Where Do We Go?

As Federal Center South shuts down, artists search for new spaces to work.

When City Arts published a feature in the August issue about the artists renting studio space at the Federal Center South Building of the General Service Administration, there was lingering hope that the residents might be allowed to stay. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The eviction notices sent to more than forty artists this spring are still in effect: studio residents have to move out by the end of the year — and GSA artists have been scrambling for new places to set up shop.

The biggest challenge wasn’t simply locating space, but fi nding a studio that wouldn’t break the bank: the GSA offered some of the cheapest workspace in all of Seattle. Its end resulted in at least one casualty from the arts community when Jamie Potter decided to head to New York in March, explaining, “The allure of Seattle was that rent was cheap. Since it’s not that way anymore, I might as well go for it.”

About twenty artists banded together in hope of securing the master lease of a large warehouse in Columbia City. When the landlord decided to hold out for a single renter, GSA artists went back to the drawing board.

Sculptor Drew Daly joined forces with Dan Webb, Mark Takamichi Miller, Leo Saul Berk, Claire Cowie and Claude Zervas. Their new space in Georgetown is fi fty cents a square foot, more expensive than the GSA, where rates had increased barely from twenty-nine to thirty-two cents a square foot in the last decade. But benefi ts in their new digs include easier admission (the GSA was a gated complex requiring badges and daily ID checks), proximity to pizza, coffee and alcohol, and freedom to spontaneously host group events on the premises (the GSA required written requests for visitor authorization and alcohol was strictly verboten). On top of it all, the artists have a ten-year lease, making an impromptu eviction unlikely.

Not everyone was so lucky. Eggplant Studios, made up of Tivon Rice, Matt Mitros, Ben Hirschkoff, Tim Cross and Jamie Potter, opted to disband. Mitros is moving his studio into his home garage. Rice, a PhD student at the Center of Digital Arts and Experimental Media, is using work spaces supplied by the University of Washington. Still, he’s seeking storage for larger pieces in between exhibitions, and, like many artists at the GSA, he is taking advantage of the eviction to lighten his load, posting surplus equipment on Craigslist in an effort to “slim down a bit.”

Hirschkoff, who hopes to join artists Laura Ward and Tim Cross in their search of new work space, plans to stay at the GSA till December 31, the last day of his lease. Meanwhile he’s salvaging materials that other artists leave behind as they move out. His demands for a studio are minimal: “I don’t care about architectural aesthetics or windows. My personal-space needs are no smaller than 250 square feet. The bottom line for me is keeping overhead low. After that, plumbing, ventilation, not having to climb stairs, being able to park and load and make noise until midnight.”