Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Our little shop will be closing at the end of December. This decision was not made lightly. Over the past year, the shop has been running mostly on enthusiasm and love for the community and the space that we created, with very little financial backup. Although we still strongly believe in the importance of our mission, we can no longer justify subsidizing the operations.
We started MoonLab 42 in the fall of 2020 in our one-bedroom apartment in Harlem. As some of you might remember, our family in Tbilisi had a short-lived concept store "42" which closed right after the start of the pandemic. After months of isolation, we decided to pick up the torch on this end of the ocean and start an online store where we'd feature our friends and family in Tbilisi and NYC as a way to support the artists and expand their audience. The store became a pop-up, and eventually turned into a true dream of a mom-and-pop just a few minutes away from our apartment. All of this while working full-time jobs and having a baby. Our lives today are so different today from the days when we used to cast candles after midnight and lug artwork up and down 6 stories of our walk-up!
Thanks to the shop, we made so many friends and met such wonderful people! We are forever thankful to our moon laboratory for opening a door to the sides of the world that we didn't know existed. We held a lot of fun (full-body-contact) events with you, got privileged sneak peeks into the works of the artists who we admire, scored some surprising press coverage and endorsements, and even released a limited edition record of an iconic Georgian songwriter, Inola Gurgulia! We are a couple of very lucky people!
It is important to mention, that the shop also allowed us to spread awareness of Georgia ("the country, not the state"), our culture, the history and the loaded present, the language, wine, and of course, our people. Recently, with the ongoing protests in Georgia, we've been living a split-screen life: On the one hand, we have a holiday season which is typically the most fun for MoonLab. On the other hand, our friends and family in Georgia are going through repressions for anti-governmental positions. We carry works of Georgian artists all of whom are out on the streets daily, and watching them suffer has been extremely difficult. Although it's been challenging to maintain a "business as usual" face, we need to keep reminding ourselves that our business is here to amplify their voices and support them financially. Therefore, we are keeping the online store.
Moving forward, the online store will be a bit different from our brick-and-mortar store and will represent only the works of Georgian artists and ourselves. Once we get a bit of rest after breaking down the shop, we will revamp the website - keep an eye out for an announcement. As usual, we'll gladly meet up in person in Harlem to exchange goods.
The closure of the shop is bittersweet. We are heartbroken to close the door of our hallway, but at the same time, we're looking forward to regaining some time for ourselves and other projects that we are excited about.
Thank you, none of this would've been possible without your support, love and enthusiasm!
And lastly, to celebrate all we have gained in the last few years, we'd like to invite you all to our last event, the annual holiday party ✨ The event will take place in our hallway on Saturday, December 21st, from 4 pm to 7 pm. We will keep you warm with a hot beverage and good company. Let's drink a toast to our friendship 🥂
Cheers,
John & Ruso
Team MoonLab
P.S. The circus isn't leaving the town - we're still in Harlem, so holler if you miss us! <3