Blog - The Project Room

Jess Van Nostrand and Lucy in The Project Room

The Project Room began in 2011 as an experiment in the arts, offering a platform for the development of new work and allowing for the public to participate in the creative process in a variety of ways. From acommunity crochet residency to a failure variety show to social experiments with art and technology to a podcast series and more, TPR started as a place to ask questions, and ended with a robust collection of events, activities, and conversations made specially for the curious and open minded.

Seattle was an important aspect of the organization, providing a backdrop that often wove its way into the programming, from the script-writing of These Streets to a re-interpretation of Northwest Masters to the presence of many artists, writers and performers who are dedicated to living and making their work here. However, the audience grew beyond the Northwest early on, thanks in part to great editors who worked on Off Paper, the literary voice of TPR, and made use of the online journal to introduce writers and ideas from near and far.

A key element of the organization from before it even had walls was the question-based approach to learning about the arts. From there, once a "big question" was posed, the programming had a direction to follow that provided cohesion to what might otherwise appear to be a wildly eclectic calendar of events. But it always came back to the big question, the thing that kept me up at night in a very personal way and allows us to be unified as people who perhaps share the same wonderment about the meaning of things.

After more than four years, what we have is a collection of over one-hundred original essays, twenty-one podcast interviews, and lots of images (and memories) of the two-hundred thirty-two creative people who shared their work with us.

It took a lot of support from others to take TPR from my head into reality, so thank you to all of those early listeners who patiently had coffee with me while I sputtered inarticulately about the seeds of this idea, including Jim McDonald, Fidelma McGinn, Jenifer Ward, Sarah Novotny, Claudia Bach, Greg Bell and many others; huge grateful thank-yous to Founders' Circle members who allowed TPR to grow far beyond my capabilities, and the TPR Board who stuck with it through the end; also the wonderful volunteers and staff including Tia Kramer, Tessa Hulls, Corey Blaustein and Madeline Williams. I must also extend a special thank-you to all of the artists who were willing to share their work in development which can be a frightening stage of the process; and biggest thanks of all to my two little nuts Bubs & Lucy, and Mike "Smitty" Smith who thinks anything I imagine is possible and sees no reason to consider the alternative.

—Jess, September 2016

Displacement: Visual Artist Veit Stratmann Paris-based artist Veit Stratmann, who presented the work title L'Aquila at The Project Room in 2012, has made a practice of researching and writing about places of massive upheaval and its impact on the people who have lived there. After the recent terrorist attacks in Paris which took place near his home, we had a conversation about the connections between this event and his work, and what motivates him to be an artist, especially during difficult times.

Learning Outside The Classroom: Electronic Artist Michna Adrian Michnashares his perspective on what makes a good song, how college transformed his musical style, and advice for young musicians.

The New Art Marketplace:Digital Artist Kevin McCoy In this interview, we visit with Kevin McCoy during the launch of his first company, an online platform for the buying and selling of digital artwork. Monegraph,as this company is called, could change everything about how we value artwork and how artists get paid for the work they make.

In 1978, Gilbert Baker, a drag queen and community activist in San Francisco, responded to his friend Harvey Milk's assertion that the gay rights movement needed a new symbol. The pink triangle had been in use but was connected to the atrocities of the Holocaust, and the movement needed something uplifting to replace it. Using his creativity, his sewing skills, many many volunteers and even more fabric dye, Baker designed and produced the Rainbow Flag- or Gay Pride Flag- that we know today.

It's a Bitch to Remember

October 22, 6-6:45pm

For the third consecutive year, TPR is pleased to be a stop along the route for Lit Crawl Seattle. This year,writers Steven Barker, Jason Schmidt and Allison Ellis tackle The Project Room's current Big Question "How Are We Remembered?" with a series of stories about memory.

About the Presenters:

Steven Barkeris a 2014-2015 Made at Hugo House fellow and is working on a collection of essays that detail the wide range of short-term jobs he’s held over the past ten years. When he’s not working or writing he hosts the arts and entertainment podcast Ordinary Madness (ordinarymadness.org), and he is the co-founder of Cheap Wine & Poetry and Cheap Beer & Prose.

