More art in the heart of the Exchange

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This article was published 20/12/2021 (1407 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When a new business opens, it can be tough for customers to find it. One solution: paint the door pink, teal and orange.

That’s what Sholeth Choquette, 22, and Paul Sogeke, 25, did in September when they opened Seduta Art, one of the newest shops in the Exchange District. It’s a fitting advertisement for the Arthur Street establishment, a gallery which sells hard-to-find and high quality supplies — if you sell art, why not let the door do some of the talking?

But rest assured, the co-owners know what they’re talking about, too.

Both are art lovers and artists themselves, but are also graduates of the University of Manitoba’s Asper School of Business, where Choquette studied supply chain management and entrepreneurship and Sogeke studied finance and accounting. Walk into the store, and the pair will explain what every product can be used for, muse about the art they’ve got hanging up, and hand out their business cards — postcard-size prints of famous paintings.

They’ve been together for four years. “We were upstairs studying and he fell in love at first sight,” Choquette says. “I can’t argue with that,” Sogeke agrees quickly. When they started dating, their conversations frequently returned to art: they went to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, painted together and saw shows. “We made an effort to see everything,” Choquette says.

Last year, they collaborated on a line of vegan beauty products, which gave them the confidence to try something bigger. And in September, they came across an empty street-level space in a newly developed building on Arthur. It was bare, which gave them the chance to start from scratch. And it was in the Exchange, an area both of them loved for its rich artistic heritage.

Then they started ordering and making products — watercolour supplies, pens, paints, art kits, drawing pads, their vegan products, rebranded as Seduta Beauty — and as customers started coming in, they asked what they wanted or needed. “We’re always asking and always listening,” says Sogeke, who adds they want the shop to hold classes and workshops in the future.

And then they started walking around, introducing themselves to other shops in the neighbourhood, including another artsy shop that decided to make its door — or rather, its gate — stand out.

The teal gate of Bevvy Teyems’ Custom Picture Framing at 224 Notre Dame Ave., is indeed tough to miss, especially in the grey days of winter. That was 100 per cent intentional for Lizzy Burt, who moved the business downtown from a small storefront on St. Mary’s Rd. this past October.

Burt has been expertly making custom frames for a few years, but grew out of the 500-square-foot St. Mary’s shop. When a friend pointed her to an ad for the space on the main floor of the Argyle Building — formerly the recently retired Al Shafer’s Concourse Aboriginal Gallery — it was an easy call to make the move and be closer to the arts community.

“The new space is about 1,200 square-feet,” Burt says. Which gave her the chance to expand the business plan beyond framing, and open a maker’s market, with various artist-vendors selling their work in the new shop: right now, visitors can find acrylic art and vintage housewares, polymer hair-clips, earrings and pins, handmade pottery, the rez-inspired art of Native Love Notes, and the absurd art of Nyco Rudolph. Plus, Burt has more room for the ever-expanding custom-framing business. And an in-house tarot reader who takes bookings on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Burt’s ”audacious” goal is to use the space as an artist hub. “I’ve had this dream since I was little of owning a mansion, maybe just a building, with as many mediums of art in it as possible,” Burt says. Owning a shop is a good start, and gives her the opportunity to help other artists and create more opportunities and connections with like-minded people.

Like Sogeke and Choquette, Burt knows the business’s success is built on collaboration and community in the neighbourhood and wider arts community. “The more people who know about us, the more possibilities will abound,” Burt says. “There’s always a worry over how people will find out.”

Lauralee Bater, the owner of Nu Era Emporium, yet another art shop that opened in the Exchange this fall, didn’t paint her door at 296 McDermot Ave., but relies instead on word-of-mouth, foot traffic, and a time-tested classic: window displays that practically beg passersby to investigate what’s going on inside.

Bater too is a first-time business owner. She has a degree in fashion design from the National Academy of Design along with an arts degree, and is an avid knitter, sewer and artist. Most recently, she was a vendor at the Old House Revival Company on Young Street, selling vintage and upcycled furniture under the moniker Duchess and Squire.

But this summer, Bater decided to go out on her own. “I just decided I was going to do it. It’s been my childhood dream,” she says. “Yes, it’s taken me 55 years, but as long as I can remember I wanted to create an environment for homemade art, craft and artisans.”

And in the Nu Era Emporium, where 16 vendors sell everything — kitchenwares, contemporary artwork, macrame, moccasins, soaps, candles, jewellery, decoupage materials, neckwarmers, bracelets, paintings, posters, photos and still more — Bater has succeeded on that front.

Like the owners of Bevvy Teyems and Seduta, Bater also wants the shop to be about more than commerce.

She’s set up a beauty salon photo booth where customers can “doll themselves up” and take pictures. She hands out peacock feathers to all the kids who come in. She set up a couch for tired travellers to come and sit. There’s a bar with hot coffee and hot chocolate and a piano. “If they want to tinkle on the piano, come and tinkle on the piano,” she says.

The most rewarding part of opening the business for Bater is seeing customers enjoy themselves. “That’s really what I wanted to achieve,” she says. “A place where people could come and go, not necessarily have to spend a lot of money, and maybe find something that makes them smile. And all of it is local artists. I thought that was important.”

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com