Mari-Pat Beene (left) demonstrates (from remaining) Bette Slayton, CEO of the Bedford County Progress Association, Steve D’Ettorre, state Deputy Secretary of the workplace of Technological innovation and Innovation, and Madra Clay, Central Region Director for Pennsylvania DCED all-around her art studio, Pigeon Hill Studios, for the duration of a going for walks tour Tuesday of downtown Bedford. Mirror photo by Rachel Foor
BEDFORD — From an artwork studio in an previous newspaper making to a espresso shop that showcases regional artisans in its window, the highlight was turned on little companies and their proprietors Tuesday morning during a walking tour of downtown Bedford to rejoice the Commonwealth’s Tiny Small business Week.
Mari-Pat Beene’s art studio Pigeon Hill Studios was the initial prevent on the tour. Originally from Greensburg, she has worked in graphic structure due to the fact 1986. Just after graduating from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, she moved all over, going to San Francisco, Los Angeles and the Washington, D.C., metro place.
“When I lived in southern Maryland, there was zero sense of group because it was quite transient,” Beene explained. “Everybody worked up in the DC Metro place.”
Established in 2017, Beene’s studio delivers picture framing services, wheel-thrown and hand-built pottery classes, oil and acrylic painting courses and an artwork gallery. She even shares her retail place with other modest organizations in the spot.
“Each business enterprise compliments every other,” Beene mentioned. “We will not compete, so it’s a awesome collaboration sharing area with three companies.”
DCED Deputy Secretary of Marketing and advertising, Tourism and Film Carrie Fischer Lepore (far correct) listens as Future Doorway owner Hayley Feaster (next left) discusses her coffee store all through a strolling tour of downtown Bedford on Tuesday. The function was held in celebration of National Journey and Tourism Week and Compact Small business Week.
Mirror photograph by Rachel Foor
Organized by the Wolf administration, the tour also included stops at other well-known spots like Bedford Candies Next Door, a cafe and present store and Juli’s Wearable Art, a women’s clothes and accessories shop.
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the region in early 2020, Juli’s Wearable Artwork proprietor Juli Gonsman explained she experienced to arrive up with an fully new company product. To hold her organization afloat, she made use of social media features like Facebook Reside, in which she generally experienced hundreds of viewers.
“One of the fun specifics I assume is when we started off advertising on-line, I imagined it would be folks that we understood,” Gonsman mentioned. “We transported to California, Michigan, all in excess of the area.”
About 88% of Pennsylvania firms that exported items in 2019 were being little businesses — and compact corporations exported merchandise value $12.5 billion, according to a condition push launch. For each $100 put in at a little business, $48 goes back again into the local economic system in which the business is found.
“It is the people today guiding the companies that guidance our sector that definitely add to the variety and society of our neighborhoods, cities and cities, regions, and state,” Carrie Fischer Lepore, deputy secretary of advertising and marketing, tourism, and film at Pennsylvania Department of Community & Financial Development, stated. “They are the kinds that not only make Pennsylvania a good put to check out, but also a wonderful position to simply call residence.”
Mirror Staff Author Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.