Art store moves from Minneapolis to Detroit Lakes

DETROIT LAKES

— Art Materials is set to open this week in downtown Detroit Lakes at 811 Washington Ave.

“We’ve had people knocking at the door,” said JoAnn Brown, who owns the store with her husband, Larry, and their son Eric. “We’re happy to see so much interest.”

JoAnn said the doors may open as soon as Wednesday, even though they were still stocking the shelves. The art supply store’s regular hours will be Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The store will be closed on Sundays.

The store offers a variety of paints (including their own brand), brushes, clay for sculpting, canvases and sketch pads, spray paint used for mural work, specific paints for shoes and purses, fine writing instruments, teaching materials and more. They also offer framing and matting.

“We’re a hardware store for artists,” Eric said.

Should a product not be readily available in the 2,000-square-foot storefront, the Browns order items through their distributors at no cost. Deliveries to the store happen several times a week, so customers can expect to be working on their project within a day or so, in most cases.

In addition to Art Materials serving budding and professional artists across all mediums, the company is also a wholesaler serving large corporations, including NASA, Boeing and more.

“Art Materials is like a five-legged stool,” Eric explained. “In addition to traditional art supplies and commercial sales, there is custom picture framing, e-commerce, and third-party e-commerce sites, such as Amazon.”

The Browns moved to the Detroit Lakes area in 1994 and ran an art supply distribution business in downtown Fargo. They purchased an art store in Iowa in 1999, and then Art Materials in Minneapolis in the early 2000s. Their son joined the business in 2010, after leaving a career as a landscape architect to join the family business.

The family remained based in Detroit Lakes and often took turns commuting to the Twin Cities.

“I would commute down Sunday night and I would stay until Thursday night. And I would drive back,” Eric explained. “And they would stay through Friday night and come back.”

Because the store was a staple in the Minneapolis neighborhood along Lyndale Avenue, they didn’t want to move, initially. In time, the dynamics of the neighborhood had shifted from retail to entertainment, such as restaurants and bars. By late 2022, the Browns considered moving the business to Detroit Lakes.

While looking for commercial real estate, the Browns were informed the Becker Pet & Garden store was for sale. Eric purchased that business with his wife, Tiffany, and continued looking for a location for Art Materials.

Eric said the purchase of Becker Pet & Garden showed his family what a vibrant business community Detroit Lakes offers. They estimated summer sales to be good, with the high volume of visitors and summer residents the community sees.

“We kept waiting for the down month to hit,” Eric said, noting that customers continued coming through the doors month after month. He said as winter shifted to spring, he realized the community serves a dedicated shopping base that draws from outside of the city.

The Browns hope the retail end of Art Materials sees the same regional customers visiting the store.

When the downtown building located between

Bluebird Books

and the

new Manna Food Co-op location

went up for sale, the Browns thought it was a prime location.

It also is conveniently located adjacent to a main entrance point for the Washington Square Mall, and patrons can park in the city lot behind the store and enter through the building’s backdoor.

After purchasing the building, remodel work began so they could rent space to other businesses. The Browns also hired their first employee, a longtime employee from their Minneapolis store.

“We talked Andrew (Sandberg) into coming with us,” she said, noting he brings a wealth of knowledge with him and is a very good artist.

Sandberg said his experience with small-town living has been enjoyable and he looks forward to getting involved in the city’s vibrant art community, and potentially offering art classes.

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