Betsy Wagner, manager of Bowman Art and Framing in Portland, is one of only 50 people in the country who have earned the prestigious Master Certified Picture Framer (MCPF®) designation from the Professional Picture Framers Association (PPFA™).
“I earned my Master Certified Picture Framer designation in January at the West Coast Art and Frame (WCAF) Expo in Las Vegas. But the process started much earlier than that,” Wagner explained. In 2021 she passed her Certified Picture Framer (CPF) exam , a 3.5 hour written exam on the best practices in picture framing. In addition, she had to complete the CPF recertification course in order to be eligible for the MCPF.
The MCPF test consists of two parts. Wagner was required to bring four museum-grade framing examples to WCAF—one each for a stretched canvas, paper, textile and object, representing four categories of framing. While there, she also completed a hands-on exam involving three additional framing challenges…