Thirty years ago, Rodney Booth started Booth Framing Arts with Gloria Wyatt. They were a match from the beginning — Rodney with his background as a high-end general contractor and picture framer, and Gloria with something harder to teach: the ability to truly listen.
Her first job was to pick up the Atlanta phone directory and start calling. Not because she was a framer. Because she could hear what people needed before they could say it.
That combination — craft and connection — is still the foundation of everything we do.
There’s a difference between hearing what a client says and understanding what they mean.
A designer calls and says they want “something warm but not traditional.” A procurement director sends over a budget that’s clearly been cut twice already. A senior living activities director describes the residents who will wake up every morning and see these walls.
None of them are just talking about art. They’re talking about the people behind the project. And if you miss that — if you take the brief at face value and stop there — you’ll deliver something technically correct that still feels wrong.
Gloria has spent 30 years listening past the words. The hesitation in someone’s voice when they say they love a concept but aren’t sure their client will. The vision buried inside “I don’t know exactly what I want, but I’ll know it when I see it.” The unstated constraint that’s actually driving every decision.
Every project is business. Behind every project is a person. The details change. The dynamic doesn’t.
Early in Booth’s history, a designer was working with a small rural hospital in Washington state — one of their first healthcare clients. A large national art consulting firm came in late and pushed for equal consideration. The hospital had to give them a shot.
Instead of an RFP, the designer sent us a list of questions. We answered every one — directly, specifically, without the polish of a firm trying to win on presentation. We talked about what the hospital needed, what the community was like, what would actually work on those walls for the people who would be there every day.
The hospital chose Booth.
Not because our frames were better. Because we listened to what the project was really about.
That’s still how we work. When a client hands us their plans, their budget, and their vision, we’re not just looking at dimensions and spec sheets. We’re listening for the project underneath the project — the story of who lives or works or heals in that space, and what art can do for them.
The designers and procurement teams who have worked with Booth once tend to work with us again. And again. Some have been clients for twenty years or more.
That’s not because the framing industry is small, or because switching costs are high. It’s because when someone has experienced what it feels like to be genuinely heard — to have their vision understood, translated, and executed without having to manage every detail — they don’t want to go back to the alternative.
The alternative is stress. It’s chasing vendors. It’s art that arrives wrong or late or over budget. It’s a finished space that looks fine but doesn’t feel like what anyone had in mind.
When the listening is right, the rest falls into place. Sourcing, design, fabrication, delivery, installation — those are skills we’ve built over three decades. But they only matter if we understand what we’re building toward.
We have access to more than 75 publishers. We have in-house printing. We do custom fabrication, specialty framing, oversized pieces, and hand embellishment. We’ve completed more than 2,000 senior living and healthcare projects and more than 1,000 hospitality, multifamily, and commercial installs.
We can handle almost anything technically.
What makes a project succeed isn’t the technical capability. It’s knowing — really knowing — what the client is trying to create, and caring enough to get it right.
Thirty years in, that’s still the skill we lead with.
If you’re working on a project and want a partner who will actually listen — we’d love to hear about it.
