Local artist Hirona Matsuda serves as the company’s director of merchandising
Inside Artist & Craftsman Supply on upper King Street, the air carries a familiar mix of paper, pigment, and possibility. Shelves brim with sketchbooks, brushes, and rows of jewel-toned paint tubes. College of Charleston students drift in between classes, a professional painter studies a wall of oils, and a parent helps a child choose a first set of markers. The store is a working studio for Charleston itself.
Founded in 1985 in Yarmouth, Maine, by ceramic artist and contractor Larry Adlerstein, Artist & Craftsman Supply began as a modest experiment in bringing serious art materials to artists who struggled to source them. The company eventually grew into one of the country’s largest independent art supply retailers, with Charleston becoming part of that story in the late 1990s. “Our founder Larry…was on his way to Jacksonville, Florida, to look for a location,” says Hirona Matsuda, a local artist and the company’s director of merchandising. “He pit-stopped in Charleston and fell in love with the city.”
Adlerstein discovered a building at 434 King Street and opened the first local store in 1998. Today, the Charleston location sits farther north on King Street, surrounded by the growing Wagner Terrace and North Central neighborhoods. The setting places it in the middle of a thriving arts corridor, with Redux Contemporary Art Center and the American College of the Building Arts nearby.
For Matsuda, the store’s role in the community is personal. A CofC grad with degrees in art and anthropology, she joined the shop as a part-time employee while studying sculpture 20 years ago. “A huge part of my art education actually came from working at the store,” she says. “You’re constantly talking to professional artists about what they’re doing in the studio.”
Artist & Craftsman staffs its stores almost entirely with working artists, providing them with benefits, including paid time off, a 401(k), and insurance. “First and foremost, it’s our people,” Matsuda says. “Everyone who works at our store is an artist in some capacity and has a huge well of expertise.”
Working artists form the backbone of the store’s loyal customer base, while relationships with schools and organizations like the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art help nurture the next generation.
While Artist & Craftsman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2025, it still operates 14 stores, and the Charleston shop continues to thrive. “For the Charleston store specifically, it hasn’t had a lot of impact,” Matsuda says. “We haven’t had any lapses in day-to-day service or staffing.”
Looking ahead, she hopes to deepen the shop’s role as a gathering place. “Cultivating more relationships with artists in the community and continually bringing new products into the store is exciting,” she says. “It’s always nice to open our doors and bring people together.”
