List of Special Projects

Current Special Projects

TRANSFORM: Theater District Culture & Transportation Plan

August 2017 – September 2018 / www.tacomatheaterdistrict.com

Spaceworks Tacoma, with the support of the City of Tacoma, is hosting a series of outreach and activation events to engage the public in the development of a theater district culture and transportation plan. TRANSFORM is a community engagement project with a series of artistic and community events organized by Spaceworks Tacoma. The project, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, aims to raise awareness of Tacoma’s Theater District and to highlight opportunities for creative use of public spaces within its footprint. Pierce TransitCity of Tacoma, and Broadway Center for Performing Arts are developing a plan to redesign the transportation and cultural hub that is framed by 9th and 11th streets, Broadway and Pacific Ave.

Learn more about TRANSFORM plan, new developments, and community events at www.tacomatheaterdistrict.com

Spaceworks Tacoma

Past Special Projects

Spaceworks Interactive Pride Art Project with Saiyare Refaei
Saiyare Refaei

Spaceworks partnered with Tacoma Rainbow Center and Artscapes 2017 artist Saiyare Refaei to create a fun, visual art project for the whole community to participate. 

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War Experience Project
Rick Lawson

Iraq veteran and artist Rick Lawson conceived this project to help military service members dealing with memories of war.

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Barefoot Collective: Dance
Barefoot Collective

The Barefoot Collective (tBFC) is a local dance company who, since 2008, have earned praise for their original, contemporary works of power and passion.

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Personal Power Company
Kris Crews

The Personal Power Company was a multimedia production company and think tank designed around the idea that creativity is a sustainable resource.

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Dakota’s Belly, Wyoming
Toy Boat Theatre

Theater pros Marilyn Bennett, Jen Davis and Alex Smith joined forces with the University of Puget Sound to develop Dakota’s Belly, Wyoming, a play by Erin Cressida Wilson, in this performance space on Tacoma’s Hilltop.

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Live Paint Theatre Workshop
Cindy Arnold

Live Paint offered theater workshops for adults every Sat., 1-3pm, free of charge at her MLK Way space. Arnold promises a relaxed environment for actors wanting to read for an audience or to perform improv, dancers looking to bounce around ideas, and writers seeking feedback on scripts in progress.  

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Jason Ganwich Photography
Jason Ganwich

Jason Ganwich is a local photographer and videographer with an established photography business, specializing in corporate events, weddings, fundraisers, and editorial shoots.

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Local Color Photography Studio
Abby Kok

Local Color Photography is a mixture of creative art photography as well as local client-driven work such as product and model photography.

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Entertain U
Aaron Flett 

Competing Christian bookstores fight for the soul of a town (that looks suspiciously like Tacoma ) in the Entertain U satire, Jesus 4 Less.

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Joshua Everson Photography
Joshua Everson

For Spaceworks, photographer Joshua Everson is taking “dynamic portraits” of Tacomans on location and assembling them in the window of his downtown studio over two months’ time.

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Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Theater Company
Kristie Worthey 

This traveling troupe of performers aspired, through the magic of imagination and innovation, to inspire and excite audiences of all ages to engage with the works of William Shakespeare.

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Semi-Automatic
Michael Kaniecki

Michael is using his space to create a very long drawing in shades of gray. His work will be in the window as it progresses and you can often see the artist at work.

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Maggie D Studios
Meghan Lancaster

Watch how a site-specific work of art comes into being as fiber and textile artist Meghan Lancaster works in her “fishbowl studio” on Broadway.

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Schnelluloid Film, Inc.
Isaac Olsen

Filmmaker Isaac Olsen’s full-length feature, Quiet Shoes, made its world premiere at the Rialto Theater in June.

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4th Wall Theater
Bob Yount

When local actor/director Bob Yount crafted the idea for an upcoming Spaceworks Tacoma project, 4th Wall Theater, he energized the grand idea of theater as a social act. 4th Wall Theater was conceived for fans of the stage who may be unable or unwilling to travel distances to theater events.

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Landscapes Painter
Saul Becker

“Travel and expeditions have become very important in my work, and it’s always tricky to talk about what that means specifically,” says Saul Becker. The geography of Becker’s painting ranges from hellish, primordial landscapes to the slag-littered Ruston waterfront. 

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Painters
Chris Sharp and Jeremy Gregory

Two of T-town’s most accomplished artists, Chris Sharp and Jeremy Gregory, are setting to work on Broadway.

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The Coma Collective / Music Collective
The Coma Collective

The Coma Collective pulls together several young, local bands into one space to practice, record, and produce their work in a collaborative way. Resident bands include Red Hex, Slushy, and Makeup Monsters.

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James Grayson Sinding’s letters on Tollefson Plaza
James Grayson Sinding

James Sinding’s word-based installations jubilantly proclaim the durability (at least in physical terms) of the written word.

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Goldfinch
Goldfinch

Goldfinch is looking for a space to record a new record. It has been four years since our last full-length record was released and we have a lot of new material that we’d like to get out to our friends, family and fans,” declares lead singer, Aaron Stevens.

