Art & Frame Center

Art & Frame Center sits on North Hercules Avenue in Clearwater, and by its own description it is the oldest continuously operating frame shop in Pinellas County, having been in business for more than 50 years. The current owners have run the shop for more than 30 of those years, which means most of the shop’s history has played out under the same ownership rather than passing through a series of different operators, a kind of continuity that is increasingly rare for a small independent retail business.

The shop’s tagline, “You Name It, We Can Frame It,” is a fair summary of how broad its actual work is. Custom framing and matting form the core of the business, but the shop also handles shadow box framing for three dimensional keepsakes, sports memorabilia framing for jerseys, photos, and signed items, and art restoration work for pieces that need repair or conservation before they go back on display. All of the framing work is done on site rather than shipped out to a separate production facility, which matters for anyone bringing in a fragile or valuable piece who wants eyes on it throughout the process rather than handing it off to an unseen third party.

Hours run Monday through Thursday from 7am to 4pm, Friday from 7am to 3pm, and Saturday from 7am to noon, with the shop closed on Sundays, an early opening schedule that suggests a shop built around serving working customers before their own workday starts as much as anyone dropping in later. The shop describes its service area as extending well past Clearwater itself, covering Dunedin, Palm Harbor, Safety Harbor, Largo, Tarpon Springs, Belleair Bluffs, and the Pinellas Gulf Coast beach communities, which points to a regional customer base built over decades rather than a strictly local walk in crowd.

As an independent shop rather than a franchise location of a national framing chain, Art & Frame Center prices custom work on a per project basis depending on size, materials, and the complexity of matting or shadow box construction, so anyone with a specific project in mind should bring the piece in or call ahead for a quote rather than expecting a flat rate. The shop keeps an active Facebook and Instagram presence for anyone who wants to see finished framing projects before committing to a design direction, from simple single mat frames to elaborate shadow boxes built around military medals, jerseys, or family heirlooms. For a category of business that has been squeezed hard by big box craft stores offering cheaper, faster framing over the past couple of decades, a shop with this kind of tenure in one North Clearwater location says something about the loyalty of the customers who keep coming back.