Main Street Morgantown receives funding for Artisans Entrepreneurship Program

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — Main Street Morgantown recently received a grant of $7,500 from the Truist West Virginia Foundation that will help support its Artisan Entrepreneurship Program, which aims to bring more creative entrepreneurship to downtown Morgantown.

“We’re very excited that the Truist West Virginia Foundation has recognized our efforts and our Artisan Entrepreneurship initiative,” said Main Street Morgantown Executive Director Amy Loomis. “That initiative, it represents about $200,000 of investments for bolstering artist entrepreneurs, giving them professional development opportunities to become successful, sustainable and growing businesses.”

The money from this grant is being used to renovate Main Street Morgantown’s former office space along High Street in Morgantown, into a “retail lab” where artists can showcase and sell their work to the community. Loomis stated this new space is a “partnership pop-up” with WVU Fashion Design and Merchandising, as well as the volunteers of Main Street Morgantown.

According to Loomis, Morgantown Main Street has been working on downtown revitalization for the past 40 years. She said that part of their formula for success is making sure that small businesses “have the opportunity to thrive, have the opportunity to incubate downtown, and perhaps even choose downtown as their permanent place of business.”

“When there are exciting businesses downtown, everyone wants to be there and stay, and shop and dine and play,” said Loomis. “And just really enjoy the historic core of their town.”

Main Street Morgantown is currently planning to open the Retail Lab on Sept. 17, which is when the organization will also debut the first event of its speaker series. Loomis said that during this event, Meredith and Ross Lewis of the Lewisburg Surf Shop will be speaking with the community on the topic of “How We Created a Luxury Retail Store.”

This speaker series will be open to the public, and people will be able to preview the Retail Lab during this event. More information on how to register for this free event can be found via the Main Street Morgantown Facebook page.

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