This article on utilizing empty retail spaces for art displays ran recently in the Wall Street Journal. Here is the story including a reference to Artspace – very timely for downtown Olympia.

A New York Art Project Celebrates Records by Candace Jackson, WSJ

In its heyday, Tower Records in Manhattan’s East Village teemed with music-loving shoppers. But in 2006, with buyers rushing to online music stores and big box retailers, the store closed. Starting this weekend, the place will fill up again—this time with performances, panel discussions and conceptual art installations, some lamenting the demise of music stores.

The project, called “Never Can Say Goodbye,” is from No Longer Empty, a New York nonprofit that places public art projects in vacant retail spaces. (The group’s first such exhibit was at an empty fishing-tackle store.)
Ted Riederer

‘Never Records’ is a mock shop set up at a former store in New York.

It’s the latest in a wave of art galleries and theaters popping up in empty retail spaces around the country amid the recession. At a partly-vacant mall in suburban St. Louis, a program called ArtSpace has brought in theaters, art galleries and dance studios to occupy what were once beauty salons and chain stores like Abercrombie & Fitch. In the Los Angeles area, Phantom Galleries LA has placed temporary art installations in vacant shops and storefront windows.

The artists and curators behind the Tower Records project in New York say it’s partly meant as a look at what the art world can learn from the music world’s troubles. To passersby, the site will look a lot like a lively music store, with racks of records, a cash register and promotional posters hung overhead. (Window-sized “For Lease” signs remain, however.)

Ted Riederer and 40 other artists have created the mock “shop,” which will include record albums that have their covers blacked out except for a few words. Visitors flip through the stack to read a poem. It’s a piece that Mr. Riederer calls a “love letter” to the dying concept of a record store. “My goal is … to have them in the store for 30 minutes until they realize it’s not a store,” he says. Tower Records opened in Sacramento, Calif., in 1960, and by 2006 had 89 stores across the U.S.—all gone now, though a Web site still takes orders.

Opening night of the New York exhibition will include an appearance by a Vanilla Ice impersonator. Also participating is Paul Villinski, who says he used to spend Saturday nights in the store picking out $7 New Wave albums. His work is made from his own record collection, sculpted to look like birds.

Write to Candace Jackson at candace.jackson@wsj.com

AADO supports the effort to develop an Artspace facility in downtown Olympia. Our city has received numerous national recognitions for best places to live. A key criteria to earn such recognition is the presence and vitality of diverse arts and cultural resources for the community. The greater Olympia area shines in that regard especially when considering our theatre district with four full time subscriber based venues. This cultural treasure, built over decades with community, business and municipal support, is very unique and special for a community our size.

Now it is time to keep the energy high and look at the next level of arts for our community. That is where Artspace enters into the picture. Artspace is a national not for profit organization with a mission to create, foster, and preserve affordable space for artists and arts organizations. Too many times artists have jump started a run down civic area only to find that after their success of making the area a lively, fun and desirable “place to be”, the rents rocket up and live/work spaces are no longer affordable. Artspace works to remedy this situation and has established a number of live/work spaces for artists across the country including two properties in Seattle and a new property in Everett. Artspace is a natural progression for our local arts and cultural resources.

This initiative to have an Artspace property in Olympia has passed an initial proof of concept stage. In the fall of 2009, an evaluation team from Artspace came to our community to assess all the components needed to be considered for a successful project. In summary we passed the test by showing among other criteria a solid show of support from the community to start working on this project.

The project itself can take 5 to 8 years of fund raising, planning, land acquisition, design, construction, etc. Artspace is able to assist the community raise the funds through a broad array of resources including local, state and federal grants and private contributions. As a start to make this happen, a local group of citizens is in the process of forming a not for profit foundation to take the lead on this initiative and once completed implement the property management program.
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As the national debate continues on health care reform, AADO encourages the inclusion of not-for-profit organizations and their employees in the discussion. The health reform bill to be passed should include meaningful support to help not for profits provide health care benefits to employees for the following reasons:

# Congress should ensure that health care legislation includes subsidies to help nonprofit employers provide health insurance for their employees. Tax credits for small employers that provide health insurance for employees won’t help tax-exempt organizations. [more]

The city council of Olympia recently issued a proclamation recognizing the value and contributions of local live performing theaters. Live performing arts is an important resource for contributing postively to a community’s cultural, economic and social fabric as affirmed in national “Best Places to Live” surveys. Kiplinger’s recently rated Olympia as the 6th best place to live in the U.S. based in part on the area’s wealth of cultural resources and highlighting the downtown theatre district. [more]

Thank you for visiting the new website of the Arts Alliance of Downtown Olympia (”AADO”). In the next several weeks we will be loading much of our important content that was lacking from our previous website. The new website is much more flexible for us. News and stories on the live performance and our downtown theatre district can now be posted in a timely manner. And we can archive key publications and position papers in support of our local performing arts scene and theater district.

AADO appreciates your continued interest and support for the performing arts.