Jason Schmidt was born in Eugene, Oregon, in 1972 and was raised up and down the I-5 corridor — but mostly on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Jason is the author of A List of Things That Didn’t Kill Me, a memoir published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, a Macmillan imprint. His writing has appeared in Jeopardy Magazine,Cranky Literary Journal, and ZYZZYVA, only one of which has since gone out of business. He took first place in the 4th quarter of the 1998 L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest (yes, you read that right), and is the recipient of a 4Culture Art Projects grant. He holds a BA in Creative Writing and a JD, both from the University of Washington. As a law student he received the Frank E. Holman & Judge William Steinert scholarships, and a CALI Excellence for the Future Award. He can make a large cheese pizza in under 40 seconds.

Allison Ellisis a Seattle-based freelance writer. Her articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times,The Washington Post,SELF,Redbook,Marie Claire,Fodor’s Travel Guides,ParentMap, and the Seattle Times. She is currently working on a memoir about young widowhood and her tragicomic pursuit of a new husband, and was recently selected as a 2015 Literary Contest Finalist by the Pacific Northwest Writers Association.

This month's podcast is a conversation with Seattle-based artist Ellie Dicola. As part of Seattle Storefronts, a program that places artist projects in vacant storefront spaces, Ellie created the installation Was Here. As a corporeal monument to places that are gone, Was Here is a documentation of local businesses and organizations that have disappeared over the last handful of years. Ellie refers to her project as a map of experiences, and in our discussion of evolution and change, we explore what it means to give voice to memory and to create a place to collectively mourn the intangible.

Photos by Katie Miller for The Project Room

RESERVE TICKETS HERE:

Since October 2014,The Project Roomhas been following Anastacia Tolbert in the making of 9 Ounces,A One-Woman Show.Starring the three female characters Alice, Luna & Saraphina, 9 Ounces uses the audience as a mirror to reflect, three narratives crochet themselves around evolving frames. After debuting the work this past July, Tolbert returns to share it once again as it continues to develop.

All performances will be held atThe Project Room.General admission performances are FREE.Recommended for ages 16+ unless accompanied by a guardian.Click on the dates below to link to Stranger Ticket Sales.

VIP PERFORMANCE:$25

Thurs.September 10, 6:30-9pm
Special Q & A with the artist after the performance. Wine and hors d'oeurvres will be served! $25 VIP tickets required via Stranger Tickets; available on 5/14/15. Doors open at 6:30pm, performance at 7pm. Seating is limited.

GENERAL ADMISSION PERFORMANCES:FREE

Fri. September 11 &Sat. September 12,7-8:30pm
FREE tickets required via Stranger Tickets; available on 7/30/15.
Seating is limited.

Please note: Some posters and postcards were circulated with incorrect dates. The above dates are the final correct dates!

MORE about 9 Ounces:

9 Ounces: A One Woman Showis an unkempt, de-ribbon-ed, narrative braid dangling with cooked parts. It unofficially yogas its way through the unexpected journey of a queer woman of color's mid-life a-ha moment and extreme case of takotsubo's cardiomyopathy.Using the audience as mirror, epiphany and diary, three narratives crochet themselves around evolving frames. Meet Luna, innocent, truth-telling childlike ghost-angel, Saraphina filter-free wise counsel-spiritual matriarch and Alice an artist and writer wedged between four universal questions: Who the hell am I/not? What am I supposed to be doing? Why me? What's for Dinner? Together, the three bravely and vulnerably traverse the what-now with humor, sadness and a longing wish to have a deeper appreciation and longstanding compassion for Alice's 9-ounce heart and a goal to master downward dog.

For this month's podcast, TPR Editor Tessa Hulls sat down with Sarah Smith and Micah Stanovsky of Sawhorse Revolution, a Seattle nonprofit that teaches carpentry skills to high school youth. With an emphasis on projects that serve their local communities, Sawhorse has constructed everything from tree houses to garden beds. Recently, they've been garnering national attention for their project The Impossible City, a partnership with the Nickelsville homeless community in Seattle, in which students are building micro-homes for homeless residents.

TPR is proud to share our first ever online sound piece, created by New York-based Daniel Neumann in response to our interview with him in his studio. The conversation addresses the idea of monument through Daniel's use of found objects and personal history- have a listen!