Jo's Gallery Next Generation Fund

^{Who we are,  Our Mission, and Next Generation Efforts}

Jo's Gallery is a 2nd generation,  brick-and-mortar art gallery located in the heart of Detroit, Michigan, on the Livernois Avenue of Fashion, and we have been here for two decades.  We service the African-American market with art defined as originals,  prints, giftware, and custom framing services. We are known for having unique artwork that is not available in big box stores. We work with our local artists' community to develop innovative and unique products for the home decor market. We also carry abstract work by notable artists. Today, we focus on emerging artists due to our desire to see more minorities pursue careers in art. The neighborhood we serve is 70% African-American and represents a commercial corridor of 100+ unique Black-owned businesses.

On June 4, 2020, we launched our website during COVID-19.  While the base development work is complete, a part of the website's development included an online custom framing tool. My financial projections show this would increase our framing revenues by an additional 30% year over year. Traditional custom framing transactions are face-to-face. However, a few big-box and online art retailers such as Michaels, Joann's Fabrics, Art.com, and GreatBigCanvas.com have evolved to online framing services.  Given their scale,  these retailers found explosive growth in online framing. What is critical to note is that they do not focus on minority markets. My goal is for Jo's Gallery to meet that need with a variety of high-quality ready-to-ship wall art and custom framing products. Unfortunately, custom framing is a niche, and there are no off-the-shelf tools for online framing software.  Hence, I will need to develop my tool from scratch.   I would use this grant to help build my online framing capabilities, add one additional framer, and improve the efficiency of our framing room with new equipment. Adding this feature to my website opens my company to a niche of five million art lovers who are African-American ages thirty to sixty with an average income of just $50,000 per year. 

How we help our community:

 Jo's Gallery hosts several events throughout the year,  such as artist talks, exhibitions, jewelry crafting classes, and pillow paint parties. Occasionally, my daughter hosts tie-dye parties aimed towards children and teens aged 3 to 18 years old. Every year Jo's Gallery partners with the Avenue of Fashion Business Association and the Center for Creative Studies, Detroit Design Core, to host annual events to attract our community to shop, dine, and explore our commercial corridor.  We partner with our neighborhood business association and the Center for Creative Studies' Detroit Design Core to sponsor this event to increase foot traffic.   Jo's Gallery also contributes by hosting local non-profit organizations and other community activities in our café space at no cost. In 2019, I founded a non-profit organization called Livernois Alliance. My mission is to help the small businesses in my corridor survive with local events and providing educational information to business owners.  While we are a new organization, we were instrumental in negotiating with the City of Detroit for marketing support during the nine months of streetscape improvements in 2019.  Our 2021 "Art on the Avenue"  will be held on September 25, 2021.  More information can be found on our dedicated Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Livernois-Art-on-the-Ave-2020-112069567232258/

Our next-generation activities include 3 efforts:

Expanding our website to include an online custom framing tool $10,000

Improve the technology in our framing space $15,000

This improvement will help us with productivity and also allow us to hire one additional framer.

Improve our parking lot to include community space for events and activities outdoors—$ 30,000. 
 

We worked with an architectural firm, pre-Covid, to help design and cost the space to have a multi-functional purpose: outdoor events, community concerts, and seating area for our cafe.

Thank you so much for reviewing our campaign.

Help take Jo's Gallery to the next generation level!!

 We are your neighborhood location for art, gifts, and framing services.