Anyone who’s taken apart one of those Russian nesting dolls can easily understand The Guilded Table. The outer shell is Santa Barbara, inside which is the Funk Zone neighborhood, and inside that is The Waterline development on Santa Barbara Street. Open it up further to find The Guilded Table, inside which are eight different craftspeople.
“It came initially from a desire to recognize that the Funk Zone has … artist roots, and that’s starting to disappear,” explains Kassie Goodman, who developed the concept. “So we wanted to give a nod to what this community has originally been about.”
Adjacent to the shared common space, each artisan has an individual studio where they design and sell inventory, throw events, and, starting this month, hold their own workshops that are open to the community. “Brick-and-mortar retail is kind of dying,” said Goodman, “so we created a concept that is more interactive, more experiential.”