This Space and Time: Havner's Frame Shop
BY TRISTA HAVNER
Featured in Vol 9, Issue 1: Community
My daughter is nine years old and no one can teach me a lesson better than she can. Last week, she came running in the house from playing outside and slammed the door behind her. She proceeded to stomp down the hall to her room, huffing and mumbling for the duration of her journey. I followed close behind her hoping to diffuse whatever situation had caused such a visceral reaction in her, but she met me at her bedroom door with three words: “I need time.” As I stood outside her closed door, I could hear her opening drawers and slamming them shut, dumping markers and colored pencils onto her desk while she inhaled deeply, over and over again. Then, nothing. Quiet. I stood in the hallway for a bit before retreating to the kitchen to honor her wish for time.
Roughly ten minutes later she emerged with a piece of watercolor paper clutched tightly against her chest and her cheeks tear-stained and red. I knelt down and asked if I could see what she had created, and she reluctantly opened her fingers and showed me a portrait. Of her. She explained every detail and showed how each line was created with intentionality, each color a symbol of how a misunderstanding with her brother had made her feel dejected and angry and vengeful and sad. What she could not express in words she processed through art. And, in that moment and in that portrait, I saw her. I understood her without context of her situation.
When my husband Charlie and I started dreaming about the future of the frame shop that has been in his family for three generations, I always knew that there was no future, for me, without including gallery space in some capacity. Custom framing would always be the major part of the Havner’s equation, but I simply could not see a way to move forward with our version of the shop without a way to bring our community together in a meaningful way, and I knew art was the ideal vehicle to do it. Concepts became long conversations that became mood boards that became a little black notebook full of space planning ideas until all of our ideas and conversations and sketches were realized in our new location at 105 North Church Street.
If I’m being honest, the gallery was and has been such a learning curve for me, and one we continue to learn as I go. After all, I have a degree in history and have very little experience planning gallery shows and working with artists so this has been a real “fake it ’til you make it” situation. But, as any good historian does, I have researched galleries in cities like Jackson and brainstormed ways to include all of our artists, and really poured myself into creating a space that means something, a place where our neighbors can feel safe and grounded and understood. A place that feels like it is for everyone and celebrates the diverse cultures and tastes and dynamics of a community Jackson’s size. Charlie and I want every gallery show to be quality, of course, but mostly we want every show to speak to every person who sees it in ways that make them feel seen and known in some small way.
Which brings us to the show planned for the month of May, one we are so excited about that we can hardly keep from gushing about to every unsuspecting customer who enters the shop. Every show up to this point has been a major success, and we have stood back and watched as neighbors who were previously strangers make connections during opening nights, exchanging business cards and drink recipes. It has all been such a wonderful and rewarding whirlwind. May’s show is incredibly special to me, because it was born from those little moments kneeling on the kitchen tile, trying to understand my daughter as she processed her big feelings through a self-portrait. After I tucked my children into bed that night, I was struck with how much I learned about my own child through a quickly drawn portrait. That portrait opened the door for understanding and gave her space to process what she could have never expressed otherwise. I sat on the couch that night with my little black notebook and feverishly scribbled ideas about theme and layout for the May show. I wanted our community to experience a taste of that.
The theme for the May gallery show, “Space-Time”, poses this question: what does it look like and feel like to be you in this space in Jackson, Tennessee, and in this moment in time? The gallery will be like a visual timeline and viewers will be able to journey through their neighbor’s lived experiences in the gallery. The front of the gallery will be filled with art from some of our youngest neighbors, then as viewers walk further into the gallery, art from local middle and high school students, then each age decade will be represented until viewers come to the back on the gallery, which will feature pieces from our wisest and most seasoned neighbors. The hope is that viewers leave with a better understanding of their neighbors and a sense of belonging to their community.
Art is a fantastic way to bind experiences and people and my hope for this show is to do just that. And here is the most beautiful part of this show: space-time is the intersection of space and time, but space and time can be measured differently by the measurer. Even so, all of those interpretations of time and space are woven together, like a big, beautiful blanket. Like the universe. Like a community. Maybe even for just one month, we can make a space-time blanket at 105 North Church Street that provides understanding and belonging. That’s the job of art, anyway.
“All healing starts with an understanding — of ourselves, of our situations, of our realities, and of our communities.”
Our hope for the month of May is that this display of self-portraits provides small windows into who our neighbors are. We have all been collectively living through one hard season after another and I am under no illusion that coming to an art show will fix all that collectively ails us. All healing starts with an understanding — of ourselves, of our situations, of our realities, and of our communities. What a gift to be understood and to understand through art because it means that we do not face space and time alone and art has the power to hem people in, and that is all we have ever wanted with this gallery. To provide a place for people to experience and commune — and art is a fantastic vehicle for community.
Trista Havner is a born and raised Jackson girl, a mom, wife, and small business owner. She and her husband, Charlie, have a charming local family business and are passionate about the history there. Trista can be found putting together frames in her family’s shop or lettering anything that will hold still. Her love for home grows daily, and she is passionate about being an agent of growth and positive change in her beloved Hub City.
