We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cheri Basak Anne Elliott. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cheri Basak below.
Cheri Basak, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Sideshow Gallery is a one-of-a kind curiosity shop & art gallery located on Western Ave in Chicago. When you enter the doors of our store you will find antiques, oddities, metaphysical items, gifts & all things strange & unusual. We are obsessed with the occult so you will find many things relating to magic, like crystals & candles. The shop also stocks witchcraft supplies for witches of all levels. Sideshow offers classes ranging from tarot to taxidermy, hosts markets, pop ups & events throughout our beautiful space. We like to say we have a morbid curiosity with a sense of humor & magic is real…
Cheri Basak, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Sideshow Gallery is a truly unique and magical place in the heart of Chicago with an ever changing creative spirit that will inspire you. We love the occult, travelling to obscure places, heavy metal music, supporting our scene of artists and freaks, hunting for the most unusual and oddball things and making our store look beautiful. In our shop you will find unique one of a kind natural specimens, skulls and taxidermy, handmade jewelry, oddities and vintage treasures, candles, herbs and tools to perform magic, and lots and lots of ART! We always have something going on with a heavy rotation of classes, art shows, pop ups, markets and larger annual events to keep the community learning and the party going. Owners Cheri Basak and Anne Elliott have been best friends for 25 years, and out of that friendship Sideshow Gallery was created to continually inspire people and live FREE!
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
We both worked for Urban Outfitters in the 1990’s and have been best friends ever since. We have worked multiple retail jobs together in both management and merchandising. Because of our long working relationship, our collaboration is very productive and amiable. Through our love of art, travel and music, we started hosting themed pop up art shows in different locations throughout Chicago. These events became so successful we decided to rent the storefront that was conveniently right next door to Cheri’s other business, Revolution Tattoo. We met so many talented artists and makers through our popups, there was a natural evolution for our shop. We originally started as an art gallery and have evolved into a curiosity, occult, antique, small maker and- always art gallery. We both love rearranging the shop, curating new stories with our merchandise, and making what we feel is the most unusual art space in Chicago. We also continue to travel, learn and explore together.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
During the pandemic shutdown we had no idea what we should or could do. At first, we stayed in isolation during the first stage of lockdown, then we both decided we could make better use of our time We tried using social media to sell items, items that could give comfort to our community. We made specially items for people over the internet. We drove orders to people. We did curbside pickup. Anything to bring in some revenue. We built up our website, and our online presence, one person at a time Together we repainted, cleaned and remerchandised the entire store (our maximalist aesthetic makes this impossible unless we are closed). Because we spent this time, we were able to tightly hone our concept shops, work further on developing our own product lines and we continued to build up our online social media presence. Once we re-opened, we realized how we had built up our space as a strong business, but also as a community meeting place. We believe this is because we have stuck to our unique point of view and have not deviated.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sideshowgallerychicago.com
- Instagram: sideshowgallerychicago
- Facebook: sideshowgallerychicago
- Yelp: Sideshow Gallery