This month, our Partners in Design series continued with a fun and educational event featuring Sarah Arredondo of Katalyst Art Gallery & Gift Boutique. Sarah joined us on April 18th from 3 – 4:00 pm in our Lansing, MI showroom, where she presented a selection of her unique products, told us about her story as a local entrepreneur and supporter of local artists, and gave us an insight into how she stays on top of trends and the changing business environment.

Partners in Design: Katalyst Art Gallery & Gift Boutique with Sarah Arredondo 2024

A Unique Retail Experience

Katalyst Art Gallery & Gift Boutique is a one-of-a-kind retail experience in our local community. Sarah combined her background in art, design, and retail to create this local Lansing, MI business. Katalyst offers a space to experience art and design with a range of unique retail products. Sarah gave us a sampling of these products during her presentation, including some very interesting kitchen utensils, cooking aids, jewelry, and a photo of the Broad Museum, among others.

Partners in Design: Katalyst Art Gallery & Gift Boutique with Sarah Arredondo 2024

Supporting Local Artists

Katalyst Art Gallery & Gift Boutique also provides a venue for emerging artists to display their work to the local community. Sarah really enjoys this element of her work, where she gets to help artists show their work by walking them through how to have a professional artist exhibit in a gallery. This helps to provide them with the confidence to show their work in their next space or event. In this capacity, she works with over 300 artists in the area and hosts an artist of the month in her gallery.

Partners in Design: Katalyst Art Gallery & Gift Boutique with Sarah Arredondo 2024

A Local Entrepreneur

Sarah has a very positive view of Old Town Lansing and the other businesses in the area and believes in working together to create an art center in the Lansing area.  She keeps on top of the latest trends by visiting markets in all parts of the United States and then displays works from local artists to promote the area’s art community.  Sarah is a true success story of making it through a difficult retail environment during COVID-19. She used Facebook Live to sell and deliver merchandise during this time.

Sarah is pretty much a one-woman show as she buys and displays every product in her store, plus manages the daily operations of Katalyst Art Gallery & Gift Boutique. What an inspiring story!

Here’s a sneak peek at next month’s design partner:

Spring is well underway with summer just around the corner, which means it is time to spruce up those gardens. Our May Partners in Design event will feature Saundra Dunn of Along the Fence Daylilies. This Danville, MI local business is a specialist daylily farm committed to growing and selling beautiful lilies. They specialize in these late bloomers that create a spectacular feature for any summer garden. We can’t wait to learn about their unique business and extensive knowledge of these beautiful flowers.