Yes, the famous bus driver Nathan Vass made an appearance at our humble home. Metro has recently begun a recruitment campaign promoting part-time bus driving as the perfect day job for artists (among others). One day while making my descent into the Pioneer Square bus tunnel,  I was delighted to come upon this gigantic image of photographer & honorary Biscaynito Nathan Vass, whose lovely old-school photographic prints have graced our walls in several shows, including the ever-popular 100 under $100 (due back in June!). Nathan’s encounters with the public-transportation-riding masses of Seattle are vividly documented on his blog.

Here he is taking a break from the madness in Dara Solliday’s studio.

We’ll be opening up the house upstairs for First Thursday Artwalk on March 3, while downstairs, the Center on Contemporary Art will be opening 35 Live: CoCA Members’ Show in their new pop-up location here in the Good Arts Building.

On December 15,  2015, the building housing ’57 Biscayne (historically known as the Scheuerman Building) officially passed into the hands of Good Arts LLC,  a collaboration between four entities: artist Jane Richlovsky of ’57 Biscayne and the second-floor master lease holder of the building; Greg Smith of Urban Visions Real Estate; Steve Coulter, ACT Theatre Technical Director; and Cherry Good Arts LLC, headed by Cherry Street Coffee House founder Ali Ghambari. The group’s name pays homage the “Good Eats” cafeteria that occupied the building a century ago.

It seems every week brings a new story of artists or beloved small businesses being outpriced and displaced out of the popular, thriving neighborhoods they helped create. This unlikely alliance of an artist and developer is writing a different story, staking a claim in a corner of Pioneer Square to preserve and maintain commercial space for artists and arts-related businesses and to promote the cultural and economic vitality of the neighborhood.

Apparently we’re not the only ones hungry for a new story – here is some of the press coverage so far:

Puget Sound Business Journal

City Arts Magazine

The Stranger

Plans for the immediate future of the building include a commercial gallery and adjacent workspaces in one of the currently vacant storefronts, and a pocket craft retail space to be added to the second-floor lobby early next year. In late 2016, construction will begin on Cherry Street Public House in the corner and two adjacent storefronts.

In the longer term, the new owners plan to restore the basement to its historic role as a performance space. The Skid Road Show operated there from 1972 -1982, a jazz club during the 1940s, as well as less reputable enterprises (which the owners do not intend to revive). They will retain the second floor as affordable workspaces for artists and create additional ones as space becomes available elsewhere in the building.

The Good Arts Mission Statement
Given that artists, craftspeople, and creative businesses form the core of the historical identity of Seattle and, more specifically, Pioneer Square, Good Arts LLC endeavors to maintain that identity and promote economic and creative vitality through responsible real estate development.
Our mission is to preserve and expand the presence of the creative class in Pioneer Square by responsibly renovating and operating the historic Scheuermann Building specifically to supply affordable space for creation, promotion, and exhibition of a broad range of artistic endeavors.
We believe that economic development should include the creative class as its beneficiary as well as its catalyst. To that end, we also foster connections between, and promote the interdependent prosperity of, artists and other neighborhood businesses and institutions.

For more information see the Good Arts website.

above: New owners Steve Coulter, Jane Richlovsky, & Greg Smith celebrating the closing of the deal; not pictured is Ali Ghambari, who was visiting family in Tehran and thus unable to order a martini. (photo: Kara Kesler)

This just in: Join us for First Thursday in December and be serenaded by the dulcet and classy sounds of crooner Victor Janusz as you shop for locally made art and crafty utilitarian objects to give to your loved ones.

VICTOR JANUSZ is one of the Northwest’s most in-demand Entertainers. Last season at ACT, he penned and performed his own “HANDS SOLO: Pianoman” Show (directed by Lori Larsen) which was critically acclaimed and sold out an exclusive two-week run. Victor has just released a brand new CD “Living In A Blue State” with his full VJ BAND, including drummer STEVE WHITE (of Blue Man Group) Rob Witmer, Billy Joe Huels, Angie Louise, and Saxman Mark Taylor, among others. Victor is most at home… Anywhere!–So long as he’s playing or singing at a piano, preferring original tunes, jazz, classic rock and Carpenters’ songs. He’s performed many times at ACT, the Space Needle, Canlis, Nordstrom…  even a Command performance for President-elect Obama. If he’s in a good mood, he’ll tell jokes, and if in a really, really good mood –may take requests!

His songlist includes the Sinatra Songbook, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Rogers & Hart, Broadway Classics, the Beatles, Elton John, Billy Joel, Carpenters, Motown, REM, Lou Reed, Steely Dan, and lots of original tunes, as well.

And he’ll be playing on ’57 Biscayne’s very own piano, thank you ACT Theatre (and the two middle-aged people who moved it into the lobby this weekend).

Thursday, December 3 from 6-10 PM.

Shop local for handmade arty gifts by ’57 Biscayne artists and our spectacular guest vendors, including jewelry, lamps, reconstructed tin icons and other assemblages, handprinted posters and cards, olde style tintype photos, cocktail party accoutrements, groovy handbags and much more.  Everything made on site or darn close.

For some bonus holiday cheer, how about this:  You will also be helping us celebrate our bright future and permanent home in the Scheuerman Building, newly acquired by Good Arts LLC just in time for the holidays!

On the Second Floor at 110 Cherry Street, Pioneer Square, Seattle.

We’ll have recycled tin constructions from Nia Michaels…

Letterpress cards from erstwhile Biscaynitos Constelllation & Co., back for a glorious homecoming visit…

Assemblages by another former Biscaynito, Elizabeth Arzani…

Reclaimed, reconfigured and felted knitwear by Rickie Wolfe (along with her fabulous prints)…

Satchels & talismans by Laura Tempest…

Screenprinted cards, shirts, hats, zines and more by Morgan Cahn…

Paintings by current Biscaynito Krisna Schumann…

Ceramic sake sets and fermenting crocks hand-thrown by Hadar Iron of INFerment…

Plus lamps made of cool found objects by Ken Ewert, one-of-a-kind Handbags by Stitch-n-wash, and lots of affordable fine art and crafts made on site by Biscayne artists Peggy Foy…

Henrietta’s Eye …

Savina Mason, Dara Solliday, Sarah Dillon, Jane Richlovsky and more.

As cities across the nation struggle with the displacement of culture by rising real estate prices, the conversation seems to be stuck on the idea of artists as hapless victims in this struggle. Biscayne founder Jane Richlovsky’s recent experience with a studio eviction and her subsequent attempts to be part of the broader solution led her to rethink the role of the artist as and economic as well as cultural actor.

Photo: Some 619 Western artists on their last night in the building. Courtesy of Peter DeLory