Up Front Art Space — Local services in Cuyahoga Falls

Artist beware.

I am not a professional by any means, but dabble and took paintings into Up Front in roughly 09/2021 and again a while later, early 2022. At the time of the first set being brought in, the owners Mystye and Kay wrote a contract for me. The second time I delivered paintings, they promised to make note and add the names of those paintings to my contract, but that at the time the shop was too busy so they promised to do it later. They only later added one set of works as a note, but not the other paintings. I foolishly believed them. I recently arranged a pick up of my paintings via a close friend, and at no point did they ask me to fill out forms for release. They chucked my work all in a plastic bag and handed it off without any consideration.

Imagine my shock when I take my work out and find that not only did they staple multiple canvases together for installation (which they NEVER had permission to do) but two of my canvases were damaged as well. Immediately I call, and they blame the person who picked it all up for me. But the damage was obviously old and not from a short car ride. Following this and in a string of emails and a call, the shop owners simultaniously claim they never had my work, because they never updated those records, and that they will 'make it right' by... using their own restoration service. You can't have it both ways, ladies.

I demanded the rest of my work (they had not even actually collected it all the first time) and suddenly they have procedures to follow about it that were never mentioned previously for the first pick up. Hmmm, that is new.

During this pick up they repeated that they could 'make it right' and restore the damage to my paintings, but at the same time, claimed they never had my paintings. As though I would trust my work in their hands again? No way! I am still missing multiple paintings, but decided to let it go because I don't want to deal with these people anymore.

TL;DR: they might damage your work and lie about it to your face, then try to upsell you on fixing it. They may also just decide not to give you everything back when you ask. Further, they may forget to update their own paperwork and blame that on you, too.

Don't make my mistake and think they are good people who care about your work, because they won't even admit to their...

Up Front Art Space was so accommodating and had a far better selection of custom framing options compared to big box stores. I have purchased custom framing from Hobby Lobby and Joann Fabrics and Up Front's quality of service, communication, pricing and selection of framing options were superior to all competitors. I regret not using them sooner. I would highly recommend this shop for any framing needs and I look forward to using them...

The Up Front staff were a great help in mounting and framing an important original piece for me. The work was mixed media, and a test for dry-mounting showed that the work could not be dry-mounted without darkening portions of it. The work was subsequently mounted in a special ordered frame with museum glass and we couldn't be happier with the results. The pricing for frame, glass and mounting was very good. Highly...