will expand to include other specialty, hard-to-find products, such as the decoupage papers that she has offered for many years.

Whitted noted about her studio:

It was the first mixed-media walk-in art studio in New England and was inspired by her belief in the importance of trying new things as a path toward changing ourselves and changing the world;
During 24 years, it has provided more than 90,000 art experiences to individuals and groups of all ages, from adults to teens to toddlers; and
It is the exclusive provider of Creative Adventures® sand-art canvases and kits, developed while working in Arlington.

Hopes were high for Whitted, after she closed Artbeat last October, and opened a studio, where she held pop-up events. With the grip of Covid-19 in March closing town businesses temporarily, the ongoing effect has become permanent for some.

That now includes the studio part of Artbeat the Creativity Store at 212A Mass. Ave. in East Arlington, which closed July 31.