COUNCIL GROVE
Bob and Christy Alexander give local artists a place to sell and display their artwork while providing heirloom-quality gifts for almost every taste.
The Alexanders own Alexander ArtWorks in downtown Council Grove. The store started out as a dream and this year became a reality. The couple had a dream for years to open a store and would sift through catalogues looking at stuff they might put in it.
“We never really thought that it would happen,” Bob Alexander said.
The store has paintings, photographs, clocks, steel cutouts, stained glass and a wide variety of other items made by the Alexanders and other local artists.
“Everything is handmade,” Bob Alexander said. “It’s a lot of really cool stuff.”
The Alexanders have been doing some of the artwork they sell for years. They are well-known in the area for their custom work, which includes custom steel cutting with a plasma cutter machine and stained glass artwork. The custom steel work has been Bob Alexander’s project, he said. He works full-time at Rex Materials north of Council Grove and has worked in the tooling department. Bob Alexander said they were asked to make the silhouettes that will go on top of the welcome signs at Council Grove.
“It’s going to be at all the entrances into the town,” he said.
They quickly outgrew their garage and began dreaming of a place to work in town.
“We were just looking for a place we can turn into a workshop,” Christy Alexander said.
They found much more than a workshop thanks to the help of John White at Farmers and Drovers Bank in Council Grove. White coached the couple on financing and a business plan.
Today, the store not only provides the Alexanders with a workshop but also a place to display their own work and other artists’ work as well.
“The artists in this area don’t have a place to be featured,” Christy Alexander said, adding that the artists responded by filling the store to the brim with their work to be displayed and sold. “We’ve been very lucky and they’ve been very gracious with stuff.”
Local artists featured include Harold Gaston, Ralph and Sharon Mock, Joyce Jenkins, Dick Montgomery, Cher Heller Olson, Linda Shoults, Deb Schroer, Kelly Siebert, Lorrie Catlett, Kent and Rose Bacon, Rachael Barr, Caleb Grant, Craig Ridenour, Rhonda Bryant, Lowell Scripter and Robert Falter.
Christy Alexander said the idea of the store is to provide heirloom quality products.
“You can’t walk into Walmart and buy it,” she said, adding that the products are priced accordingly, but will likely stay in families for generations and be handed down.
The Alexanders also have had a lot of community support including from the local Chamber of Commerce.
“We have had unbelievable support from the community,” Christy Alexander said. “We just keep filling up.”
Bob and Christy Alexander hope the store will continue to grow.
“This is something that we would like to do as our means of income,” Bob Alexander said.