Editors Note: We've chosen Visionaries + Voices as our charity of the month for the past few years. We've written about their mission and their values but what we haven't written about is how Frame USA first got involved with them. Learn about our 13 year partnership from our owner, Dan Regenold.
Dan Regenold on Learning About Visionaries + Voices
I first met someone from Visionaries and Voices in 2005 when a worker there stopped in and asked Frame USA to donate picture frames for an event that was upcoming. This was when V&V was located in East Walnuts Hills at Essex Studios. I had no idea who they were but was interested in the concept of enabling disabled students to create art.
The event happened on a Saturday afternoon and I remember walking in the art opening and being in awe. I ran into an artist, Raymond Thundersky who drew cityscapes scenes. He was working on a picture that seemed to me to be of Walmart taking over the world. A building that I owned in Evendale was under the threat of Eminent Domain and Raymond’s work spoke to me. I asked him his vision of the piece he was working on. He just looked up at me smiled and went back to work on the artwork with his pens, pencils, and utensils all sitting in a toolbox.
How Frame USA became Involved
Frame USA is so inspired by the great work of these artists that we had an open space of about 2000 square feet in our building and we asked the founders of the Studio to consider opening a satellite studio in our Tri-County building in Springdale, Ohio (just outside Cincinnati). The V&V studio in Tri-County opened in 2008 and since then it has been a GREAT partnership of 13 years. Shortly after V&V arrived I had the chance to become President of their Board and help them move into a new Studio building—their main location– in Northside right in the art district of the City.
During normal, non-covid times V&V has about 65 artists come through our building each week. They are the most creative artists in the world. You’ll learn something by watching them work and having a chance to speak and talk with the artists. Covid-19 hit V&V particularly hard as many of the artists ride public transportation to the studio and the public transportation in most cases was shut down. We are starting to see the artists come back here and that is a GREAT thing.
If you enter our Frame USA retail store many of their unique works of art, framed art, and picture frames are on display and for sale. Frame USA is thrilled to be a title sponsor for their annual fundraiser Double Vision XII on Friday, June 25, 2021, from 6:30-10:30 PM. We hope to see you there to support our friends at visionariesandvoices.com.
Throughout the month of June 2021, proceeds from every order on frameusa.com will go to Visionaries + Voices. In addition, You can add a donation if you’d like on our checkout page.
