Mark Golden on Paint

I had the wonderful opportunity to be able to spend some time with Henry and Judd Meininger of Meininger’s of Denver fame (Colorado Springs & Boulder). I was sharing with this father and son team them that I was writing a blog about supporting your local art store. I thought I’d be able to find about their support for the arts community through their website. I know that they have contributed over the years hundreds of thousands of dollars of support to their local community in Denver and I was sure that I would find a great listing of their support online.

Basically, other than some listings online of the events at the Denver Arts Student League (which Henry helped to get off the ground), I couldn’t find anything. It is a similar story for so many of our other art stores around the country. I know it is a sense of not wanting to ‘blow their own horn’, yet I think it is a story worth sharing. An art retail store is an incredibly risky business. Lease rental, staffing, the large inventory requirements and the simple fact that most consumers never visit an art material shop. Art retailers understand the need to support the arts community, because at it thrives so will they.

So over the next few months I thought I’d share some stories of some of your local art stores, and hope that you’ll share some of them with me as well.