Metropolitan was started in Minneapolis in 1960 as a family retail business and grew to 5 retail stores. In 1990 we moved from retail into manufacturing. We saw there was a need for fine art exhibition frames and moulding. We began marketing direct to the museum and fine art community and started selling over the internet in July of 1998.
Custom wood manufacturing Metropolitan manufactures our own moulding with high production manufacturing equipment including rip saws, moulders and production sanders in our own facility so you can be assured you are getting the finest American made hardwood frames and moulding available today. This equipment and manufacturing process is run by our excellent staff of employees who average over 10 years of service with us and take great pride in making beautiful frames and moulding. Our in house manufacturing assures you we never have a back order and we ship on time. The lumber we use is from renewable forests in the US and Canada and in most cases FSC Certified. Custom Designed Mouldings and Frames We offer custom designed mouldings to duplicate or match existing frames or replicate historical frames. Our frame designer has a degree in art history and over 35 years of picture framing experience.
Custom Finishing by Hand
Our finishing is one of Metropolitan’s greatest strengths. We finish our frames and moulding to order. Joined frames are finished after they are assembled to ensure the finest level of quality. Each frame or moulding is sprayed by hand so every inch of the frame is examined by one of our experienced employees. While being finished we match colors, if multiple frames are ordered. We use various finishing materials but in all cases they are either non or low VOC and non or low HAPs- free materials. We also offer unfinished frames and moulding.
Other Products & Services
We also offer custom cut mats and backing boards. Our mats are cut on the largest and fastest CNC mat cutting machine in operation today. As a Rising distributor we can offer you 4 and 8 ply mats as well as Bainbridge foam core, coroplast and museum corrugated boards. We can provide you virtually any style and shape of mat. We stock boards from 32×40 to 60×104”. Regular & UV Acrylic We cut to size acrylic glazing materials in different thicknesses and grades including OP 3 with UV filtering. Metal Frames As a distributor of Nielsen metal mouldings we offer 24 -hour shipping on metal chops at very competitive prices.
Customer Service At Metropolitan you can talk to a live person who knows what they are talking about. And if they can’t answer the question, they will find some one who can. We’ve been in this business for over 45 years and our staff is very knowledgeable about the industry as well as our products and services. For those of you who are used to ordering 24/7, our website was designed for you in mind. Either way, you can always phone us to discuss any questions you may have. We take the responsibility of meeting our customer’s deadlines very seriously. Daily orders from one frame to hundreds move through our production system. Each is made, inspected, and professionally packaged to ensure it arrives on time and undamaged.
We serve many different segments of the fine art community.
We are a Professional Member of the American Association of Museums (AAM) We sell to many museums in the country. ?Some of which are: Baltimore Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Cleveland Museum of Art, The Getty Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Los Angeles County Museum, Milwaukee Museum of Fine Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Walker Art Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Orlando Museum of Art, Princeton University Gallery, St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts, and The National Gallery in Washington DC.
We are a member of the Professional Picture Framing Association. We sell to picture framers who specialize in framing original fine art to collectors who require fixed corner frames especially with splines. We are especially known for our white and black seamless corner frames. All of our profiles can be modified to specific sizes or rabbet depths.
We often custom mill oversize frames as well as extra deep frames for shadow boxes. We can provide cleats for installation. For framers who do gilding we have unfinished basswood profiles.
Artists and Photographers We sell to artists and photographers who are responsible for framing their own exhibitions. In addition to purchasing frames, artists can purchase, spacers, strainers, glazing, mats, backing boards, hardware and framing supplies. This takes the stress out of framing exhibitions and makes them much more affordable. If you need to ship a frame(s) from your studio to other locations, Metropolitan can supply you with sturdy shipping boxes with foam corners.
Galleries We provide frames and supplies for many galleries that are framing for their artists, especially larger exhibitions. Many galleries either do framing or have a local framer. We can be your back up if there are time constraints and you need it done quickly. We can ship frames direct to the gallery or to the frame shop for assembly and fitting. Galleries representing artist’s estates often use us to custom mill frames that were similar to how the artist’s work was originally framed.
Metropolitan is a long time member of the College Art Association. We sell to many fine art instructors and are an ideal source for BFA and MFA students who need to frame their exhibitions. Students are usually on a “tight budget” but require excellent frames. We can provide low priced options and framing advice to make sure they learn the professional way of framing and mounting an exhibition. See our framing advice section for more details.