Meet Alyssa Follansbee | Artist and Entrepreneur, owner of Happy Valley Arcade Bar

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alyssa Follansbee and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alyssa, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Anywhere I have lived, I have always enjoyed imagining about what business is missing from that community. I think a lot of business owners start from a place of what they would like to own and operate, rather than an approach of “what is needed here?” After moving to Beacon, New York and living there for a couple of years, I felt like it would be the perfect place for an arcade bar. I really tried to consider the wants and needs of our community, and what I myself would want here as a patron. That translated to a colorful, welcoming environment where families, LQBTQIA people, and old school video game nerds would all be able to enjoy themselves and feel like they belonged.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art is reflective of my life experiences, often reinterpreted in bold and exaggerated color palettes. My solo show this past year centered a lot around having two children within the last two years. I had a wall of sleeping baby portraits done in crayola crayons, a giant textile sculpture based on the audio wave of my sons first laugh, and stuffed animal sculptures mounted on robot vacuums roaming the gallery.

As an artist and entrepreneur, I find that running a hospitality business and working as an artist require much of the same skill set: problem solving, thinking innovatively, working with diverse groups of people, visiting new places to energize my own practice, being vulnerable on a public level, as some examples. I think artists tend to believe they are “bad at business,” when really, they are already honing those same business skills while hustling as an artist.

I think that one thing that sets me apart from other artists and business owners is that I did not grow up with a lot of money or art/business role models. No one in my family owned their own business or worked as an artist, and I really had no idea how one could even become an artist or business owner. My husband is my business partner, and we just sort of clunkily figured out how to open a bar one step at a time. We saved money for years, we awkwardly asked other business owners for advice, we made a lot of calls and asked a lot of questions and probably made many people roll their eyes at us. My husbands dream was to open an arcade bar. As an artist, my dream was to have a large space that I could transform to really transport the viewer/customer into a different world. I overcame my fear of heights, and spent 5 weeks painting murals on a scaffold in the space. I designed a U shaped bar that felt like the command center of a spaceship. I learned how to build benches on YouTube, and built all of our outdoor seating by myself. I built and hand painted our wooden sign. I designed our logo, menu, and all of our merchandise. It was not easy, but it was meaningful, exciting work. Along the way, I’ve learned that if you can’t find what you are looking for, create it yourself.

I want people to know that although I have been so fortunate to have a business that is doing well, I will never forget what it feels like to not be doing so well. I have much more experience working for people than having people work for me, and I treat our staff how I would want to be treated. They are invaluable, loyal, trustworthy, talented people, and its important to me that they are feeling heard and happy at their job. We try to donate as much as we can to local non for profits we believe in, and will routinely pick a charity and donate our quarters for the weekend to that organization. We just had a toy drive for Beacon4BlackLives, and a few weeks ago hosted Pet Photos with Santa to raise money for Animal Rescue Foundation. Happy Valley only exists because our community supports us, and we try to support them back however possible.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Beacon has so many special places! For breakfast, I would bring them to Little King for the most unbelievably scrumptious food. For shopping, I would bring them to Hyperbole (best shop ever!) for their always changing, always cool array of clothing, jewelry and art. For more shopping, must visits include Psychedelic Sunset Vintage, Solstad House, Betty Beacon, Last Outpost, King & Curated, Lewis & Pine, and Blackbird Attic. Beacon is known for its art scene, so I would make sure to bring them to see the shows up at BAU Gallery and Super Secret Projects. For a coffee break in the afternoon, I’d go to Big Mouth Coffee Roasters (great coffee, great staff, awesome merch). For food, we could hit up Hudson Valley Food Hall, Beacon Daily, Ziatun or my personal favorite, MOD. Finally, ofcourse we are going to Happy Valley Arcade Bar for delicious cocktails, extensive beer selection, 25+ vintage arcade games, magical courtyard, vintage photobooth, and ENDLESS JOY! Other great bars include The Roosevelt, Wonderbar, Dogwood, and Quinn’s.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate my shoutout to the people of Beacon, New York- my city. We signed a lease in Jan 2020 (right before Covid), and opened our arcade bar in August of 2020- WITHOUT arcade games, due to Covid restrictions. It was a really difficult time to open a business, let alone an arcade. Since we did not have an operational payroll as of February 2020, we did not qualify for any Covid financial assistance. The people of my community came out, shared kind words of encouragement, wore their masks without complaint, and made a point to buy a drink to keep our lights on and our spirits up in our arcade game-less arcade bar. I had only lived here for a few years, and I was so uplifted by the positivity and support from my relatively new neighbors. Local people who made an effort to support local business is the reason we survived those challenging times. I will forever be grateful for the love we were shown. Thank you, people of Beacon! Also shout out to my personal creative heroes: Miranda July and Ursula K. Leguin,

Website: My art website: atfollansbee.com , my business website: www.happyvalleybeacon.com

Instagram: @atfollansbeeart @happyvalleybeacon

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HappyValleyBeacon/