‘Leave the mess with us’: Windmill Art Studio opens in Lebanon Valley Mall

Windmill Art Studios, featuring a storefront filled with local artists in the front and a spacious workspace in the back, is now open at Lebanon Valley Mall.

Owners Christiana and Ed Varner have experience in education and started the studio as a “passion project.” Ed said Christiana loves artists and has collected many friends and acquaintances who helped start the store.

“We’ve got a wide variety of different local people, and our mission is to find a place to give local people a chance to hang their art, to show their art, and we’re hoping that everybody can sell their art,” he said.

Also for the artists are some rentable studio spaces in the back of the store. Ed said he started with a studio space in his kitchen, but people looking for space outside the home can use the walls, shelves, and tables to store their materials and work.

Windmill Art Studios fits in with many other stores in the mall that are shifting their focus toward providing experiences rather than just products.

Christiana said they’re interested in hosting birthday parties, homeschool groups, parenting classes, and fundraisers. She said they don’t have a liquor license, but they’d love to host BYOB activities where guests can paint and sip.

There is a $20 studio fee, and customers can choose from a variety of projects that range from $5 to $35.

“I need to charge them just because I have to pay the rent and keep the lights on, the air conditioning on, but we want people to come together in groups,” Christiana said. “We had a couple come in for a date night, and they each picked a little $5 project, and they spent like two hours just painting together and chitchatting, and to us, that’s really beautiful.”

And customers aren’t expected to clean up after themselves.

“Leave the mess with us,” Ed said. “We don’t want you to feel compelled to clean up after yourself. Just come in, use our stuff, use our stencils, our projects, and then leave the mess with us.”

Both owners agree that art can be incredibly beneficial. It allows for creativity and forms a community.

“Even if you’re not a Picasso or a Rembrandt, putting paint on a canvas or putting paint on a piece of ceramic or paper is very therapeutic,” Ed said. “It connects us. The arts are all around us, and we need to be engaged. Unfortunately and understandably, schools don’t have as much time or resources to do that anymore.”

To provide a space outside of school, the store’s hours will be slightly different once the school year starts. Christiana said they expect the hours will be 2 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, with longer hours on Saturdays.

Zack Simmons is one of the local artists featured in the front part of the store, modeling and creating their own 3D-printed bug earrings.

Simmons said wearing jewelry has been a form of expression, and creating their own earrings has allowed for customization.

“Since I got my ears pierced, I’ve always wanted to express myself with earrings,” Simmons said. “Now that I can, I’ve found I love dangles, but they’re heavy, and with the 3D printed ones, they’re very light because of the material.”

Simmons said they walked around the mall regularly for several years and saw several stores open and close during that time. When Windmill Art Studios opened, they stopped in and talked to Ed and Christiana.

Now, their creations are on display.

“It’s a bit surreal, honestly,” Simmons said. “It’s not ever a thing I told myself would actually happen, and now I can walk into an art gallery and see it amongst everyone else’s stuff.”