♪♪
-20 years ago, I had a
business called Sev Shoon
Art Center, which was for printmakers
and I needed a home
for the business, which was on Ballard Avenue.
So I thought that having a bigger building in a bigger
community would be awesome.
And Jay was very interested in developing our studios.
Joan and John had told me personally
that they had an idea of wanting a studio
that would never have to leave.
So that brought us all together.
I was looking for about 2,500 feet
and this is about 14,000.
It was a lot bigger, which Jay
figured immediately how to deal with it.
[ chuckling ]
-The economics were a lot better,
but it was a lot bigger problem.
Fortunately, I had a lot of contacts
in the building industry
and we were able to get
the right subcontractors to work at every level
in the project, and we had an amazing collaboration.
♪♪
-So we have
right now about 30 artists and we have painters,
we have encaustic printmakers,
large scale artist, small scale artist.
We have an artist who does quilts
and another one who works on glass.
-We have a really nice demographic too,
from the neighborhood, and from the city of Seattle.
Young artists
starting out
and mid-career artists, and then a few artists
who are retired from their job job, their day job,
and are working full time on their art now.
-This year is our 20th anniversary
and our tenants are the ones who decided
that they wanted to exhibit our work.
So they asked us to have a founders’
show -- will be up for two months and it's been actually
really exciting to have the four of us come together
with old and new work and design a show together.
And that's our way of celebrating our 20th
anniversary of really great 20 years.
♪♪
My work is typically inspired by my travel.
I travel the world on my motorcycle and make friends.
So then I come back and they make a lot of work
about the people I met.
So my last trip was in Tanzania
and I lived with the Maasai for a little while,
so it will be my Maasai friends will be with me.
-It's really important to have spaces
for artists to work in, in this city.
-I think the longest we've ever had an empty studio has been
two weeks; comes available and within two weeks somebody
ready to move in.
-Every artistic media needs a place to work,
and we're really good example to show
that you can invent a place
and have other people get the ball and keep it rolling.
♪♪
-BalladWorks 20th Anniversary Exhibit,
“The Founders,” opens March 9th and runs through May 1st.
For hours, location, and special events,
Go to ballardworks.com.
♪♪
Catch Art zone Friday nights at 8
and anytime online at SeattleChannel.org/ArtZone.