COLUMBIA — For a city that sometimes struggles with the perception that downtown happens only on the ground floor, the fourth annual Upstairs Downtown Tour offers a corrective: there's a thriving creative community working in the spaces above Main Street, and it's worth climbing a few stairs to see.
The tour welcomed guests into six restored and reimagined upstairs spaces, including Studio Elevé and several other artist studios and galleries scattered throughout the downtown corridor. The initiative is designed to draw attention to the upper floors of historic buildings that, for decades, sat empty or underutilized. By opening these spaces to the public once a year, organizers highlight both the work being created there and the real estate opportunities available to artists, makers, and small business owners willing to invest in downtown revitalization.
These kinds of community-driven tours serve a larger purpose in towns like Columbia, where downtown reinvestment depends on both market forces and cultural momentum. When residents see artists working, creating, and making a living in downtown spaces, it shifts the narrative from "the square is dying" to "the square is changing and there's opportunity here." Tours like this also build relationships between artists and the broader community, making downtown feel less like a historical artifact and more like a living, working neighborhood.
The tour's fourth consecutive year suggests it's become a fixture on the downtown calendar. For those interested in renting upstairs creative space downtown or learning more about next year's Upstairs Downtown Tour, Columbia Main Street and the city's economic development office are good starting points for information.