Articles
May 2010
If you’re hoping to groom your son or daughter into the next Picasso or Georgia O’Keefe, you should make Hull’s your next stop. The downtown art supply store is about to expand an additional 800 square feet and will be creating a new kids’ department. “Moms and dads trying to enhance their kids’ creativity have always come to us,” says Steve Kovel, the store’s owner. “We’ve got glitter and crayons, but what we don’t have right now is a powerful kids’ section.” Hull’s isn’t just for parents; it’s for everyone.
“We know what we’re talking about,” says Shawn Szirbik, the store’s general manager, so if you’re hoping to create a certain look or you need the perfect paint brush or a specific kind of drawing pad, Hull’s is your shop. To make sure you get the right product, “we try to ask the question behind the question. And if we don’t have the product or the answer, we’ll find out,” promises Szirbik.
Hull’s is also the go-to spot for architects, because of its extensive collection of modeling supplies. “It’s amazing how we’re shipping [modeling supplies] all over the country to just about every state,” says Stewart Johnson, the store’s manager. “But we work hard to have something for everyone, not just architects.”
“We go to extreme lengths to fulfill our customers’ needs, whether it’s price, hanging or schedule,” says Hull’s owner, Steve Kovel. “We do whatever it takes.” “We never say ‘no,'” adds Shawn Szirbik, the store’s general manager. This year, Hull’s undertook a major project with the renovation of the “Yale whale,” aka Ingalls Rink, designed by the famous architect, Eero Saarinen. For the reopening of the building, Hull’s reframed 100 years of hockey team photos. “It was cool to see how things, like equipment, evolved,” says Szirbik of the project. “The outcome is a showcase,” says Kovel. The work wasn’t just replacing the frames. Yale required the photos to be framed in period-proper frames, meaning new frames had to look old and the salvageable old frames were refurbished. Hull’s is now working on a similar re-framing project for Yale swim team.