Gerald(Jerry) Goldstein, the founder of Jerry’s Artarama passed away on February 10th at 85. He was a depression baby born days after the stock market crash in 1929. Always a hard worker and a passionate Sunday painter he hatched the idea of selling art supplies at a discount while working at a toy store in in 1960. In 1968 he opened his own art supply store. Jerry combined his lifelong dedication for customer care and affordable creative supplies to launch the beginning of an industry retail icon. His sons Ira and David carry on this philosophy along with his grandchildren Michael, Heather and Dara. Farewell Jerry! In his honor, Jerry’s is setting up The Jerry Goldstein Foundation which will seek to raise funds for tuition and scholarship to the very talented young artists in order to inspire them to follow their dreams. If you would like to be integrally involved in the foundation please contact Ira Goldstein at 919-878-6782 at extension 113.
Don Churms, the owner of Studio Plus in Titusville Florida for over 25 years passed away after an accident on February 8, 2015 at the age of 79. The business will continue on under the direction of his wife Barbara. He is survived by Barbara, his business partner of 57 years; four children, Don, Steve, Susan, and Christie – See more at: Don Churms Obituary
In other sad news, at Meehans in Melbourne Florida, Dennis Meehan, Jr,only 29 years passed away February 8, 2015. He had been the art supply buyer for the last few years. Dennis was extremely gifted linguist and was known for his sharp wit and infectious sense of humor. He is survived by his loving parents Dennis Meehan Sr. and Kathleen (Lunn) Meehan; his sister Heather Broome and her husband Gavin – See more at: Dennis Meehan, Jr Obituary.
The end of an era! We are sorry to report that our beloved mid-west Account Manager Dwayne Hurlbutt will be leaving MacPherson’s at the end of February. Dwayne has been a valued member of the team for more than twenty years, but is looking to make a career change outside the industry and believes now is the best time to pursue that change. He will be sorely missed by team members, suppliers and customers alike.
Renee LaMontagne Hile, ColArt America’s VP of Marketing has left the company after 13 years to further her future career.
In related news, Andrew Kimball, formerly of education supplier S&S Worldwide has joined ColArt as Field Sales Director reporting to Steve Chamberlain. Doug Ahrens will move to key account management as well as sales responsibility for the customers in the New York metro area. In this same move, Ann McCarthy’s sales territory will revert back solely to the New England states.
At Michaels, Rita Mathis has transferred from Drawing and Paper category merchant(buyer) to Manager – Pricing Optimization reporting to Kanth Surapaneni. In this role, Rita will be responsible to drive the analysis and execution of the Price and Promotion Optimization process supporting the Fine Arts Division.
In the just for fun dept., retailer Columbia Two in Portland is featured in very funny cable TV show Portlandia spoof on art supply store commercials. Watch for a nice shot of our Montana Can racks and a special guest appearance of Shepard Fairey using Montana BLACK! Shocking art supplies:
Here is nice video showcasing some of the projects MacPherson’s and Montana helped work on this last year in Miami. This video highlights Graffiti and Street Artist transformation into the fine art world. There is a lot of big names using Montana Cans in this video. Feel free to share this on your store’s social media outlets. Hopefully it will excite your customers and keep them coming back to buy the wonderful and highly versatile Montana Branded tools. Enjoy: