Elizabeth Beer (MFA 2005 Fine Arts) and her husband, Brian Janusiak, have always shared many interests, so it's fitting that when they decided to start a company dedicated to multidisciplinary creative collaborations they named it something all-encompassing: Various Projects, Inc.

Thirteen years later, the couple has embarked on so many projects together and in collaboration with other artists that they have stopped keeping count (they think they’re at 531); a partial list includes hand-knit alpaca dolls of state and regional birds, deceptively cuddly-looking angora-covered rocks and leather goods. Maybe their most visible endeavor to date has been their Project No. 8 retail stores in New York City, which have provided Beer and Janusiak an outlet to sell their “digressions,” as Beer and Janusiak call them, as well as the work of underrepresented artists and designers. Two of the stores, both in Chinatown, have since closed, but the location at the Ace Hotel on Broadway and 29th Street remains, selling stationery, magazines, candy, toiletries, souvenirs and clothing, all curated “through a very personal filter,” Beer says.

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