Navy Yard Business Wins NY Small Business Persons Of The Year
Three business owners of a production company houses at the navy yard are among those honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
By Anna Quinn, Patch Staff
Partners Toddy Stewart, Christopher Bren and Ben Freedman will be honored by the SBA this year. (Picture Farm)
Three business owners from a production company housed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard will be among the businesses honored this year by the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Christopher Bren, Ben Freedman and Toddy Stewart — all co-founders of Picture Farm — were awarded New York State Small Business Persons of the Year and will join a list of state winners competing for the national small business person title. The company works across video, photography and social media for brands like Apple, Laura Mercier, Nike, Converse and Verizon.
They will be among 53 small businesses recognized by SBA in Washington D.C. next month during an event held during National Small Business Week. The event will also highlight all of the country’s 30 million small businesses in addition to those winning the awards.
“It is a time for the small business owners and entrepreneurs to come together and celebrate their accomplishments,” a release about the awards said.
The Picture Farm co-founders are also involved in the community, including a Picture Farm Film Festival they sponsor each year. The festival seeks to increase dialogue within the community by celebrating diversity in front of and behind the camera, the company said.
The owners also have been active in the Brooklyn STEAM Center, a high school launched this year in the Navy Yard that lets its students work closely with businesses also housed in the Yard. Picture Farm, which is in Building 77 along with the school, helps with students that are on the film and media track.
Picture Farm will compete against other state winners for the title of National Small Business Persons of the Year in D.C., but added that their work so far in Brooklyn has been an award in its own way.
“Their continued experience connecting with the burgeoning creative community within the Brooklyn Navy Yard serves as a reward and constant source of inspiration as they work together to discover and cultivate the artistic voices of tomorrow,” the company said.
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