Spot the Shop: Seven Sisters Craft Gallery celebrates more than 40 years

Twenty years after Andrea McNair purchased Seven Sisters Craft Gallery, the business is still going strong.

The gallery, a store that sells American art, has been open since 1981. McNair started working there in 1995 and was able to purchase the business in 2002.

She said she tries to keep the store true to what the original owners envisioned.

"I have maintained their same principals of buying only made-in-America and concentrating on local artists," McNair said. "I do have some things from all over the country."

Last year, the gallery moved from its original location of 40 years to 119 Broadway Ave.

McNair said this move was to have a bigger space with more light, but also so she could own her own building without having to pay rent to anyone else.

The gallery's new larger space features everything from pottery and fine art to greeting cards.

Though McNair has kept the gallery up and running for two decades, she does not have any formal business training and said that is the hardest part of running the store.

"All the nuts and bolts of running a business like budgeting and bookkeeping because I was an art major in school and had never taken a single business class," McNair said. "I do it mostly based on intuition."

McNair owns the gallery, but she does not do it alone. A few years ago, she brought her daughter Chloe Munn on. Munn is now the manager and helps purchase.

"I'm just loving being able to work with her," McNair said. "I see that she's got a real knack for buying and displaying and we'll see what happens in the future, but I'm very, very happy to have her on board with me."

Munn said she loves working in the gallery, especially when she gets to shop for customers.

"I love being the personal shopper sometimes," Munn said. "Not everybody asks me to do that, but it is fun to go on a little mission to see if I can find the perfect thing for them."

Both McNair and Munn said they love meeting all the different people who come into the gallery.

"Our customers are great," Munn said. "They're all so nice and all the artists are amazing too. I love meeting them when they come in, and it's so fun to hear what everybody thinks about how it looks over here. It's nice to meet everybody."

McNair said she thinks the space and the art attracts the right kind of crowd.

"Being surrounded by lots of beautiful things and I've met a lot of friendly and interesting people," McNair said. "I think that this space just attracts really nice, interesting and good people."