The Brief
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The four owners of “Notta Gallery” hope the name brings a lot of attention.
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The idea is to be accessible to all visitors.
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Four people with business experience run the new space.
LAKELAND, Fla. – The four owners of “Notta Gallery” hope the name brings a lot of attention.
“We wanted a name that stuck in people’s minds and also something that was cheeky enough, but still had the name gallery in it,” co-owner Danielle Klonecki said.
They also hope the name is inviting to all, from those with a ton of arts knowledge to those with zero knowledge.
“You’ve got your art collectors already, but we want to create collectors,” Klonecki said.
The backstory
Co-owner Tony Agnello had the idea marinating in his mind after he slowly rediscovered his passion for painting a couple of years ago. He shared the idea with Klonecki, who also recently rediscovered a love for painting. A chance meeting at a networking event with Katie & Andy Webb, interior designers from Brandon, completed the partnership.
“We wanted to make it out of the gate from across the park when you see the sign, not stuffy, Notta Gallery. It’s a joke, and it’s not a joke, and it’s so many things,” Katie Webb said. “We wanted it to be malleable and kind of have the community guide us into what this space is.”
The space is small, featuring a mix of brick, metal displays and some traditional white walls.
What they’re saying
“When I first got here eight years ago, I heard that there we great artists in Lakeland, and I didn’t know where to find them,” Klonecki said.
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Nearly all the 22 artists featured are from Polk County. The owners hope to rotate the artists based on the wants of the community.
“I would hope that someone who is an artist represented here walks in very tall and feels very proud. I would that someone walking through who has never been here as a patron walks out feeling surprised and excited that they have a resource like this, for education, for purchasing, for even just coming through and dreaming a little and looking at some beautiful things,” Katie Webb said.
Dig deeper
All four co-owners come from the business world. Agnello runs Lakeland Air Conditioning. Klonecki is a business development manager at a local car dealership. The Webbs run their own company, Kynd Design Co. They hope their combined business knowledge helps propel the gallery to success.
“We’re spitballing ideas all the time,” Klonecki said. “It just kind of all goes perfectly together.”
The Source
FOX 13 photojournalist Barry Wong gathered the information for this story.
