Inside the Buddy store at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)
Museum shops and galleries have a great deal of goods you won’t find at either Neiman Marcus or Dollar General.
The store at MCA Chicago has two floors of funky fun. The little shop at Intuit gallery is packed with items related to Outsider art. The workshop at Project Onward sells handmade art priced to sell. Even the staid Art Institute of Chicago gift shop has sharp new designs based on the museum’s iconic lions.
But the Buddy store in the Chicago Cultural Center is top of the heap for art-loving localvores.
Since 2021, Buddy has supported and showcased local artists, makers and small businesses. The store is stocked with unique posters, home goods, jewelry, piñatas, photographs and handmade objects made from wood, cloth and clay.
This year Buddy has an assortment of artist-made ornaments that sell for $7-30. (Unfortunately, the cheeky Butt Frog ornament had sold out, but this reporter scored a T-shirt that says “Eat, Pray, Frog” and supported a maker with a silly sense of humor.)
Items on sale at the Buddy store inside the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)
Thankfully, the store is more Chicago-centric than frog-centric. There are prints of city landmarks you won’t find in the Walgreen’s souvenir aisle, plus posters from house music shows, and stickers, buttons and books rooted in Chicago history.
“We look for anything that speaks to us,” Kimberly Kim said. Kim is the director of Buddy and also a photographer and ceramicist.
“We have a maximalist approach to things,” Kim said. “There’s a lot of stuff in the store. The only requirement to sell at Buddy is that you live and work in Chicago.”
All stock is curated.
“Twice a year we have an online application process,” Kim said. “We have a committee that looks for anything that’s interesting and unique. We work with smaller-scale artists and nonprofits who don’t usually work with other organizations or art fairs.”
Inside the Buddy store at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)
And Buddy has a social conscience. This year the store is selling tote bags with printed artwork for $28.
“All proceeds from the tote sale is going toward buying phones and SIM cards for refugees being bused in from Florida and Texas,” Kim said. “We try to give back because Chicago, beautiful as the city is, has a lot of problems that we have to work towards.”
Who is the Buddy director’s favorite local maker of the moment?
“My favorite thing right now is Southwest Signs, a small mom-and-pop shop on the Southwest Side of Chicago,” Kim said. “They are the go-to spot for all grocery stores in Chicago for signs like ‘Strawberries, $3 per lb.’”
The hand-painted signs with eye-catching colors echo the Pop Art of the 1960s and sell for $45-65 each.
Buddy is open at the Chicago Cultural Center from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Dec. 22-23 and 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on Dec. 24.
Buddy is a program of the Public Media Institute, the Bridgeport-based nonprofit that also publishes Lumpen magazine and runs the Co-Prosperity gallery.
Items on sale at the Buddy store inside the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)
