Stockist Spotlight: The Future // Minneapolis, Minnesota
We're starting to feature all of our different rad stockists weekly because we believe in supporting small business!
1. What's the name of your shop? Where are you located? Tell us about y'all!
The name of my shop is The Future. It's in the Witch District of South Minneapolis. There's a lil retail space selling handmade stuff by women + queer + trans* folks, with a focus on healing, witchery and offerings to make a body + space feel positive and powerful. We also have a space with a kitchen for events, workshops, talks, seances, spell-working, a magical library, and it functions as my studio space. I also make a line of astrological and anxiety-slaying sprays and oils called Ether Trance, which is made out of The Future's workspace. In the back is a small residency space for artists, healers, tattooers, tarot readers, astrologers, etc. to visit Minneapolis and work out of for 1-2 weeks. I'm calling it a project space + Aquarian lab + artist market + residency. There's a lot of cool stuff going on in the Witch District (which I named and tell my neighbors they're in it. Haha)--a women's woodworking space is opening today a few blocks away, there's a gallery across the street, a vegan cheese kitchen and yoga studio on our block, and another cool lady-run gallery up the street, plus my fav tattoo shop. Almost all of these businesses are run by women, so it's inspiring!
2. What made you decide to open? How long have you been around?
I've been dreaming about having some sort of space like this for at least 10 years--since I still lived in Boston, but rents there were totally bonkers. I just opened the space on March 11, so it's brand new! I've watched Minneapolis underground/DIY spaces dwindle, as compared to ten years ago, and was inspired to open a space that supports the work of other rad women and queer people, through the shop and residency space. And the city needed a witch HQ and I kept traveling and seeing all these inspiring spaces and wishing we had one in Minneapolis. I did some magic around it, and this spot kind of came to me--Prince's costumes were made in my space in the '80s, so I feel like hopefully he had something to do with guiding it to me.
3. What's your favorite thing about being a small biz owner?
Well, I like that all my hard work is going towards something that's mine, and something I totally believe in. I'm still figuring it out, because it's such an amazing amount of work, and I still have two public art project organizing jobs, and three public art/museum/gallery shows I'm working on in my own art practice this year. So I like that I get to connect people with resources and each other and create more connections in the artist/witch community.
4. What's your favorite thing to buy for your store? How has the shop allowed you to discover new artists/product/?
I love buying anything that someone obviously put a lot of work and creativity into--I'm a sucker for any apothecary item, anything that makes me feel like I'm in some sort of punk spa. I'm still discovering new artists and products, and it's amazing how many people already have heard about The Future and have offered their products or ideas on what to do in the space. Minneapolis/St. Paul has such a strong and weird art community, that there's no shortage of artists' offerings.
5. Why did you want to open your store? What was your mission/intention?
The mission of The Future is to act as a community space for likeminded artists, witches, healers and weirdos. I covered why I wanted to open in a few questions up, but basically I know so many people doing cool stuff and we're always looking for a space to host our idea, and thought we might as well have our own space to present our Spiritualist slideshow, boobie mug, ectoplasm photo ritual, etc. There seems to be a lot of art-making that's incorporating healing and manifestation in some way, and I was excited to have a space for people to work on things together, start new collaborations, or just hang out and read a zine about ritual.