MEDIA RELEASE
February 27, 2003 Contact:
Angela Berry
Phone
– 517-487-6340 x 19
Roy
C. Saper Honored at Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner
Lansing - The Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce
recognized East Lansing businessman Roy C. Saper of Saper Galleries as
its 2003 Outstanding Small Business Person Award recipient. The award
was one of five presented during the Chamber’s 91st Annual Dinner held at the
Holiday Inn South on February 27.
The annual Outstanding Small Business Person Award is presented to the owner of a local small business that meets the criteria of stability, innovation, commitment to community, perseverance, and commitment to diversity.
Roy Saper
has been in the art business for 25 years, after a successful career as an
economist with the state of Michigan. He created 20th Century Fine
Arts in 1978 to provide high quality unique and limited edition works of art to
individual collectors as well as custom framing. He successfully ran the business
out of his home for eight years until there was no longer sufficient space to
manage the volume of activity and growing inventory. After purchasing property
in East Lansing, Saper meticulously planned and designed both the exterior and
interior of his gallery designing a 4,000 square foot building that would be a
work of art as well as innovative in the art world. In 1986, Saper Galleries
opened its doors and has since hosted more than two-dozen major art exhibitions
including Rembrandt, Picasso, Normal Rockwell and Peter Max and has garnered a
client base of 7,500. He was one of the first in the art field to utilize
computers, even creating a program that showed clients the exact cost of every
component of their framing order years before it became standard practice. The
gallery expanded in 1998 adding over 2,000 square feet and Saper continues to
make innovative improvements in lighting, display and security.
Since its
inception, Saper has been involved in all aspects of the business from human
resources, finances and public relations to record maintenance, client and
artist relations. He has overcome hurdles such as start-up financing,
break-ins, destruction and loss of property and increasing demands of his time.
He has supported diversity by offering the community works of art from artists
of every culture, mentoring and supporting minority artists and hiring a broad
range of employees including one who was homeless.
Saper’s
expertise has been utilized by countless local and national organizations to
jury art exhibitions, lecture on all aspects of art for all age groups, to
share industry innovations with others in the art field and to serve as an
expert for legal cases involving art fraud. Saper has won three international
DÉCOR magazine awards for gallery design, creative management and advertising
and promotion. He has also received the East Lansing Crystal Award and the
Business Arts Award from the Arts Council Center of Greater Lansing.
Among many
others, Saper’s community service includes president of the Friends of Kresge Art
Museum, Chairman of the Dean’s Community Council of the College of Arts and
Letters, co-founder of the Greater Lansing Association of Galleries and Museums
and chair of the East Lansing Downtown Development Authority. He is a member of
the East Lansing Fine Arts Commission, East Lansing Arts Festival Board,
Economic Development Corp. and Greater Lansing Food Bank.
The Lansing Regional
Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to identifying and serving the needs of business-small
and large-by providing services to members, promoting members’ growth and
facilitating economic development of the greater Lansing area.
_________________________________________________________________________
Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce
300 E. Michigan Ave. – Lansing, MI 48901 – ph. 517-487-6340 – fax 517-484-6910 www.lansingchamber.org