Design-minded Social Entrepreneurs Epic Decade Announce Jamestown Events

When husband-and-wife team Seth Goldenberg and Liz Newton tackle a project, they don’t do it by halves. Goldenberg’s multivalent design and experience hub, Epic Decade, just celebrated its tenth anniversary by launching a brick-and-mortar “anchor” of the firm’s mission to foster community and
creativity. The Curiosity & Co. store, which opened in Jamestown in October of 2021, is conceived as a “giant innovation showroom” housed in a hybrid bookstore, wine bar, and community gathering place.

At the height of the pandemic, Goldenberg and Newton, a Brown alumna and co-founder of Pawtucket’s Blackstone Academy Charter School respectively, decided the time was right to reinvent Epic Decade – just in time for its next 10 years. Now under parent company Curiosity & Co., the Epic Decade team has broadened its scope to work more directly with the public. The couple are ardent believers in the transformative power of books, art, and conversation, and are eager to share their passion with their neighbors in Jamestown.

Last summer, Goldenberg and Newton purchased the vacant building on Narragansett Avenue that formerly held the Jamestown Fish restaurant, a flower shop, and in the more distant past, a one-room schoolhouse that served the entire island. The couple partnered with Providence design firm HB Design & Build to transform the storefront into a “strange and wonderful place,” as Goldberg says, meant to surpass the traditional boundaries of a bookstore-bar. The Curiosity & Co. store presents a curated collection of books for readers of all ages and tastes, along with a sophisticated menu of organic and natural wine and snacks. The space also contains an art gallery and design studio, as well as a welcoming open area intended to host readings and other events. Goldenberg explains that the store is meant to be “a beacon of our local community here,” a space to push boundaries, ask questions, and above all, foster curiosity.

The store built an ambitious programming schedule for the spring and summer, bolstered by relationships with local businesses and community figures. A recent event brought over 100 guests to the store to celebrate the life of Toni Morrison and participate in a reading of the author’s masterpiece Song of Solomon. A new partnership with Jamestown favorite Village Hearth Bakery will yield a seasonal pop-up restaurant in the store’s outdoor pavilion, opening May 22. In the summer, adults and children alike can attend a birthday party in honor of the 25th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, featuring costumes, food, and drink from the wizarding world.

Goldenberg and Newton hope that Curiosity & Co. will help revitalize the community of downtown Jamestown, which was hit hard by the pandemic, and become a cultural destination on the island. Goldenberg’s first book, Radical Curiosity: Questioning Commonly Held Beliefs to Imagine Flourishing Futures, will be released by Penguin Random House Publishing on August 23. Check it out at the Curiosity & Co. store, where it will undoubtedly be in stock. Learn more at EpicDecade.com