ONTARIO — SMILE The Selfie Spot, a new interactive selfie museum in Ontario, has imaginative and immersive backdrops for visitors to engage themselves. Plus, visitors can take perfect photos for their social media platforms or simply for their personal photo collection sans a selfie-stick.
The whimsical selfie museum, owned by Kaela Walter of Ashland, is located at 2004 W. 4th St. (next door to the BMV driver exam station), and has been open since October 2021.
The business has drawn approximately 500 visitors since its opening night.
“I had a group in, like three weeks ago, and it was 17 nieces and nephews with their aunt. I am actually seeing a lot more families coming in versus individuals, which I thought it was going to be the opposite way around,” Walter, who has been self-employed for the past five years, said before Christmas.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, “‘the made for Instagram’” art installations have become wildly popular in the last few years, with museums opening up in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago.’”
Also known in some cities as an “experium” (experience museum), the installations are also called art galleries, Instagram museums, art installations and exhibits for those who prefer a purer definition of a museum. They have been given these additional definitions because they are for profit spaces and are not considered by some to have an educational purpose as most traditional museums.
What makes these spaces so popular though, is that in these self-guided photography spaces, visitors can pose for a limitless number of self-expressive selfies in an hour or less with just their cell phone (or camera) in hand in addition to a portable ring light with a remote control for hands-free snapping.
They can also create and curate pictures for their Instagram or Facebook pages or Tik Tok, or simply create many cool memories for fun without racking up the expense of say a more conventional studio, even though visitors are free to bring a professional photographer with them.
Plus, professional photographers are free to book the Selfie Spot from Walter as well. She offers the space from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Monday through Wednesday and Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., specifically for them.
Many of the selfie museums across the nation are booked by appointment for safety and social distancing measures as well. Potential visitors can also call ahead and book with Walter.
Smile the Selfie Spot features 10 colorful and diverse rooms with engaging themes and dazzling backdrops ranging from a bubblegum pink Barbie Doll Box Frame to a jukebox with old-school vinyl records in the background to an equality room with the colors of a rainbow.
All in all, there is a varied range of options for the playful to use as content.
According to Walter, the themes and designs of five of the rooms will change every four months in order to keep them fresh.
There’s also three dressing rooms on site for visitors to change their outfits for their own brand of selfies. They can also choose to listen to a playlist of artists such as Bruno Mars or others of their choice while navigating the exhibits.
Although the business has been up and running since Fall, Walter noted the timeline for her opening did get pushed back a little, but she persevered.
“We were actually hoping to be open by the first of October but because of delays with artists and because of Covid, right now, we had to be careful with how many people we have in here and all together,” Walter said.
Obviously, if people were sick, we didn’t want them coming in here,” she said, adding that one of her key artists and some of the other artists, who had signed on, ended up testing positive for Covid. So, she ended up completing the nine other rooms herself.
“We did like a soft opening and we did an opening night,” she added.
Additional artists have signed up to help her create fresh rooms for the reset in February which will offer customers more options to pose in for their photos. Walter’s praised artist Shannon Volz for his help with the creation of the first set of rooms.
The mom of four including her bonus daughter Myla, who works for her as well as her daughter Hannah, Walter originally thought downtown Mansfield would have been an awesome hot spot for her business.
However, she said, there weren’t any spaces available that were large enough to accommodate her selfie museum. There were additional concerns from leasing properties about spray paint as well as other possible damages to some of the buildings she’d looked at.
She knew if she was going to open the museum, she’d have to find a space that was large enough to contain it. Plus, it wasn’t an easy concept to explain, Walter added.
Part of the conundrum is because the themes, designs and concepts of the popular museums, may vary from city to city, state to state, and owner to owner.
Fortunately, a breakthrough happened when Walter, who actually works two doors down from her selfie business at Arrow Tax Consulting Services LLC., as a tax preparer and bookkeeper, saw that there was a vacancy at 2004 Willowwood Plaza and wondered if the business owner would allow her to operate her studio out of the space.
“He was like do what you need to do (but) leave it a blank canvas when you’re done,” she said.
She thought that it was the perfect situation. “That’s how I actually ended up on 4th street,” she said, knowing she didn’t want to go too big or make any way over the top financial decisions, at the time, either.
“And, if we need more space, I can always get a larger location later and have the funding to do so,” she added.
Smile The Selfie Spot is the affable Walter’s first actual brick-and-mortar business. She was very frank about taking baby steps to get it up and running.
