One Frame Shop Closes & Another Opens
Mindy Melton is packing up when her son Wyatt comes through the shop door on the last day of business for Corners Custom Framing in Sewanee.
When asked why she started Corners in February 2009, Wyatt raises his hand. She was catering when she was pregnant with him and needed something less physically demanding, so she opened the shop.
“I don’t think my time could have been better spent in the past 9 years than being here, in this community,” Melton said. “I truly have appreciated everyone and getting to know all the different people.”
Melton learned the framing trade while working at her ex-husband’s frame shop in Florida in the 1990s. She tears up a few times talking about closing the store, but said it was too much to operate the shop and a bar she purchased last year, “The V” in Monteagle.
“It’s a little overwhelming, it’s emotional,” she said, “but I can’t imagine handing it over to anyone better.”
Sewanee resident Harriet Runkle recently purchased all of Melton’s assets inside the store and will open a new frame shop and art gallery in the same location, between Sewanee Dry Cleaners and Shenanigans.
Runkle, a longtime educator, artist and former gallery director, said “Frame Gallery Custom Frames and Art” will exhibit artwork, host art parties for kids and adults, and contribute in other ways to Sewanee’s rich creativity.
“I want it to be a business that supports the arts and supports children,” Runkle said, “and to be another fun thing to do in Sewanee.”
She said she feels that she is coming full circle with the business. In college at the University of Tennessee, when she was dating her husband John, now an architect and a priest, she told him she had dreams of owning her own gallery.
For Melton, she hopes to do more writing in her spare time, “confessional prose,” and also focus on The V, a venue she said allows hardworking musicians another place to play on the touring circuit. But as she centers her attention on other art forms, Melton said she will miss framing for the community.
“I enjoy people and their different tastes and likes and being able to work with them to come up with exactly what they’re looking for. I think that’s the best part,” she said. “It’s hard to be that eclectic in your own home but you get to enjoy all the different things this way—and really good art.”
Runkle said she is building on Melton’s foundation and love for framing.
“I’m continuing what Mindy started,” she said. “Even though I’m changing the name, I’m still in the same space, I’m continuing her good work. The whole process has been great between us.”
Frame Gallery Custom Frames and Art is now open and Runkle said any pending work during the transition will be completed. She also noted there are plans for some interior modifications to the shop.