Is it an art gallery or an insurance company?
Actually, Artizan Insurance is both, thanks to Vickie Frazier's love and affinity for the arts. Located at 214 Public Square in Watertown, Wilson County, Tennessee, Vickie took advantage of the location's glass front to create a welcoming display of artwork. In fact, when Vickie and husband Mike bought the building, they renovated the first floor to intentionally marry office space with art gallery - a goal they definitely achieved.
Vickie comes to Watertown in a round about way. She and Mike both grew up in Nashville neighborhoods, but met when she was in college in Knoxville. They returned to the Nashville area and Vickie, as a young mom, put her degree in journalism to work with different publications, including Nashville Parent, before opening her own marketing firm, Infinite Expressions, which she operated for about 10 years.
Infinite Expressions is where the world of art comes in. "Through that, I got involved in the arts community, doing marketing for big festivals of craftsmen at Centennial Park," Vickie recalls. Then, folks approached her to help start an arts center in Madison, which she ended up doing and working with for another 10 years in a 20,000-square-foot building. That center featured all types of art, including theatre, visual arts displays every month and music. Eventually though, the building was sold, and Vickie took a break before being recruited by the Farmers Insurance company.
"I liked sales and I like helping people. I saw the real benefit of it," Vickies says of her transition into the world of insurance. However, with a marketing flair and journalism background, Vickie found she wanted the flexibility of offering a wider variety of options than the products of just one insurance company. So she went to work for an independent agency that offered products from several different providers to learn the market. And in January of 2017, she and daughter Eva Frazier opened up shop as Artizan Insurance in Watertown. Vickie and Eva conceived of the name by putting "artisan" and the "z" in their last name - Frazier - together for a unique spelling.