Published: Friday, November 19, 2010
Work continues on heart of Everett art center
By spring, work should be complete on the Schack Art Center’s glass studio and gallery in Everett.
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Mark Mulligan / The Herald
Eric Shelby of Right Way Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning cuts supports for the heating and ventilation system inside the new Schack Art Center at the ArtSpace building on Hoyt Avenue in Everett on Thursday.
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Mark Mulligan / The Herald
Schack Art Center Executive Director Judy Touhy stands inside what will be a “hot shop” for working with glass inside the new art center under construction at the ArtSpace building on Hoyt Avenue in Everett on Wednesday evening.
EVERETT — By springtime next year, folks can take an art class, watch a glassblower or shop at a gallery — all in one spot downtown.
The Schack Art Center is on track to open this spring on the ground floor of the Artspace Everett Lofts at the 2900 block of Hoyt Avenue, next door to the Monte Cristo Hotel.
When it’s complete, Everett will have its own regional arts center. The people behind it expect it to draw more foot traffic to that part of the city.
“Our goal is to have action happening all the time,” said Judy Tuohy, executive director of the Arts Council of Snohomish County.
Artists started moving into live-work lofts in the top three stories of the 80,000-square-foot building last spring.
Crews are now working on the ground floor, which is still largely a hallowed-out shell with a skeleton of steel studs.
The center should become one of the best public spaces available to glass artists in the Northwest: a place with furnaces for glass blowing; a warm shop with kilns and torches for slumping and fusing glass; and a cold shop for grinding, cutting and polishing it.
The public should be able to watch much of it.
The space will remain largely utilitarian and open. By spring, visitors will be able to walk in and view artists working with globs of hot glass from behind a window. They’ll also find a gallery shop and an exhibit space featuring regional art.
Classrooms for workshops can be converted into an open space with a catered kitchen that can be rented.
A mezzanine area eventually will hold Arts Council offices and a gathering space, maybe a coffee shop, where visitors can look out over some of the production areas.
That part of the project won’t be finished by spring, Tuohy said.
The $6.4 million center was named for philanthropists Idamae Schack and her late husband, John.
The Arts Council raised all but $400,000 for this phase of the project, she said. The money came from grants, including a recent $400,000 gift from the Kresge Foundation, and hundreds of donations from local companies and people.
The Arts Council will own and run the center. The top part of the building is operated by Artspace, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit arts community developer.
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.
The Schack Art Center is on track to open this spring on the ground floor of the Artspace Everett Lofts at the 2900 block of Hoyt Avenue, next door to the Monte Cristo Hotel.
When it’s complete, Everett will have its own regional arts center. The people behind it expect it to draw more foot traffic to that part of the city.
“Our goal is to have action happening all the time,” said Judy Tuohy, executive director of the Arts Council of Snohomish County.
Artists started moving into live-work lofts in the top three stories of the 80,000-square-foot building last spring.
Crews are now working on the ground floor, which is still largely a hallowed-out shell with a skeleton of steel studs.
The center should become one of the best public spaces available to glass artists in the Northwest: a place with furnaces for glass blowing; a warm shop with kilns and torches for slumping and fusing glass; and a cold shop for grinding, cutting and polishing it.
The public should be able to watch much of it.
The space will remain largely utilitarian and open. By spring, visitors will be able to walk in and view artists working with globs of hot glass from behind a window. They’ll also find a gallery shop and an exhibit space featuring regional art.
Classrooms for workshops can be converted into an open space with a catered kitchen that can be rented.
A mezzanine area eventually will hold Arts Council offices and a gathering space, maybe a coffee shop, where visitors can look out over some of the production areas.
That part of the project won’t be finished by spring, Tuohy said.
The $6.4 million center was named for philanthropists Idamae Schack and her late husband, John.
The Arts Council raised all but $400,000 for this phase of the project, she said. The money came from grants, including a recent $400,000 gift from the Kresge Foundation, and hundreds of donations from local companies and people.
The Arts Council will own and run the center. The top part of the building is operated by Artspace, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit arts community developer.
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.
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