News
EMPTY SPACE OR ART SPACE?
January 26, 2012
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| Storefronts Seattle connects artists with space for sale or lease, and for $1 per month (yes, that's Earth months; no technicalities here), leases it and hands it off to an artist. They can create a window or gallery space until the property is sold or leased by the owner. The $100k program is run by Matthew Richter and Rebecca Solverson. With 20% of storefronts vacant in Pioneer Square and 18% vacant in the International District— the highest in 20 years—it's an auspicious time for the program, which received 400 proposals from artists last year. |
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| We snapped Matthew and Rebecca with artist Rian Robison, creator of Tuesday Scarves, inhabiting a storefront on Maynard and Weller. (Note that all three are modeling Robison's creations.) So far three pop-up retail enterprises, including the new Pinball Museum on Maynard, have gone on to lease their spaces. What's good for the building owners turns out to be good for the neighbors, too: "Everybody wants to live above that gallery project. Not many people want to live above that empty storefront," Richter says. "So we have a great effect on people's other properties as well." |
