Laura Glesby Photo
Joe Minsky cuts the ribbon.
A family-owned Brooklyn-based company is bringing custom-made art frames and decorative furnishings to New Haven — along with 200 protective face shields donated to local barbers.
The New Haven outpost of Art to Frames has come to River Street in Fair Haven, revitalizing a former electrical insulation factory by the Mill River with a business selling art frames, lampshades, blinds — and, lately, face shields suited for a pandemic.
City officials celebrated Art to Frames’ opening on Monday afternoon at New Haven’s first in-person ribbon cutting ceremony during the pandemic.
Art to Frames originally opened for business in New Haven in May. The city chose to honor the start of the business in retrospect, recognizing it as a hopeful sign amid the gradual revival of businesses as Connecticut reopens.
“It’s with some purpose that we chose to do it in Fair Haven,” city economic development chief MIchael Piscitelli said of the delayed ribbon-cutting ceremony, calling the community “one of the most diverse neighborhoods here in the city of New Haven.”
Mike Piscitelli.
City Health Director Maritza Bond, who grew up in the Fair Haven neighborhood, said Art to Frames’ opening felt particularly meaningful to her.
“We are in a recovery phase,” she said, adding that “we need to try to pull together as a community” as businesses reopen amid the pandemic.
Garrett Sheehan, the CEO of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, said that going forward, businesses must remain “vigilant.” “We can only do events like this, have businesses open, if we continue to flatten the curve,” he said.
After the press conference, city officials, reporters, and neighbors were invited inside Art to Frames’ warehouse, where employees were in the midst of assembling custom orders.
Inside the factory.
The company typically assembles custom decorative furniture, specializing in frames. Lately, Art to Frames has ventured into a new market: face shields that can be used as personal protective equipment (PPE).
Since opening in New Haven, Art to Frames has donated 200 face shields to the city for redistribution to other local businesses. Company founder and CEO Jeff Minsky said that it would be willing to donate more shields should the city have a need for them.
Jeffrey Moreno, a project manager with New Haven’s anti-blight Livable City Initiative, distributed the 200 masks two week ago to barber shops along Dixwell, Whalley, and Grand Avenues. Barbers and hair stylists are currently required to wear face shields when they are cutting hair, according to Connecticut’s regulations for Phase 2 of its reopening process.
Minsky said he hopes to add more features to the face shields, perhaps making them easier to fold.
Face shields produced by Art to Frame.
Jeff Minsky (right) demonstrates wearing a face shield.
The company started in New York City 13 years ago. Minsky said he was first motivated to start a framing business due to his appreciation for art.
“We started with two people,” he said. “We built the technology ourselves.”
The New Haven warehouse is larger than the company’s Brooklyn location. “It looks like a beautiful neighborhood,” Minsky said of Fair Haven, noting that the River Street warehouse is right by the water.
Minsky, who immigrated to the United States from Israel when he was a child, said that most of his 200 employees are immigrants. “We take care of them,” he said.
Joe Minsky, the site manager for the company’s New Haven location, added that Art to Frames has made a concerted effort to hire locally, including from within the Fair Haven area.
Art to Frames had planned to open its doors in March. Tthe business deferred its start date to early May in response to the pandemic. It has made some adjustments in order to limit the risk of spreading infection, including operating with up to 25 percent of employees on site, requiring employees to wear masks and goggles or face shields, and taking workers’ temperatures at the start of each day.
Although Covid disrupted the opening plans, Joe said that “business has been more than busy.”
The face shields have contributed a lot to business, Joe said. He also speculated that since many are spending so much time indoors, more people are giving new thought to how they can decorate their homes.
Along with the city, the furniture business across the street — Fair Haven Furniture — gave Art to Frames a warm welcome to the neighborhood. After the press conference and tour at Art to Frames, city officials gathered inside Fair Haven Furniture to spotlight the nearby business.
“Whatever we can do to be supportive neighbors,” let us know, said Fair Haven Furniture co-owner Lao Eric Triffin.
Fair Haven Furniture.
Piscitelli praised Fair Haven Furniture, one of the only stores in the post-industrial River Street area, for bringing a positive spirit to the neighborhood. He noted that the business worked hard to improve both the exterior and the interior of its Blatchley Street warehouse.
“The quality of the merchandise is world class,” Piscitelli added about Fair Haven Furniture’s offerings.
Colleen Gala.
Colleen Gala, co-owner of Fair Haven Furniture, said that business has been relatively steady during the pandemic. The store had to close temporarily, before making several public-health related tweaks.
Fair Haven Furniture has since spread out its merchandise, posted social distancing signs, and set up transparent barriers above counters to separate employees on one side from customers on the other. If customers want to test out a couch or a mattress, Gala said, the store has plastic available to cover the furniture in question before customers sit down. Fewer people wander into the store nowadays, but more have come in with a purpose.
Former Fair Haven Furniture owners Kerry Triffin and Liz Orsini also attended to extend the welcome. They said they believe Art to Frames will share Fair Haven Furniture’s spirit of investing in and beautifying the neighborhood.
Kerry Triffin and Liz Orsini.
Kerry Triffin witnessed the previous lives of the warehouse that Art to Frames now occupies, and noted that the facility is in much better shape now.
He said he once called the federal Environmental Protection Agency to express concerns about breathing conditions and toxic chemicals inside the factory. He recalled a man who caught fire inside the factory and died of chemical poisoning in 1989, back when the factory housed Acme Chemical Co.
In 2010, the facility — then home to a Von Roll insulation company factory — went up in flames again, narrowly averting a potential chemical explosion.
Lao Eric Triffin said that since Art to Frames renovated the space, “it looks loads better than it did.”
“It’s nice to see their employees out, caring about these streets,” Lao added.