We were lucky to catch up with Michele and Danelle Pino recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Michele and Danelle , thanks for joining us today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

Danelle and I grew up dreaming about having our own art gallery. Our parents loved traveling and especially visiting galleries and museums. This was a huge influence for us. In 2013, we opened Wyn 317, a small gallery in the heart of Wynwood. It was exciting but scary at first because we didn’t have any experience in running a business. We were lucky to find a space that gave us a 4 month lease to see if we could make our dream a reality.
Five years later, our business and reputation as gallerists grew. We loved what we were doing but needed additional space. We decided to find a permanent home for our gallery.
Being first time buyers, we faced a lot of uncertainty until we saw a corner building for sale in Buena Vista right outside of Wynwood.
Surprisingly, the place seemed familiar. It needed a lot of work but I felt a strong connection. Then it dawned on me that this was the place I had gathered with a small group of women earlier that year to visualize and manifest our heart’s desire.
For a long time I had been manifesting having the ideal gallery for Danelle and I. I got goosebumps at the thought of making our dreams come true. For me it was a sign that this was the place we were meant to have to grow our business.

Michele and Danelle, 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?

Danelle and I complement each other and together we make a great team. We take pride in knowing we were the first gallery in South Florida completely dedicated to featuring the work of urban artists and muralists locally as well as internationally. We are most proud of the encouragement we give all artists including those beginning their career and exhibiting for the first time.

One way we distinguish ourselves from other galleries is that we are flexible and offer clients whatever special requests they may have. We especially enjoy providing art consulting to clients including framing advice. For instance, if a client expresses that they like a specific artwork we go out of our way to reach out to that particular artist no matter what part of the world they’re in to see what is available that our client may want to purchase. In the alternative, the client may prefer to commission a new artwork according to their specifications. Another area we specialize in is referring artists to live paint at events, paint murals in public spaces, businesses and private residences.

One positive result of the pandemic was our use of our outdoor space to offer the community classes and events. Some of these were artist led classes on painting, ceramics, paper mache, collaging, and graffiti with spray paint. We also had success with outdoor events like movie screenings, comedy shows, panel discussions, and concerts.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Like many businesses we faced our share of hardships due to businesses not allowed to open due to the pandemic. We were determined to find new ways to show and sell art for our sake as well as artists that we work with. That’s when we started having virtual art exhibitions and expanded our marketing to new areas around the world. We also provided additional opportunities for discounts and sales. This led collectors and art enthusiasts to purchase new art and to make their increased time at home more pleasant.

Another hurdle we faced with resilience were the unexpected construction delays we encountered. We had decided to renovate and add extra space to the gallery. Unfortunately supply chain issues turned a 2 month project to a whole year. This could’ve been a disaster for a gallery to overcome but we didn’t give up. We dealt with it by focusing our energies on innovative ways to keep the gallery alive. For instance, WYN 317 partnered up with the South Beach Wine & Food Festival by curating an art exhibition during one of their events aboard the Seafair which included live painting by local artist, Ivan Roque. We also arranged for artist Frankie Zombie to create his colorful tape art on a Mercedes G Wagon live during FTX off the Grid’s Formula 1 event. Three more areas that helped us continue working during construction are mural projects, providing framing services and hosting immersive artist dinners. Pairing a fine dining experience with an artist and a renowned chef provides guests with an opportunity to interact and learn about both the chef as well as the artist. In the future we plan on having more of these with different artists and chefs.

Recently we were able to take advantage of an opportunity that would’ve been impossible to accept if we weren’t always willing to take unexpected chances.While attending the VIP opening for Scope Miami Beach, we were approached by the founder to see if we were interested in exhibiting in one of the spaces where the gallery that was scheduled to use could no longer make it. This meant having to curate and install a complete exhibition to be able to open on time at 11 AM the next day. We took the challenge and what normally would take months to prepare we were able to get done successfully within a few hours.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

What has really helped us build our reputation among artists, art enthusiasts and collectors is that we have frequent events and exhibitions that are open to all. Also, are price points range within everyone’s budget. We believe our success stems from loving and knowing art and curating it well.

Contact Info:

• Website: Wyn317.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/wyn317?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wyn317
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/danelle-pino-6a78751a4
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/wyn317?s=11&t=QhnWZKgufoZy-cvKOIF8AQ
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@wyn317gallery6
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/wyn-317-miami?utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)