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Apr 20, 2023

Cooper Center store The Yellow Umbrella folds

The Yellow Umbrella, located inside the Cooper Community Arts Center, has

The Yellow Umbrella, located inside the Cooper Community Arts Center, has closed.

The Yellow Umbrella has weathered a lot of storms, figuratively speaking, in its time inside the John Sherman Cooper Community Arts Center. But it's time for it to be closed for good.

Cooper Center Director Deb Stringer told the Commonwealth Journal that the shop which sells items by regional creators and artisans has ceased operations.

"It just wasn't making the sales," said Stringer. "Covid just about closed us down. After it came back up, nobody was coming in to purchase anything, and so the sales (meant the business) just wasn't paying for itself."

The Yellow Umbrella had been a part of what was the Carnegie Center, now named after the late U.S. Sen. John Sherman Cooper, since the very beginning, when it opened in December of 2008 in what had been downtown Somerset's Pulaski County Public Library.

"Just pop in the side door and head downstairs to the Bistro and Yellow Umbrella coffee shop," reported the Commonwealth Journal at the time. "A great place to get a cup of joe and a sandwich from Schlotzsky's Deli, the Yellow Umbrella will be open during the day for the hungry downtown denizens of Somerset."

The Yellow Umbrella is currently located on the main floor of the Cooper Center, in the room which used to house periodicals when the building was a library.

Local artists as well as those as from around Kentucky allowed their work, from art pieces to books and videos, clothing and jewelry to homemade soaps and lotions, to be sold in that space.

"It was beautiful stuff," said Stringer. However, it wasn't always freshly supplied. "Some of the (artisans) were good about bringing some more stuff in, and then some of it had been there for years and not moved."

Now, the Cooper Center is seeking to make sure the artists whose items are sold in the store get their work returned to them.

"We sent letters out to the addresses that we had but we don't have everybody's updates addresses or phone numbers and so there's no way of getting a hold of them," said Stringer. "And so we need to get (the word) out there."

Those artists have about three months to come and pick up the items in the store, said Stringer. She said to contact her at 859-967-3263 if anyone needs to do so, and arrangements can be made.

Or, if the artist would like to donate the item to the Cooper, they can provide the facility with an address to be sent a donation slip and a "thank you" card.

Another consideration is for money that has been made off of sales that has not yet been distributed.

"If they receive a check in the mail, go ahead and get that in there because we’re going to close the account down by the end of this month," said Stringer.

While there is some question about the future of the Cooper Center, with efforts having been made by the Pulaski County Public Library to sell the building, Stringer said that issue is unrelated to the store's closure.

Pulaski County Judge-Executive Marshall Todd has discussed the possibility of the county government taking on the Cooper to keep it as it is, a community arts hub, and spokesman John Alexander said that that office is "looking into trying to come up with a solution."

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