Alum's Andersonville Shop Featured in the Reader

Martha Mae, the Andersonville art supply store of SAIC alum Jean Cate (BFA 2015), was recently featured in the Chicago Reader. The extensive profile, which touches on Cate's struggles with depression while attending the School, also features other notable shopkeepers commenting on the singularity of her project. Allison Williams, who runs the New York-based company Wms. & Co and supplies Martha Mae with bookmarks and stampers, was especially laudatory, "For America, I know nothing close to this. And I don't just say that...not even close," Williams said. The shop, which is named after Cate's Cavalier King Charles Spaniel carries everything from elegant brass staplers to glass and cork pencil sharpeners. Cate's main priority however isn't sales but wonder, "The main priority is so it's beautiful and that it's a space of wonderment, and that it's well designed," she says.