The Mad Hatter Play Cafe — where parents can enjoy a cup of coffee as their children play — now has a new home in downtown Centralia.
It’s a home that is shared with the Dandelion Creative Space art studio.
Originally opened by Centralia mother Lisa Sills in the summer of 2021, Mad Hatter moved to the Centralia Outlets toward the end of 2022 before moving to its current location at the historic Aerie Ballroom on 219 S. Tower Ave.
A Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for its grand reopening on Monday, April 7.
Founded by Napavine High School art teacher Jennifer Kinsman in 2022, Dandelion Creative Space is an art studio that was first located in downtown Chehalis and aims to make it easier for area youth to get involved in the arts.
The Chronicle met with both Sills and Kinsman ahead of Mad Hatter’s grand reopening on Sunday, April 6, to find out how the two met and why they decided to collaborate.
“It’s actually pretty funny. We spent a good year and a half never physically meeting each other and just chatting online. I would come across craft supplies and I would leave them on the porch of her building, and I’ve always wanted to support the arts,” Sills said. “I think it’s really important and just loved her vision of what she was doing.”
“I would arrive at my place in Chehalis early in the morning with a beautiful box of supplies waiting for me, and go, ‘Who’s Lisa Sills?’” Kinsman added. “I Googled her, found out she was the owner of Mad Hatter Play Cafe, and here we are.”
While Mad Hatter, which features a large “tiny town” play area aimed at children 6 and under, the addition of Dandelion Creative Space now expands that age range as Kinsman can offer art programs for older children.
“We had coffee and we realized that we both could really see the vision of what this could be, and wanted to pursue it further and see what we could do together,” Sills said.
Mad Hatter is now located on the second floor of The Aerie Ballroom, while Dandelion Creative Space is above it in the spaces on the third floor.
At its old location, Dandelion Creative Space had art programs and classes for teenagers and adults, but those have temporarily been put on hold while Kinsman gets settled in the new space.
“I will, definitely in the fall, start rolling out adult watercolor and acrylic (painting) classes. But this summer, I’m focused on the kids,” Kinsman added.
She has summer art camps planned for children along with another children’s theater program planned at McFiler’s Chehalis Theater.
The Aerie Ballroom is owned by Neil and Jodi White. Sills didn’t know the exact age of the building, but she knew it had roots going back at least a century as the headquarters for the Centralia chapter of the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
“The reason this building is called The Aerie is because Neil White wanted to honor the tradition of the Eagles having been in here, and an eagle’s nest is called an aerie. There’s so much history steeped in this space, and we get to add to that,” Sills said. “... So, when Neil brought us over here to show us this space because he was interested in having us be here, I was giggling like a little school girl. My husband was like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ I was like, ‘Babe, this is The Aerie. You don’t understand where we’re standing right now. This building is epic and so out of my league. Let’s go look at it because it’s so beautiful, but we could never be Aerie people.’ And now here we are, being Aerie people.”
Kinsman added she felt being there will also help out other local businesses, as she has already been frequenting other downtown Centralia businesses to shop and eat at with her own children.
“I feel like it compliments downtown because having my kids here, we’ve taken them out to eat at The Juice Box for dinner, and going to Holly’s (Place) to get ice cream and stuff,” Kinsman said. “It’s a fun place to be.”
The Mad Hatter Play Cafe is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday through Friday and closed on Saturday. For more information, visit https://madhatterplaycafe.com/ or follow the business on its Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MadHatterPlayCafe.
To learn more about the Dandelion Creative Space, visit https://www.dandelioncreativespace.org/ or follow the studio on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Dandelioncreativespace.
