Notsimply a bookstore, the center actively seeks out top contemporary writersbothknown and unknownto read here, shows high-quality art in its gallery, screensindependent and experimental films, hosts WMSE’s new music series “AlternatingCurrents Live,” conducts free workshops for neighborhood kids, works with otheragencies in town, and more. It’s a lot of activity, and a lot of history.
Morethan an overgrown shoebox filled with sentimental odds-and-ends, there’s anarcheology here in the archive. Anne Kingsbury, who founded the bookstore withKarl Gartung and is currently the non-profit’s executive director, says it’s soimportant for the story it tells. “There’s different kinds of economicinformation; information about many writers who are not household names, andthe presses who took a chance and published them.”
“Ithink the canceled checks are fascinating, because you have a history of whatpeople spent their money on,” Kingsbury says. “It starts to define through thenegative spaces what was happening at a certain time.”
Cultural Crossover
In1979, when Woodland Pattern moved into its present building on
“Movinghere was a combination of a pragmatic decision and a philosophic decision,”Kingsbury says. “The philosophy was that this is an area that, first of all,had no book place; it’s not even close to a library. We saw a need here.Secondly, this area has always been an artist’s area. The rents have alwaysbeen pretty inexpensive…pragmatically, we could afford it.”
WoodlandPattern fills a hole for the entire region, not just Riverwest. Stocking over25,000 small press titles not found elsewhere in the area and prominently featuringchapbooks and bro
Andso, to meet their goal of putting literature in the hands of readers, WoodlandPattern is, by necessity, a non-profit organization supported by book sales,memberships, programming, and sometimes unstable arts funding, which means it’sa continuing scramble to keep everything afloat. Kingsbury estimates thisyear’s grant from the National Endowment for the Arts is likely to be smallerthan the very first one they received nearly 30 years ago.“As a non-profit, we are constantlyreinventing the wheel.”
Keeping it Fresh
Reinventingthe wheel, in part, means a balancing act of keeping pace with the times andstaying true to your mission. Kingsbury credits the bright, young staff withhelping keep the store in touch. “Continuity is interesting and important andyou need to have a sense of history, but you also need to have new eyes thatcan see what the opportunities are,” she says.
Thoseeyes are certainly keeping things fresh, and they’re impacting everything fromprogramming to marketing. Log on to MySpace and you’ll find that WoodlandPattern has nearly 1000 friends. This sort of marketing is vital to the store,which doesn’t advertise, preferring to put the money into the many programsoffered through the center each year.
Allthe activity, in turn, keeps it fresh for the staff. “What really puts thisplace on the map for me is the incredible energy here,” says Chuck Stebelton,the center’s literary programming manager. That energy, and the love the staffhas for the literature, will likely keep the archive in the basement growingfor decades to come.
On Sunday, June 8,