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The Dancescapes Project
Dana Livermore

The Dancescapes Project, in partnership with Spaceworks Tacoma and The Barefoot Collective, invited dance teachers and professionals to submit class and work proposals for their free community dance workshop, which took place in downtown Tacoma in August 2012.

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WHEW!
Scott Scoggin

WHEW! A one night only pop up gallery in the Old Post Office. Scott’s posters will remain on display in the lobby through December 19th, 2013

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Culture Looming
Priscilla Dobbler

2013 Artscapes participant Priscilla Dobbler invited passersby into her Woolworth window #1 installation Culture Looming, for a special five-night performance.

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Working Class Theater Northwest
Christina Hughes

Working Class Theater NW (WCTNW) had a one-month residency in The Post Office Building, on the 4th floor courtroom in November 2013. WCTNW was founded in 2013 by Christina Hughes and Tim Samland.

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Kristin Giordano / Photography Studio
Kristin Giordano

Kristin Giordano is a photographer based in the US. She works mainly with antique and experimental cameras.

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Tim + April Pop Up Shop
Tim and April Norris

Artistic duo Tim and April Norris’ one night only Tim + April Pop-Up Shop was part of Spaceworks’ REVIVE Collective grand opening on December 18. 

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Whitney Henry-Lester / Destiny and Grit Podcast
Destiny & Grit

Destiny & Grit is an audio series exploring the highs & lows and whys & hows and hot & colds and streets & trails of Tacoma, WA. 

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SOTA / Organism-X
SOTA

For the April Third Thursday Art Walk at 1120 Creative House, the School of the Arts (SOTA) presented Organism-X, a series of 8 intricate drawings based upon a project given in Biology classes.

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China Lake Juxto – Installation View
Matthew Olds

In this one-night-exhibit, artist Matthew Olds utilized a vast cavernous interior office space that had been sitting vacant for years. 

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Links to Opportunity – Hilltop Engagement Projects
Spaceworks Tacoma

Spaceworks Tacoma, working with the City of Tacoma, contracted community engagement specialists to engage Hilltop neighbors through pop-up outreach events. (more…)

Destiny of Pride – Community Mural
Matamatononofo Porter

Destiny of Pride echoes the theme of 2018’s Tacoma Pride Festival. Matamatanonofo designed a temporary mural made up of different people, of a variety of cultures and sexes collated into a single face.  Spaceworks invited the community to participate in this art wall installed at the festival for one day only. Visitors used paint markers to add their own art and messages. Over 450 people participated.

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TRANSFORM: Theater District Culture & Transportation Plan
Spaceworks Tacoma

TRANSFORM is a community engagement project, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, that aims to raise awareness of Tacoma’s Theater District and to highlight opportunities for creative use of public spaces within its footprint. Pierce Transit, City of Tacoma, and Tacoma Arts Live are developing a plan to redesign the transportation and cultural hub that is framed by 9th and 11th streets, Broadway and Pacific Ave.

Project Intent & Vision

The Theater District Placemaking project presents an enormous opportunity to strengthen one of Tacoma’s oldest neighborhoods. The Project Partners (Pierce Transit, the City of Tacoma, and Tacoma Arts Live) share a vision for a more robust and active downtown: a place where arts, cultural and civic events are available to residents, workers and visitors. This planning project builds on the neighborhood’s existing assets and identifies potential synergies between them. The plan also identifies new opportunities to create a stronger sense of place.

Public Space Framework

The Tacoma Theater District is approximately 16 blocks in area, bounded on the south by 11th Street and the north by 7th Street. In the east-west direction, the District rises steeply from Pacific Avenue up the hill to Market Street. It includes multiple performing arts venues, beautiful historic buildings such as Old City Hall and the Pantages Theater, Broadway and the well-attended weekly Farmer’s Market, and Commerce Street, a regional transportation corridor for buses and light rail. This plan includes a public space framework that encompasses this entire area, with a wide range of ideas aimed at making the district feel more active and vibrant, improving access on nights and weekends, making it easier to get around, improving the sense of safety, providing amenities, events and programming for all ages, and supporting the people and businesses who are already here.

Click here to view the entire plan
(43 page PDF)

The following images were taken during numerous Transform community engagement events that took place in 2018 and 2019 throughout Tacoma’s theater district. The events were free to the public, featured local performers, and offered education about the Transform project with opportunities for public input.   

Featured Events 

Center for Lost and Found
Gabe Nordlund & Colin Andersen

The Center for the Lost and Found is a place to share stories of lost or found objects and spread them into the community. Come create your very own lost or found poster and the CLF artists will post them around town, to foster remembrance for those things we miss and are grateful for. (more…)

Artistic License Department
Gillian Nordlund

The Artistic License Dept. exists as a service to the public. Inspired by an obvious play on words its intentions are to encourage and support participants’ creativity and imagination.

In this performance, participants take a simple test based on fundamental aspects of art making as well as their own opinions. They are then issued an art making “license” upon completion of the test. (more…)

One Night Exhibition
Katlyn Hubner

A one-night show of over 40 paintings by Katlyn Hubner during the June 2015 Third Thursday Art Walk at the 1120 Pacific Ave Building. (more…)