Farewell ... For Now: The Warehouse Shutters

Photograph by Andrew Waits for City Arts.

By now I am sure many of you have heard about the unfortunate closing down of the Warehouse. We, as the people who managed that venue, just wanted to say a few things.

First and foremost, we want to thank those who lived and created space in the Warehouse before us. They truly built the foundation from which we were able to launch. These last five months have been nothing short of amazing. We have thoroughly enjoyed opening our home to you, Tacoma, and the many incredible artists who have come through town. For now, most of the events on our calendar will be moved to new locations around town. So keep following our updates on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Many of you may be wondering why, as an underground venue, we opted to do a front-page article in this magazine (“Underground Work,” February). This was a calculated risk that we all talked about at great length. We decided in the end that it would help the music scene in our city. It was a move that perhaps contributed to our uprooting, but we firmly believe that it was a risk worth taking. We are also pretty confident that our eviction was in the works before this article even came out. And, to clarify, the City of Tacoma was not involved in shutting us down in any shape or form.

Our dream was squelched by an individual, but we will not let him bring down this endeavor to bring good music to the people of Tacoma. We are continuing to dream and are planning to open in a new and perhaps even better way in the near future, so please stay in the loop. We only hope that you, our community, will continue to support us and, more importantly, the artists who come to our city.

We want to thank the folks who came out and supported the Warehouse in ways both big and small. We thank you from the depth of our souls.

— Doug Stoeckicht, Julie Rex, Emily Nollmeyer and Adam Ydstie