Art 2 Frame Grand Opening:
New Local Business Hosts First Showing
by Hugh Jones
Art 2 Frame: Gallery & Custom Framing, will be hosting a grand opening from 5:30-8:30 pm on Friday, September 14, at 505 Heritage Drive.
The event will feature works by local artist Marty Vinograd, and music by Bill Perry and Cadillac Funk. Wine and Hors d’oeuvres will be served.
T-shirts will be available for purchase at the opening, with 20 percent of all proceeds being donated to the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council. Shirts are also available during regular business hours.
Proprietors Ann Marie Bender Fox and Tim Reese began planning to open the shop in June of this year, in just three months their vision is becoming a reality.
“We just want to promote art of all kinds,” Resse said. “We’ll do anything we can to promote up and coming artists.”
Bender Fox and Reese share a total of 50 years’ experience in the framing business, and have known each other professionally for the past twelve. Both are long-time local residents and natives of Oxford, Missisippi.
“We sort of figured out that we both had the same dream,” Bender Fox said. “So we just said, why don’t we do it.”
The store has hired on four employees to keep up with business.
Bender Fox and Reese purchased the initial inventory from Oxford Frame Company, the establishment where both were previously employed.
Along with the grand opening events, Art 2 Frame is planning a series of local artist features. Bender Fox and Reese encourage local artists of all persuasions to meet with them to see how their work may be featured in the storefront.
The pair looks to have featured artists each month, with gallery style showings that will include refreshments and music on the outdoor patio.
There will also be gameday events on days when Ole Miss Football is occupying Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. These events will offer a variety of entertainment and art, again accompanied by refreshments. The first of these gameday events will be held on Saturday Sept. 15th, as the Ole Miss Rebels host the Texas Longhorns.
Art 2 Frame is also hosting “Frame Wars,” an open competition among all fraternity and sorority houses on the Ole Miss campus.
“We want to pit all of the Greek houses against each other in a little bit of friendly competition,” Reese said.
The rules of war are simple — the house that spends the most cash on custom work in Art 2 Frame, between Sept. 1st and March 31st, will receive ten percent of all Greek-house profits made in that period.
For October, Art 2 Frame is hosting a Football Art showing. All submissions and mediums related to Ole Miss or football in general are welcome.
Another project in the works is a feature of artwork from students in local school districts. The store looks to aggregate enough artwork from primary students in the area to create an exhibition wall.
As a new shop, Art 2 Frame is open to all ideas for collaboration. The company’s aim is to provide a platform for artists of all denominations. The partners are especially interested in interacting with the University of Mississippi, and greater Oxford-Lafayette communities.
All interested artists and customers should visit the store’s physical location, or call in at (662) 236-3818.
