The Lumiere Group celebrates status as a Women Owned Business
The Lumiere Group has been a business owned by women for the entire nine years of our existence, but did you know that we are now a certified National Women’s Business Enterprise? Celebrate this certification with us and learn the story of our company through this interview with our founders.
How did you two decide to go into business together?
Erin: Rina and I became friends while attending the Museology department at the University of Washington close to 20 years ago. We saw each other across a crowded lab room, and it was friendship at first sight. We worked together [at a local art handling company] for five years prior to launching The Lumiere Group. When it became apparent that there was a need for art consulting services in the Puget Sound, we decided to leave Artech and give it a go!
Rina: We saw a gap in the types of services other companies were offering in the Puget Sound region. While there were plenty of curatorial and art handling services, there were no other companies offering the connection between those two – the long-term and strategic care and development of art and object collections.
What are the biggest strengths you see in your business partner?
Erin: Rina enjoys working on details and navigating complicated processes that benefit The Lumiere Group and our employees. She is grounded in the now and excels in the present whereas I am always running toward our future endeavors. This creates a nice balance on our team…working together is fun since we can do what we like to do!
Rina: Having a business partner is a lot like marriage. If you’re lucky, your business partner’s strengths are your weaknesses and vice versa, and that is certainly true of our partnership…I constantly rely on Erin’s big-picture 50,000-foot view of our business and our work with clients.
Can you talk about the challenges and rewards of running a small business?
Erin: A challenge that I see is the inability…to ever turn off. It can be hard to juggle a family, personal interests, and a small business. However, a huge benefit is that my personal interests overlap with our business. It’s very convenient that the activities I choose when traveling for pleasure are redundant with those required while traveling for business – Art! I wish all small business owners could create a self-fulfilling niche in their lines of business, but it does take time and hard work.
Rina: Running a small business is challenging in the amount of time it takes just to keep it operational. We couldn’t do it without our robust team of vendors – all small local businesses. The greatest reward in my work is supporting our employees, watching them grow as professionals, learning new skills, and succeeding in their work for our clients. We do this through providing livable wages, robust health and life insurance plans, a competitive paid time off package and a flexible hybrid work schedule, a paid sabbatical program, paid volunteer and jury time, a matching retirement plan, and profit sharing.
Do you think being a Women Owned Business (WOB) business puts you in a unique position to address the challenges of your field?
Erin: Absolutely! I take great pride in our ability to do things our way. I have worked with amazing female mentors who encouraged curiosity, confidence and cooperation and I’m eternally grateful to the women who cleared the trail for me and my peers. I realize the fact that I had the time to consciously select art as an area where I wanted to spend most of my waking hours is an opportunity many do not have. I hope that Rina and I can lead by example showing other underrepresented groups that envisioning, launching, and successfully running a small business is a possibility. It feels fantastic to be able to embrace the fact that The Lumiere Group is a women-owned business – and that this means something to our clients is a bonus!
Rina: In our work assisting clients in acquiring artworks, we are always looking to strengthen the diversity of any collection through the artists. Becoming a certified WOB will now assist our clients in strengthening the diversity of their vendor base. Also, like Erin, I am so grateful for the female mentors in my various positions and careers – not only for what they taught be about life and work, but for carving a path for other women. I am so very proud of the company that Erin and I have built together with our employees.
Looking back on the 9th anniversary of the company, what do you feel is your biggest achievement?
E: We function like a tight-knit family and laugh together at Monday staff meetings every single week. Starting out the work week with shared belly laughs boosts the connection between each team member.
R: I think our biggest achievement is growing our employee base from a small team of three employees with one client into a team of nine professionals with many clients. It required growing our employee benefits package and streamlining our processes to meet the changing needs and goals of our clients and is something I’m very proud of. We all support one another both professionally and personally.
What do you hope to achieve in the near future (2-5 yrs) with TLG?
E: I’d love to collaborate with an innovative client to envision and implement a new art collection: from strategizing funding to identifying art acquisition and exhibition goals. I enjoy collaborating with others and empowering them to eliminate any preconceived notions of what is possible through art. Art embodies so many viewpoints, inspirations, and cultural connection points from so many unique individuals. The fact that we can positively impact artists and the arts communities in areas where we work is so exciting!
R: I hope to continue to grow our client base, work on new challenging projects and continue to work with amazing and talented artists. We don’t often use our unique skill sets with a single project for a single client – so it’s always an exciting opportunity dust off skills we’ve utilized elsewhere.
