Jul 26, 2010

The art of retail in downtown TacomaBy Kathleen CooperTheNewsTribune.com

Mix a desire for downtown retail with hard work, handmade products and free rent, and you get three boutiques opening this summer in an artistic, entrepreneurial experiment.

Through the Spaceworks Tacoma program, Jennifer Adams, Tiffanie Peters and Susan Thompson are putting out temporary shingles. Spaceworks is a joint venture between the City of Tacoma, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber and nonprofit arts support group Shunpike to use art to fill empty storefronts.

“A lot of communities have just done the static (art installations) because it’s easier. (Tacoma is) always trying to show how the arts are an economic engine,” said Amy McBride, the city’s arts administrator.

“Artists are entrepreneurs,” she said. “They’re small businesses, too.”

Downtown property owners signed up to donate empty retail space for three to six months of artistic use. The artists won’t pay rent, only utilities. To simplify the process for building owners, McBride said, Shunpike signed the leases and the artists sublease from it.

Shunpike, based in Seattle, is operating a similar program called Seattle Storefronts in the Pioneer Square neighborhood. It began earlier this year.

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