Mini Gallery: Amazing Maximum Use of Space in Downtown Athens

Name of business: Mini Gallery

What does your business do? (For example, cut hair, paint houses, cook food, cut grass, write grants, help people get in good physical shape, etc.) Mini Gallery is “Athens’ Smallest Art Gallery and Boutique.” We offer an antidote to the stale, mass-produced, big-box shopping experience by offering a lovingly curated mix of art and hand-crafted goodness, with an emphasis on items that are locally made, small batch, one-of-a-kind, and limited edition.

How long have you been doing this? We opened for business on October 5th, 2013.

Why are you doing this in Athens? We always wished there was a shop in town that carried and sold the types of affordable art and handcrafted goods that our friends made, but there wasn’t - so we decided to start one ourselves.

What are the advantages of owning a small business? Getting to work with artists and makers that we truly admire has been a major plus. Also, we have met so many people since opening our shop. We feel like we are more in touch, in tune, and involved with our community because of it.

If you could change one thing about owning a small business, what would that be? We are so new to having a small business, so this is a hard question. I would have to say the hardest thing is having the time to make and do new things outside of the business, but also FOR the business.

Do you have employees? Are they temporary, part-time, full-time, new or long term? Mini Gallery is owned and operated by me, Missy Kulik, and my boyfriend, Raoul de la Cruz. It is a part-time labor of love on top of the 40+ hours we work at our full-time job.

Do you own the place where you do business, or do you move around (like maybe a dog trainer would do) or rent space (to store your equipment)? Mini Gallery is located at 261 W Washington Street in downtown Athens - it is in a retail space that is shared by Low Yo Yo Stuff Records and the Get Rad! Skate Shop.

Is anyone else in town doing what you do? I do not think anyone else is doing anything quite like Mini Gallery.

Do you like what you do? Art and crafts has always been a big part of our lives. Mini Gallery just allows us to surround ourselves with what we love even more.

Do you have a story to share about how your started your business. (“I realized one day that, yes, I could actually design websites myself. So I started doing this and never looked back.”) I asked Raoul one day over lunch if he wanted to start a small gallery with me. He dared me to find a space, and lo and behold, we did. We started it on a whim, really. We looked at spaces around town, but most were too big and too expensive for us. Lucky for us, Todd who runs Low Yo Yo Stuff Records asked us if his storage room would work for our idea. It totally did, and we have been enjoying making Mini happen!

What are you plans for the future (regarding your business), the future being the next five years? We would love to see Mini grow in to Medium Gallery.

You can learn more about Mini Gallery by going to its website or its Facebook page. 

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