We were lucky to catch up with Allison Freidin recently and have shared our conversation below.

Allison, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

We recently began a new program that we offer to charities. We have begun a series of events in our gallery space called “10 for 10.” During these events, we discount all art by 10% and then donate 10% of the original price to a charity. It is a win/win for our company and our selected charity as we expose the charity’s philanthropists to our gallery and give back to very important causes.

Allison, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a lawyer by education, but after practicing for many years in my hometown of Miami, FL, I felt that it was time to focus on my one true passion, which is art. I transitioned from criminal law to representing street artists that created art in Wynwood, Miami’s arts neighborhood. I recognized a void in the neighborhood: there was no place for education on the street art genre. In 2018, my partner and I set out to create the world’s first museum dedicated exclusively to graffiti art. We opened our doors for the first time in December 2019 and made it into the New York Times on opening day! We have since expanded to a larger space, opened a separate fine art gallery that exclusively exhibits the works of graffiti and street artists, and founded an NFT company called GLYPHIC that helps graffiti artists enter the metaverse.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My business partner, Alan Ket, is a graffiti artist, graffiti historian, and author with dozens of published books on this topic. His knowledge on the subject matter enables us to have a product that no one else can replicate. He is from New York, but we met in Miami where Ket was working on a temporary basis during Art Basel of 2017. He was adamant about creating a hub for graffiti art and properly acknowledging the artists from his genre. After a few discussions, it was clear that our common goals of art education, preservation, and exhibition aligned. Our idea took many iterations until we got it perfect. We are still getting better every day.

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

During the COVID-19 quarantine, I began looking for additional business opportunities in the digital space. It was during that same time that I learned that the owner of the @miami account on Instagram no longer wished to operate it. I am not a specialist in social media, so I reached out to a good friend who owned a digital marketing company. I asked him if he would be interested in partnering with me to run the account and he agreed. We transferred the Instagram account to an LLC and drafted a quick agreement between us. By late 2020, the Miami economy began to boom with new transplants, tech companies, and other international brands setting their sights on the city. I felt like it was a good time to sell the LLC that held @miami, but my partner did not. Our operating agreement said that if one partner wanted to sell, the other partner would have the right of first refusal to the other partner’s portion. The issue became that my partner did not want to sell and did not have the means to buy me out at what the company was now worth. This becomes more complicated by the fact that my partner was a friend. While I made a substantial return off of the sale of my portion of the LLC, it wasn’t necessarily worth the tough time with my partner.

Contact Info:

• Website: www. museumofgraffiti.com
• Instagram: @a.l.l.i.s.o.n.f
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freidin/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-freidin-5b807b179/
• Twitter: @allison_art_
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/museumofgraffiti
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/museum-of-graffiti-miami

Image Credits
Credit: World Red Eye