Cheryl McGinnis Gallery

The Cheryl McGinnis Gallery has such a great commitment to art. They are instrumental in bringing art to children in underserved communities. The Children’s Storefront School (now referred to as Storefront Academy) is a lucky recipient of this and is where I in fact discovered The Cheryl McGinnis Gallery. Writing this as a former student, I’m happy to say I have established an ongoing relationship with both the gallery owner and its artists.

Cheryl McGinnis owns an art gallery and has an interior designer/​contractor business as well. We were renovating our apartment and she was recommended by a member on the board of our coop, which was a big part of our decision. You wouldn’t recommend someone unprofessional to someone who lives in your building, right? Well, maybe they didn’t realize she wasn’t as good as they thought because it turned out to be a nightmare.
First off, Cheryl McGinnis is not an interior designer. This became very apparent in the first few weeks of working with her. She didn’t know a screw from a bolt and had very rudimentary taste in design. When your client knows more than you do, it’s time to go to school or quit the business. I already had inspiration photos that I had pulled and didn’t really need her for her interior design skills, but it would have been helpful if she knew how to at least source materials. I ended up having to research most of it myself. So, maybe she’s not a designer, how about a project manager?
We went through several contractors because she would fire them mid project over personal issues that had nothing to do with my apartment. She wouldn’t tell us, just one day there would be an empty apartment. The contractors she hired were total hacks, putting walls in the wrong places, electrical wiring done wrong… it was frustrating. Given that I was living in the space at the time made it even more frustrating. In the end, she and I had a disagreement over the cost of one piece of the project and instead of sitting down and talking through it like a professional, she told the contractors to not come in the next day and didn’t returned my phone calls. I couldn’t believe it. I had already paid her money upfront. I had to get a lawyer. After all of the wrong she had done, she still felt like she needed to threaten to sabotage finishing my apartment.
After finding someone else to finish my apartment, I got a phone call from a plumber that told me McGinnis had not paid him for work he had done on my apartment six months before. He threatened to put a lien on my apartment if he wasn’t paid. I had already given her a check for over $ 4,000 to pay him right after he did the work. A week later, I got another call from a vendor that supplied materials saying he hadn’t been paid by her either and she had given him my number. Apparently, she pocketed the money I had given her for expenses instead of paying the vendors. I am beside myself as to how this woman can face herself and those around her everyday.
She’s a shady character that needs to stay out of the business instead of playing with people’s homes and lives. Do yourself a huge favor and stay clear!