Fan Frame & Fine Art shop to close after 50 years

Fan Frame & Fine Art, Inc. has been in Richmond for more than 50 years. (Courtesy Jo Cudlip)

After more than half a century in business, Fan Frame & Fine Art, Inc., is closing its doors next month.

The framing shop, which has operated at 214 North Robinson St. since 1973, will cease operations in March because shop owner Jo Cudlip is ready to retire.

The business was established 52 years ago by former owner William Parker. Cudlip joined as an employee in 1995 and took ownership in 2003. 

Jo Cudlip

Throughout its long history, the shop has provided nailed frames and a variety of installations like shadow boxes, archival framing and canvas and needlepoint stretching. 

“We are old-school framers,” Cudlip said. “We build them so that they’ll last. We’re building heirlooms, and they’re being passed down to children.” 

The shop also has a small gallery with glass, ceramics, woodwork and fine original paintings by both local and international artists. 

Cudlip was born in Alexandria and spent some of her youth training and learning the art of framing in shops there. That early experience instilled a work ethic that has lasted decades, she said.

She moved to Richmond in 1975 to attend VCU, where she received a degree in the school’s crafts program in jewelry making. She worked as a framer in multiple local shops and as a freelance jeweler before joining Parker in his shop 30 years ago. 

“I had worked for a lot of shops in the city of Richmond, but his shop felt like home when I walked in,” Cudlip said.

When Parker retired in 2003, Cudlip took over as owner. She’s been operating it ever since, even as the number of Richmond frame shops has decreased over the years. 

When Cudlip pinned the closing sign on the doors of Fan Frame & Fine Art, she said she started hearing from customers who’ve done business with the shop for as long as three decades. 

“It’s been hard for both myself and my clients. They walk in the door and say, ‘Say it isn’t so,’” Cudlip said. “The hard part is the ones who’ve been coming for the past 30 years. They burst into tears.”

Fan Frame & Fine Art never did any advertising in its half-century of work on North Robinson Street. Instead, the shop got its name out through word of mouth and pro bono work for organizations such as the nonprofit 1708 Gallery and the Richmond SPCA at the annual Fur Ball. 

Though Cudlip is closing the door on her time at the frame shop, she’ll be returning to her roots and working again as a freelance jeweler. She’ll also be taking some equipment home from the shop to continue framing as a personal project. 

“I have joy in this. It’s sad for the shop to be closing, but it’s good, I’m returning to the bench,” she said.

The framing portion of the shop is closed and not accepting new orders, yet the shop gallery is still open, with much of the work on sale. 

Fan Frame & Fine Art will close its doors officially sometime in March. An exact date has not been set, Cudlip said.

“[The last day] is when the place is swept and all the nail holes that held pictures have been spackled,” she said. 

Cudlip hopes the work Fan Frame & Fine Art has done over the past 52 years will be its legacy.

“If pieces ever have to be opened up or altered, or if they fall in the hands of framers in the future, when they open it up, I always wanted that their impression would be, ‘They did it right,’” she said.