A reviewer posted the comment on a recent survey.
A: Yes, so would we.
I addressed this issue very briefly in another post. You likely visited us at one of the two Hobby Lobby locations in Louisville where we used to conduct classes. Oh, we love that venue because it overlapped our Laconia, Jeffersonville and Clarksville audiences so perfectly that folks could come and paint with us at all four locations! It's always great seeing so many people that you build good relationships with and look forward to seeing them every week. Since I don't know who posted this (we promised anonymity on the feedback survey and we delivered on that! Hobby Lobbies across the nation closed their classrooms, and all but a handful say it will be forever. Those classrooms have mostly been converted to between-season storage. They crushed the livelihoods of hundreds of artists who depended on Hobby Lobbies for their creative spaces. Since we bought much of our supply load from them each week on class days they, in turn, have lost millions of dollars in revenue from the artists they shut down.
So, right now we are stuck.
Here's an excerpt from the other post I mentioned above. It was written for a commenter regarding Batesville:
"Here how you can help:
1. Contact your local librarian and tell them you want to have Bob Ross painting classes at the library.
2. Give them our contact name and number (Art Party Unlimited, 812-508-6747, e-mail: info@artpartyunlimited.com, web address www.artpartyunlimited.com) and have them contact us for arrangements.
3. Gather all of your friends and sell out the venue for us!
4. Have fun with a group of people you know! Sooooooo, here's another way you can make this happen for us: Hire us for a private event! We can come to you at your house or business to paint with your group. Contact us at the above ways and we can figure something out for you. Obviously the larger the group the less it is per person.
At the private events we work with you to choose a painting to complete.
So there are the two best ways to help us get to Batesville more often. We're willing, but we need your help to make it happen. If there's no demand for us then nobody will bring us up! The third way is to lobby (pun intended) for Hobby Lobby to reopen their classrooms. The decision to close the classrooms resulted in a 90% plus revenue loss for most artists who were depending on Hobby Lobby classrooms for instruction. We stopped shopping there because of what they did to artists across the nation, so let corporate know that you want artists back! ;)"
Thanks so much for wanting us to come back to you in Louisville! It makes us feel good to know people miss us! We miss all of you, too!