Mills and malls

by Lori Bradley

Retailers pay a steep price for inflexibility. Shopping malls of the 1970s and 1980s drew customers away from city centers by offering concentrated access to major retailers, resulting in empty downtown store fronts and decay. Traditional malls offer mass-produced items fixed in the final link of the manufacturing supply chain. Most mall products have been processed and marked up through wholesalers; an impersonal process tailored to mass market segments rather than individuals, though some large malls are beginning to house “pop-up shops” featuring small local retailers.

That’s because large malls are losing customers fast. Many people currently shop online for bread-and-butter items and seek a more personalized shopping experience when they leave their homes. No longer wanting to be treated like anonymous end-users, shoppers are seeking uplifting and holistic experiences and a sense of connection with products, makers, and sellers. In many cities, like New Bedford, customers are returning to shop in modern versions of shopping malls, and these are ironically housed in antique mill buildings.

Called the Mill with a View, the Kilburn Mill complex in the South End has become a destination for shoppers seeking an immersive and varied experience. Once one of the most productive textile mills in the city, it now houses dozens of small businesses including independent clothing stores, consignment stores, handmade gift shops, and other retailers along with wellness-oriented businesses including fitness gyms and yoga and massage studios.

A few special shops make a day at the Kilburn Mill a truly special shopping experience, including a live plant store called Star Garden Studio. On a cold day, stepping into this store is like taking a trip to a tropical park. Its light-filled space is filled floor to ceiling with robustly healthy greenery that will enliven any indoor space.

Flip This Doll House (flipthisdollhouse. com) is housed in a massive open space and filled with doll houses from every era. Walking in the door is like entering a miniature city. Flip This Doll House sells hard-to-find and tiny furniture and household items to fit any aficionado’s imagination or fill a hobbyist with glee. Wandering through Flip This Doll House can be an achingly sentimental experience, with each house prodding a distant memory.

Hidden enclave

The foundation of the Kilburn Mill are the dozens of artist’s studios and galleries scattered throughout like the venerable Judith Klein Gallery which was one of the first to open in the mill. Karen Zukas is a studio artist and founder of the New Bedford Art and Cultural Emporium, an art education collaborative at Kilburn Mills (nbartsandculturalemporium.com). A diverse group of regional artists offer accessible, short classes for all ages. Workshops offered this spring range from scrimshaw, paper collage, and paper flowers, to everyday automobile maintenance.

Zukas describes her experience of being an art entrepreneur at the Kilburn Mill: “The best part of working in a former mill space is knowing that we're recycling the building. These old buildings are well built, using some of the finest possible materials of their time. Kilburn Mill is close to the water of Clarke's Cove, and you can smell the fresh sea air while you're working.

“As artists, we are able to close the door and make our own work without interruption, or if we'd like to share what we do with others, the doors are open, and folks can walk on in. Most of us don't have regular business hours, but we are open whenever there are events, functions, classes, openings, workshops, or social or personal requests.”

The Kilburn Mill is an interior decorator’s dream, combining the old and the new in one easily walkable venue, while the studio artists keep it community oriented. Zukas enthusiastically summed up the present state of the mill and creative plans for the future: “There’s a soul in what artists do, a little piece of us shared, and put out there for others to enjoy. We are holding our first annual mural slam this fall, where local professional and amateur artists will paint an indoor mural for cash prizes. The events that we produce, the quality art that is available here, and the ever-changing availability of cuttingedge work is a huge attraction. Kilburn offers tremendous music, dance, and performance venues as well as its amazing, well-established galleries and private artist spaces.”

The Kilburn Mill shares some similarities with traditional malls like shopping combined with eating options such as the popular Dough Company (DoCo) which is attached to the mill and offers traditional sandwiches, breakfast foods and hot drinks with a twist like lemon/Blueberry pancakes and smoked salmon toast (doughcompany.business.site).

Just outside of the handicapaccessible ramp leading to DoCo and around the back of Kilburn Mill is the massive Antiques at the Cove (newbedfordantiquesatthecove.com). It is so huge that fans of mall-walking can put in a good mile just moving around the entire perimeter of the interior.

Supporting dozens of independent vendors, this antique mall has furniture and household ephemera, along with a changing selection of truly quirky items like a 1960s sunbathing booth with a skeleton inside.

Spools to sculpture

There is another mill complex offering eclectic shopping opportunities in the North End of New Bedford. Housed in the former Nashawena textile mill complex, the 88 and 90 Hatch Street Studio buildings house three floors of artist’s studios and small businesses. From high-end furniture makers like Floating Stone Woodworks and John Giacobbi Studios to jewelers, painters, and ceramicists, the Hatch Street Studios are also a decorator’s dream (hatchstreetsudios.com).

There are a few stand-out, unusual spaces to visit like the Amy Lund Handweavers on the second floor (aclhandweaver.com). Lund’s space is filled with antique weaving looms of all sizes and is a living tribute to the textile origins of the Nashawena complex. She weaves contemporary clothing with a nod to tradition in the colors and patterns incorporated into her fine fabrics.

“I love the repurposing of existing historic spaces for contemporary activities,” Lund says. “Other retail locations I have occupied have also been repurposed homes and community grange halls. The airy, expansive atmosphere of the mill studio spaces is inviting for creativity.”

Kilburn Mill

Ceramicist Corrinn Jusell works in a massive, light studio space on the third floor where she creates her stunning, functional wares embodying the soft colors and light of South Coast beaches (madebycorrinn.com). Like Lund, she grapples with balancing the luxury of working in a large, open space with having active access to retail shoppers.

“What drew me to having a studio in one of the many mill buildings that the beautiful city of New Bedford has to offer would be the endless possibility that the space holds,” Jusell says. “When I was looking for a space to start my business, I was looking for an open space that I could work in every day, while selling and manufacturing my work. I found Hatch Street Studios and after a tour I knew it was the space. It was clean and well-kept, there was a community of like-minded creatives, and it was affordable for a young artist. Often I am asked why I stay tucked away in a mill building and don't move to a more visible storefront with foot traffic. I tell them that I enjoy where I am, for me much of my sales are not conducted through my studio – my work is sold through a third party. Most of my work is sold through consignment and wholesale to other stores or via my made-to-order page on my website.” guaranteed week The consumers. receive can rely ue to grow “No shortages says Bishop. All products directly gnarlyvinesfarm.com.

While Hatch Street Studio artists all grapple with finding the right mix of consistent retail shopping hours, open studios, and a spontaneous drop-in atmosphere, the mill is always an exciting place to visit. Fortunately, the South Coast is chock-full of mall-sized mill buildings where creative business fusions can take root and flourish. The celebratory vibe of artists working in studios attracts diverse categories of retailers to join in setting up shop in refurbished mill buildings. The mixture is a proven profitable blend as evidenced by the current trend of traditional large retailer anchored malls renting space to small retailers and creative pop-up shops to bring in a new audience. And the arts help foster social connections and lend a sense of community to a retail environment, and what is needed more than creative unity right now?