“Number one, the concept is not mine,” she said.
The Museum of Ice Cream in New York and The Rain Room (which is credited as the innovator of the selfie style museums) are more well known models.
People have been doing this for a long time, she said, acknowledging she had also visited other selfie museums prior to operating the selfie spot.
“They have one in Chicago that is actually a part of a chain of copy and paste selfie spots. And it was fun. You can take your family. You go in. It was good wholesome fun. You’re laughing, you’re giggling. I went with my best friend Jasmine,” she said.
“They had such cool things there and I have visited other ones such as Other World in Columbus,” she added.
When she got back from her trip to Chicago, she knew she wanted something smaller and intimate where it wasn’t going to take hours to get through.
“Some of the ones I visited were very large and that takes a lot of time,” Walter said.
Walter also highly recommended Other World, which she described as an interactive art museum, but there are so many places in there to take pictures while you are in there as well, she said. “It’s awesome.”
“When I went with my family, it took three hours for us to get through it. It was stop and go, stop and go, for pictures,” she said.
Visiting the museums also left her with the thought, “There’s nothing like this in Mansfield, which I live in Ashland, but my hometown is Mansfield,” she explained.
Keeping the concept of the other museums in mind, Walter said she just wanted to create an experience that was convenient for people who were running errands in the area.
“Like, I am out in Ontario and I am going to grab some Mexican (food) at the restaurant across the street and my family still needs to get pictures, so I will run over here and take pictures right quick and it takes an hour or less,” she explained, adding she didn’t want to get over her head too quick. “You never know with concepts.”
Walter, who is also a part of a creator’s blog called “Like to Know It,” where she posts outfits and items she described as things people use in everyday life, said she would have loved to have a place like hers to go to when she was 14.
“I know when I was 14 there were no cell phones,” but she felt her family could have afforded $15 for her to take as many pictures as she could have, she said.
She added she would have saved her own money to have something positive and affordable to do with her friends where they could simply laugh and have fun. “I am not knocking photographers, many come into our space,” she said.
Walter, who is also using her several streams of income to work towards financial freedom said she does a lot online.
“I’ve been a make-up rep. I am actually currently a representative for a nail company and I do “Like to Know It” on top of owning Smile,” she said.
It’s not about the money for me, it’s about the freedom that comes with truly being financially stable and making sure my children are going to get to college, she said.
The entrepreneur also has a child with mental health issues and not all of the costs are covered by insurance. Sometimes, my credit card has been charged before I even get the notice in the mail, she said.
Walter knew for sure she wanted something to do with photography and selfies. She also knew the business would also have to have something with the name smile in it.
“This is a family place that originated from a really wonderful person,” she said speaking of her late aunt, Carla K. Frisby.
Walter, who attributes all of her wonderful traits to her aunt, said one of the biggest lessons her aunt taught her was that even if she was afraid to do something, to do it anyway.
In addition to seeing all the positivity her aunt exuded, her aunt also taught her not to quit or give up. The business owner recalled how her aunt would say things like, this is not great, but what can we do to make it better?
“She was absolutely fantastic,” Walter said.
“I don’t want people to forget her. Would like to keep her memory alive as long as possible.”
While the business is just baby steps for her to see if it is something that the community wants here, Walter would absolutely love to get more involved with the community.
She could see herself offering classes at her establishment or sponsoring a sports team, she said, now that the business is rooted and she and her two employees have gotten a handle on the (cash) register.
“That’s my ultimate goal to host these events and have it filled up – even on the days I am not opened – just with laughter and smiles and just goodness. To have these free events where people can come and have something to take with them. Or hosting craft nights where we can teach people how to paint,” she said.
What had slowed down in traffic for actual pictures (over the holidays and before Christmas) has picked up in the sale of gift certificates for the business.
“I joke about it on my Instagram and Facebook pages. I will get on with the stories and talk to people and say stuff. I know it sounds cheesy, but I am like, what better gift than a smile? But really tell me, what is a better gift than a smile?” Walter said.
Smile the Selfie Spot is open on Thursday and Fridays from 5-10 p.m. and Saturdays from 3-10 p,m. Photographers may book the space from 10 a.m-6 p.m., Monday through Wednesday and 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., Thursday and Friday.
The price of general admission is $20 for an hour of unlimited shots. $15 for students and members of the military. $10 per person for groups of five or more. Photographer’s rates are also available. To book an appointment contact Smile The Selfie Spot at (567) 560-2025.
