Hayley Jacobson
The COVID-19 pandemic is entering its fifth week here in Wisconsin with no sign of coming to an end any time soon.
Many are stuck at home. According to Forbes, millions of Americans have been laid off due to the ongoing crisis. It is now predicted by Forbes that another round of layoffs may be imminent.
However, there are still local businesses doing their best in supporting local artists. Here in the Chippewa Valley, there are several options to pick from.
Volume One, for those not familiar, is an arts and culture magazine in the Chippewa Valley that also specialized on events. Before COVID-19, they focused many articles on what was happening in Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, and Menominee.
In addition, the magazine covered many community stories, community needs and inspirational people, according to Nick Meyer, publisher of the magazine.
“We’re quite concerned for people in all walks of life around the community right now, and for the businesses and non-profits who have been put at serious risk through all this,” Meyer said.
Volume One is working to continue covering those community stories showcasing the community coming together. However, they are still worried about how the community may come out from all of this, Meyer said.
“We’ve put nearly all our focus onto covering the community’s needs and responses to the pandemic,” Meyers said. “Our website at VolumeOne.org has been relaunched under the banner of Pulling Together While Staying Apart.”
Volume One does have its own store, which helps support the magazine as well.
“While our sales are certainly down a lot compared to if our doors were open, we’ve been very thankful for an incredible amount of online orders coming in,” Meyers said. “We’ve been offering some fun care package options for people to pick from, to mail directly to friends and loved ones.”
That concern about the unknown carries through all artistic endeavors. Across the Chippewa Valley artists and creators are facing uncertain times. While some may have originally been looking forward to having more time on their hands, many are now being forced at home after losing their jobs and means of supporting their families.
Ambient Inks, a print shop specializing in t-shirt and apparel printing, is run by Aaron Brice and Tim Brunner, with a focus on supplying the local music scene with every kind of print shirt that the scene needs.
However, as concerts and group meet ups have come to a halt, business has slowed considerably. Ambient Inks’ main source of printing comes from the local musicians of the Chippewa Valley, and as many local concerts have been postponed, so have orders.
“We print merch for tours and to stock bands’ online stores. Our busy season is the summer, so with bands not touring and festivals being cancelled, we’ve definitely seen a decrease,” Aaron Brice, co-founder of Ambient Inks, said in an online interview.
Ambient Ink works with many musicians to supply t-shirts and other merchandise to their fans both at gigs and on their online stores.
““But it’s all about empowering our artists to be creative. People still want to support the music/artists they love, and we’re rethinking how to support our clients at this time,” Brice said.”
“But it’s all about empowering our artists to be creative. People still want to support the music/artists they love, and we’re rethinking how to support our clients at this time,” Brice said.
While Ambient Inks orders have gone down, the company is still looking for ways to continue supporting the local artists in the area through their shop as well as relief programs.
Ambient Inks has partnered with Give Local Love, which is an online store devoted to small business tees. Businesses submit a design, customers preorder a tee, and Ambient prints & ships them. There’s no upfront costs and no risk. The more they sell, the more their business makes, according to Brice.
“Businesses submit a design, customers preorder a tee, and Ambient prints & ships them. There’s no upfront costs and no risk. The more they sell, the more their business makes,” Brice said.
Ambient Inks has also launched their own fundraiser for Chippewa Valley artists and creators which they call the Artist Relief Fund.
This fund is specifically for those artists who have been impacted by COVID-19 through losing their day jobs as well as being unable to book shows, and having their events or gigs cancelled, Brice said.
While many of Ambient Inks orders come from musicians, the store themselves have an online portion full of their own designs.
“Our webstore fulfillment department is currently operating with the bare minimum staff. We’re doing this in compliance with Minimum Basic Operations as defined by Wisconsin’s Safer At Home order, and so that we can continue to keep as many of our staff members working remotely as possible,” Brice said. “It is our goal to continue to keep up with our client’s demands, but foremost we want to take care of our staff working both on site and remotely.”
Until the end of April, every item on Ambient Inks entire roster will be donated to the artist relief fund as well as the feed my people foodbank.
“The more this pandemic seemingly separates us, the more it has the potential to bring us together,” Brice said.