After 35 years of business in the city of Airdrie, Famous Framers and Gallery is closing up shop at the end of September.
Joe Medeiros, who owns and operates the local custom picture framing shop, said the business began as a storefront in Calgary in 1984. When Medeiros moved to Airdrie in 1986, Famous Framers moved too, and such was the start of a decades-spanning business venture in the city's downtown.
“I just thought it would be an interesting business, so, when the opportunity came up, I took it up,” he said.
Medeiros said he has always enjoyed artwork, and that passion, combined with his training as a carpenter, led him to running a successful custom frame-making business, storefront and art gallery for more than three decades.
Recently, he made the choice to shut the doors of Famous Framers while closing this chapter of his life and moving on to the next – retirement.
“I just decided, ‘Well, it’s probably time to hang it up,’” Medeiros said.
He acknowledged that while the lease on his storefront ends at the end of next month, there were several contributing factors that led to the decision. Medeiros said the state of the economy was relevant, adding the uncertainty COVID-19 has brought forward in the last year and a half doesn’t exactly positively contribute to his sense of economic and financial well-being.
However, despite the pandemic's impact on local businesses, Medeiros did mention the period after the first province-wide lockdown in the spring of 2020 brought him a lot of customers. He attributed this to individuals redecorating their homes during this period of isolation, and perhaps having more spending money due to the inability to travel or take part in typical leisure activities.
“After things re-opened, it was quite surprising – the response was really quite strong,” he said, adding that he enjoyed steady business well into the end of 2020.
Famous Framers allowed Medeiros to socialize with his customers while assisting them in finding the right material, shape, and build for their artwork, photographs and memorabilia. He said that one of his favourite things about owning the business was challenging himself to work with whatever his customers brought him.
“The thing I like about it is, that you never know what comes in the door – somebody’s gone on holiday somewhere in the world, picked up a piece of art and it could be a very unusual material, or something like that, just the way the artist created the piece,” he said.
“So, it’s figuring out how to frame it and [going] for it.”
The city has grown substantially over the timeline of Famous Framers, according to Medeiros. But he is grateful to have received consistent business from members of the community throughout the years of Airdrie's staggering population increases.
“The support that I’ve had – right from day one – has been positive,” he said.
Famous Framers and Gallery will officially be closed at the end of September. The store is located in the Towerlane Centre shopping plaza on the west side of Main Street.
