FORT DRUM — Kathleen Backus Alibrandi didn’t expect the military to recruit her art and framing gallery. But it did. And she responded to the call, opening a new branch of her Syracuse–based Gallery One Fourteen at Fort Drum on Sept. 4. Alibrandi hadn’t planned to open a second location. She operated Gallery One Fourteen […]
FORT DRUM — Kathleen Backus Alibrandi didn’t expect the military to recruit her art and framing gallery.
But it did. And she responded to the call, opening a new branch of her Syracuse–based Gallery One Fourteen at Fort Drum on Sept. 4.
Alibrandi hadn’t planned to open a second location. She operated Gallery One Fourteen in 1,200 square feet of space leased from Eileen Heagerty at 114 Helen St. in Syracuse. Then Alibrandi heard from officials at The Army & Air Force Exchange Service — the Exchange — at Fort Drum.
“They said, ‘We’re looking for a custom framer here at the base,’ ” says Alibrandi. “My initial reaction was, ‘Are you kidding me? With the way the economy has been I’m lucky to have one store open with the lights on.’ But I decided to take on the challenge and see where it took me.”
The new gallery at Fort Drum has the chance to do plenty of business because it is close to the military members and civilians who work on the base, Alibrandi says. Fort Drum’s 2011 Economic Impact Statement, released April 16, 2012, showed that it employed 19,978 soldiers and 4,614 civilians.
Alibrandi decided to keep the name Gallery One Fourteen for the Fort Drum location, even though it’s not at that street number. The new gallery’s address at the Exchange at Fort Drum is Building P-10730A on Enduring Freedom Drive. It leases 640 square feet there.
“The Exchange at Fort Drum is their mall,” Alibrandi says. “I’m an independent vendor, so what I do inside of the store is up to me.”
Alibrandi did ask customers what they wanted from the new location. In addition to custom framing, demand is high for engravings on items like trophies and plaques, she says. They are often given as gifts for military members who are arriving at the base or departing from it.
So Alibrandi ordered an engraving machine to allow her to offer engraving onsite. In the mean time, she outsourced engraving to A-1 Trophy of Syracuse.
Framing isn’t currently being done onsite at the Fort Drum location, either. For the time being, Alibrandi completes all framing at Gallery One Fourteen’s Syracuse gallery. She would like to outfit the Fort Drum location to do its own framing, but does not yet have a timeline for doing so.
“As winter approaches, I’d like it to be as independently functional as possible,” she says. “I’m hoping to get it streamlined to where I can be up here one day a week, possibly two. It has been three to four days a week.”
Alibrandi hired a full-time employee to help run the Fort Drum gallery. She also wants to hire a part-time worker for it in the near future. Eventually the location could expand to have two full-time employees and two part-time employees, she says.
That’s a big change for Gallery One Fourteen, which had no employees other than Alibrandi before the Fort Drum gallery opened. Alibrandi would also like to hire an experienced framer in Syracuse to fill a position that could be full time or part time, she says.
The Exchange at Fort Drum found Gallery One Fourteen through an Internet search, according to Beth Faciane, office assistant to its services business manager. It was searching for a new firm to fill space vacated by a “framing and engraving-type business,” she says, declining to discuss the departed business or why it left.
“We really didn’t want the soldiers to have to go without those services,” Faciane says. “We feel very fortunate to have found [Alibrandi]. She does really nice work.”
Alibrandi says she doesn’t know many details about the business Gallery One Fourteen is replacing. She adds that she intends to offer framing and engraving services while also branching out a bit, she says.
“From what I’ve gleaned from talking with people, they didn’t do very much business with artwork,” she says. “They would frame things that would come into the store. I’m a little bit more into the art end of it. I’m hoping eventually to segue into more artwork.”
That would be in line with the Syracuse Gallery One Fourteen, which stocks art, handles frame design, assembles frames, and provides other services like hanging and installation. Alibrandi declined to discuss revenue totals or projections for her business.