Frame Art & Design celebrates 30 years of business

Walking into Frame Art & Design, in a plaza just off the corner of Dupont and Coldwater, customers are greeted by an array of colors and textures. Every inch of wall – every vertical space, really – is full of frame samples or fine art.

“What’s here is really only a scratch in the surface,” says Kate Sorgenfrei, the store’s owner and lead framer. “We have books over there. We have online databases that we can comb through … We try to keep it cohesive, we like to have options, and we like to make sure that we’re exploring all of the options.”

For 30 years, Frame Art & Design has been framing items like fine art, prints, photographs, memorabilia, and other important pieces. Sorgenfrei runs the business alongside her mom, Marta Pequignot. 

Pequignot is the third generation of formally trained artists in her family, attending the Fort Wayne School of Art from 1975 to 1981 and earning a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Indiana University. Her art can be found among the fine art adorning the walls of the store. Pequignot’s framing experience goes beyond her time with Frame Art & Design.

As her daughter recalls from childhood, “[My parents] were both artists, and so they kind of just did framing too. They had a studio out of our house or garage growing up. So from one home to the next, they just kind of brought it with them, and it was in our garage, and then it was in our basement, and my mom would cut the frames out of our garage there.”

Recently, she purchased the business from her mom, but she’s been involved with the family craft for much longer. She joined the Frame Art & Design team at age 14. 

“I’ve been part of this business all my life,” Sorgenfrei says. “I was immersed in the craft from a very young age when my mom started picture framing in our childhood home. The women in my family have dedicated themselves to the study of art and design, and I’m proud to carry on this legacy.”

She earned a degree in interior design from IPFW, which she says goes hand in hand with the framing and fine art work she does on a daily basis. 

“Plugging in the right parts in those areas certainly is where my expertise and my input is different from just gathering a bunch of stuff and throwing it up on the walls,” Sorgenfrei explains. “Our services also complement that. We’re taking into consideration scale and lighting, and proportions.”

Her background meshes with Frame Art & Design in many ways. They recently added corporate art projects to their list of services. In this department, Sorgenfrei works with business owners to find or commission new art for their space. Sometimes it involves reimagining how their existing art and displays can be used in a newly remodeled space or a combination of both.

“We’re really fortunate. Fort Wayne has a lot of family-owned businesses, so we’ve kind of found a weird little niche with working with some other family-owned businesses to really curate and display the history of their business or show their longevity and really portray [their story],” she explains.

A couple of years ago, they added fine art printing and scanning and allowed them to start working directly with local artists and photographers. Considering the staff, who all hold a degree in art or photography, and her own family history, Sorgenfrei says, it was “natural to add.” 

Education and expertise are important, adding quality to their services and giving them the skills and knowledge to handle whatever comes through the door. The mother-daughter duo works with a team of Certified Picture Framers, a national certification. 

“So we’re very versed in the things that come in that would need special attention,” she explains. “It could just be a poster from a concert or your child’s artwork, whatever that might be. We do a lot of museum specialty pieces, like if it needs to be archivally mounted and cared for. We’ve had some very particular projects that either we’ve worked with a museum on or collectors, so we’re able to kind of delve into those specialty projects.”

Sorgenfrei adds that much like other small, local businesses, there’s a level of care in their work that is usually missing from larger stores. 

“This is very different. People often ask, ‘What’s the difference between you and [chain stores]?’” she says. “Everything we do is very unique and specialized, and we put a lot of love in what we do.”