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McMillen Fine Art prepares grand opening celebration

After eight years, Trish and Jared McMillen finally found a permanent Main Street home for their flagship McMillen Fine Art Photography Gallery.

The McMillens have relocated a couple of doors up from their temporary digs at 511 Main St. to 505 Main St., the former location of The Expanding Heart.

To celebrate, the photographers will host a grand opening artist reception over the Fourth of July weekend. During the event, Trish and Jared will unveil six new pieces "Walking with Color," "Ocean Thunder," "One Moment," "Purple Haze," "Spring Storm Rising" and "Turbulence," most of which were taken during a recent excursion to the West Coast.

In addition, the photographers will expand their art collection.

"We’re planning to bring in pieces that most people haven’t seen before, which is exciting for us," Trish said.

"They are from Big Sur and Yosemite National Park from a trip we took earlier this year," Jared said.

The photographers also plan to show additional works of past series.

"We brought in a few more pieces of our horse collection, which has been insanely popular, and these are relatively large," Trish explained.

The horse series was photographed mostly in the Wasatch Back, according to Jared.

"There is one from the Tetons that we shot last fall," he said.

Finding the new space was a long time coming, according to Jared.

"We initially found a space years ago when we first started looking, but we didn’t jump on it and it was gone in a flash," he said. "Since then, it’s been very difficult to find another space."

So, the photographers opened shop at the Redstone Center at Kimball Junction a little more than two years ago.

Last year, they opened a second gallery in a little cove at 511 Main Street, which measures about 500 square feet.

"We took a gamble, because the lease [for the smaller space] was short-term and we agreed to be out by March 2016 no matter what," Jared explained. "We originally wanted to have two galleries, one at Redstone and one here, but we just couldn’t make that work."

The McMillens discovered their new space, measuring 1,700 square feet, by knocking on doors and working with a real estate agent, Marcie Davis, who is part of Sotheby’s International Realty.

"She was super awesome and instrumental to getting this place," Jared said. "There are a lot of spaces on Main Street that aren’t announced on the market, which makes it all that more challenging."

The photographers finalized the deal at the end of April. Between then and now, the McMillens researched how best to use the larger area.

"You want people to spend a certain amount of time in a gallery and the longer they stay, the more they will experience," Jared said. "They’ll see the pieces, but also read about them."

Trish McMillen said it’s her and Jared’s responsibility to tell their customers about the art.

"It’s our job to educate our clients about the pieces and help them learn about what they are looking at," she said. "So, the way we’ll lay out the floor plan should have a good flow to entice people to stay. And that will include installing some new exhibit walls."

While showing new works is exciting for the couple, they are looking forward to exhibiting their larger works.

"These bigger pieces are unique for us because we still shoot on film, so if you blow them up, you won’t lose resolution," Jared explained.

"Because of the larger space, it will give a more ethereal presence to the gallery," Trish added. "People will have a sense of being able to experience the pieces almost privately. Clients will be able to stand and look at a piece and really feel it."

The McMillens plan to continue their photography workshops after the move.

"We have workshops here in the Wasatch and we added another in the Tetons," Jared said. "We’ll continue our private workshops in the fall, which has been great. And it’s good for us, because I like to get out in the community."

The Main Street community has already shown its hospitality to the McMillens.

"All the merchants here have been so awesome and welcoming," Trish said. "There is a great business community here and if we have a question, we can just ask them and they will give us some great suggestions.

"It’s an awesome network and we love to share knowledge," Jared added. "We’re looking forward to our future here."

"It’s amazing how we came to Park City a couple of years ago with some goals we wanted to accomplish, and we’re finally reaching them," Trish said.

McMillen Fine Art Photography, 511 Main St., will host a grand opening artist reception over the July Fourth weekend from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 435-575-1270 or visit http://www.mcmillenfineart.com.

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