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56  GUIDE TO YELLOW SPR INGS  |  2020 – 2021 Five years later, in 1989, the couple had the oppor- tunity to take their catering company downtown. Bruce and Carol Cornett sold them their small produce shop at 237 Xenia Ave., then known as the Village Green Grocer. It became a deli/shop and catering company, with food going out both the front and the back of the business. An ad in the June 1989 edition of the Yellow Springs News notes the change in ownership and touts the offerings of the newly christened Current Cuisine — “finer foods, groceries and catering.” On that, it contin - ues to deliver. At the same time, true to its name, Current Cuisine has kept up with changing times, adding soups and lunch specials. On a recent visit, the dispaly case of prepared foods featured egg salad Florentine, curried tofu salad, stuffed clams, BBQ meatballs, broccoli salad and more, plus its most popu- lar soup, African chicken peanut. It also features foods from around the world with its “taste of” menu, such as Thailand, Ireland and Italy. As Current said, “You’re always moving and chang- ing — we are Current Cuisine after all.” —Megan Bachman Village Artisans, founded 1983 When it opened in May 1983, the Yellow Springs News declared Village Artisans “an arts and crafts town’s newest shop.” The cooperative shop has both benefitted from Yellow Springs’ reputation and con - tributed to it. The idea for the coopera- tive began with local artists Joyce Keister and Christa Metzger, who belonged to a similar cooperative in Dayton, but who were dissatisfied with having to leave Yellow Springs to sell their work. They found out other artists in town felt the same way. “A lot of artists have been selling their work elsewhere,” Kiester, a weaver, told the News. “That’s strange because Yellow Springs has always been considered an arts and crafts town.” “People really think this is the place to buy handmade work,” she added. And buy handmade work they have, for 37 years and counting. The original Village Artisans — founded by Keister and Metzger, along with Dierde Roche, its bookkeeper, and the late local artist Gail Kort — was in the space next door to Bonadies Glasstu- dio and featured the work of 26 artists, according to News archives. Batik, jewelry, PHOTO: MEGAN BACHMAN Village Artisans, located at the Shops at 100 Corry St., was founded in 1983. needlepoint, children’s cloth- ing, wood, copper enameling and more was on offer. As a cooperative member, each artist paid an annual fee — $225 per year at the time — in addition to a 10% commis - sion on sales and a few store shifts a month. Over time the rate has grown slightly, to about $400 per year. In its early years, member- ship swelled to 53 artists, recalled original member Anna Arbor in a recent interview. Arbor had been recently laid off as an art teacher when she joined. She found in the shop both an outlet to sell her watercolor paintings of Yellow Springs scenes and the sup- port of fellow artists in what would become a new career path for her. “It was a really marvelous experience and opened up many doors for me as an artist,” she said. In 2003, Village Artisans moved to the building that now houses Asanda Imports, followed by a move to the shops at 100 Corry St., its present location. Twenty years earlier, in August of its first year in business, Village Artisans launched “Art in the Yard” in nearby Kings Yard, organized by Arbor and featuring live music from folksinger Rocky Jones and the Yellow Springs Children’s Chorus, according to News archives. Today, the annual juried art show fills a wide swath of Mills Lawn. Called “Art on the Lawn,” it regularly draws 100 artists and 2,000 patrons, and acts as a fundraiser to help the shop weather slow sales during winter months. Meanwhile, Village Artisans, with its 20 current members, continues to live up to its mission statement to provide this “arts and crafts town” with “unique handmade art at affordable prices.” —Megan Bachman 254 XENIA AVE. • 937-767-7451 WWW. Y ELLOW S PRINGS H ARDWARE.COM Locally Owned & Independent Continuing 90+ Years of Village Hardware Tradition ASK US ABOUT PLACING SPECIAL ORDERS • Hardware & Building Supplies • Plumbing & Electrical Supplies • Hand Tools • Paint & Stain • Lawn & Garden Care • Bird Seed & Feeders UPS Drop-off & Fax Service