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Meet Anamaria Senior of Arteria

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Anamaria Senior.

Anamaria, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in Venezuela in an intensely entrepreneurial family – it’s crazy, absolutely everyone has either started their own business or joined one of the family businesses and getting a job is super looked down upon. Ever since I can remember I have been into art and design: drawing, crafting, painting, cutting up clothes and refashioning them, knitting. It’s pretty much what I always did for fun.

When the time came to choose where to go to school and what to study, I felt a great creative pull but decided to go the (very hard) but safer route and went to business school instead. I was dead set in coming to school in the US, though. I wanted adventure – new experiences and diversity. I ended up attending Boston College for undergrad which was an amazing experience.

After dabbling in finance for a minute, I started feeling the need to do something creative yet again, and this time it felt like the right way to go. I graduated from Parsons in New York City two years later and started working in fashion. After a stint of very interesting work in both high fashion and mass market brands (Carolina Herrera, Bergdorf Goodman, Ann Taylor) the time felt right for finally following in the family footsteps and starting my own business.

I moved back to Venezuela and was there for five wonderful years (reconnected with my roots and family, met my husband, started two exciting businesses, taught college-level classes at Caracas’s top fashion design school, and joined the team at my artist father-in-law’s art school/gallery teaching kids). Sadly, the political and economic turmoil that had been building up for years sent the country into a nosedive, making it near impossible to progress with the edgy women’s fashion e-commerce site and high-end shoe line I had been working on.

As fate would have it, it was right about then that I got married and followed my husband to Los Angeles where he was about to begin grad school. We had visited the city together a few years prior and, somehow, it felt just right. After about two years of researching different business ideas (very LA ones – yoga clothing line, organic nail salon, vegan deli!) Arteria finally got its start.

Has it been a smooth road?
It has been a wonderful ride but not an altogether smooth one. Choosing the area of the city to focus on, finding a storefront, remodeling (My husband and I remodeled the entire space almost entirely by ourselves!), trying to get word out, and being the one behind every single decision (ranging from product offering to image to hiring staff to teaching) is basically an amazing albeit exhausting experience. In every single matter, there is a bit of a learning curve. You have to hit the ground running, be quick to adapt, and know when to ask for help.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Arteria story. Tell us more about the business.
Arteria was envisioned as a modern boutique space (specializing in premium art supply basics, stationery, and gifts) and creative hub where children and adults could join an array of on-trend arts and crafts workshops. It is now that and more! We now also offer art camps and do lots of private events (we throw fab kids’ bday parties!)

It will soon be two years since we opened our doors and, as it is only natural, the business continues to evolve and adapt. We continue to grow more and more on the retail side – we offer really unique cool office supplies/stationery (Traveler’s Notebook journals, Midori brass items, and Ohto mechanical pencils and pens from Japan, Kaweco fountain pens from Germany, pencils, and erasers by Koh-I-Noor from Czech Republic, Nataraj from India, Viking from Denmark, to name a few!), but also offer a growing assortment of products aimed at kids (in line with the ever-growing popularity of our kids’ workshops).

Our workshop offering has continued to expand and diversify (M-W-F 4-6 pm and Sat 11 am-1 pm for kids and Th 7:30-9:30 pm, Sat and Sun afternoons for adults). Some classes are more art-focused (painting, collage, our Explore series which focuses on studying and creating art inspired by renown artists from the past and present like Chagall, Kehinde Wiley, Banksy, Klimt), others are craft-centered (God’s eyes, branch weaving, knit finger puppets, DIY clocks). Our most popular workshops by far are our Shibori Indigo dyeing and our watercolor painting ones.

We take great pride in our above-and-beyond customer service. Not only does our team strive to be knowledgeable and helpful, but (at least personally with my freakishly good memory) we usually end up remembering clients by name and asking about products they have purchased from us in the past. Regular customers make up a huge part of our business. While we didn’t expect it to be the type of business where you knew a lot about your clients and saw them often, like say, a coffee shop or barber, we have definitely nurtured some amazing relationships with both people who shop retail and come in for workshops. There is, of course, a great little crowd that comes to us for both. It’s a great deal of fun.

I believe one of the main things that sets us apart is our image. We worked hard to design a soothing, attractive space – minimalist but cheery and homey. People tend to expect arts and crafts studios to be untidy and splattered in paint and we are very diligent about keeping everything hidden away and looking proper (except for our vintage baby bath tub sink lol). Maybe it isn’t a big thing, but people tend to point it out a lot. We also work very hard on the images for each and every one of our workshops; no generic “kids’ art class” for us. Each class is individually listed and marketed.

We are also known for offering ambitious craft projects to kids and adults alike. Things that are challenging enough to be a fun learning experience, but also (hopefully) attractive enough to be displayed and cherished. Definitely much more intricate than what most people expect. Lastly… we have a very popular, furry, star employee that is at the store most days and that kids adore! Kaiser, our lemon beagle, is the sweetest and he really wins everyone over. He is a big part of the Arteria experience.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I am a firm believer in brick-and-mortar retail. I don’t think it will go away. It certainly is not the way to go for every type of product, but I do see the need to have stores like ours where you can see and touch items, be treated to an exciting selection already curated for you, and have knowledgeable staff advise you or tell you fun background info about items. In an increasingly impersonal world, in-person interaction and the analog product is a real treat.

As for workshops, I think it is likely that the offering increase in coming years. People crave creative hands-on experiences and social interaction, and so we see workshops being progressively considered as a viable option for an outing. Handmade items and the skills to make them are again very appreciated. As for kids, arts and crafts classes have sort of always been around, fostering creativity from an early age is such an important thing to do, but I do see them becoming more sophisticated as of late, and I do believe that trend will continue.

Pricing:

  • Kids’ workshops – $35 for one kid, $64 for two kids (2 hours)
  • Kids’ art camp – $75 a day, $325 for a full week (4 hours)
  • Adult workshops – $40 to $55 on average (2-3 hours)
  • Retail prices – Items start as low as $1, most popular items are $20-50, most expensive item in store $100

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Ramina Magid

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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