Yet another example of our city being horribly bad at promoting the arts. One of the major changes over the last 20 years that depresses me most. There just aren't enough affordable spaces for artists and galleries, and the tech-bro culture that has sprung up seems to have little time nor interest for visual art in particular.

That said, if her gallery wasn't in Georgetown, it might have done better. That isn't the right neighborhood to showcase this work. Also, the gallery's advertising (or lack thereof) and internet presence was pathetic. So I don't think that its failure should all be blamed on the things that she is blaming. And her sour grapes attitude really doesn't make me want to go to this last show, either.

Visual arts and artists just can't win in Seattle currently. It sucks.

“I feel like Seattle isn’t and hasn’t been ready for me and my work.”

...while I feel like you’re blaming others for your gallery’s failure.

Yawn

I would have liked to have visited a weird gallery in Georgetown, but I had no idea there was one there. Looking at the frontage in Google Maps, it's in an unlabelled, undecorated space between Via Tribunali and Hitchcock Deli. I must have been by there a hundred times and never knew it was anything that was open to the public. shrug

thanks for the scolding.

if anyone, blame yourself for not getting the word out broadly enough - you're the one with a byline.

I have lived here since 2005 and still find it odd that the rhetoric surrounding the arts in Seattle does not even remotely resemble the experience. I give private music lessons and very often my transplant students moved here because they bought into the rhetoric, usually in online forums. Most figure out the disparity quickly and either move or change focus. There is a deep culture of denial here about the fact that audiences for digesting art are growing smaller. Despite the rhetoric. Most artists are fighting over a few crumbs and people engage in protectionist tactics while telling you they are progressive. It seems like a complete lack of self awareness at times relative to other places I have lived. I think we need to hit rock bottom and face these truths before we can make it a more artist friendly city. I am fortunate enough to have a great partner and teaching business. I continue to live here for the health benefits as well as the amazing backdrop and all it offers (hiking biking, etc.)

I also find it difficult to explain to local artists who only know the PNW experience. Some of the comments above reflect that ignorance. My opinions were developed by experiences over time in 4 large cities and you can't give people those experiences, they have to live them.

Wow, multiple photos of a half-naked guy with a snake prancing above the atmosphere of a planet.

Maybe there’s just nothing to get.

Irregular hours, poor location and crap marketing -- she's lucky it lasted as long as it did...she should thank Bridge Productions for getting more people in the building they shared. But what really kills me are all these gallery owners who just can't believe they don't have lines of people out the door, queued up to buy well-north-of-$1000 works of art all about intersectional-gender-fluid-racial-struggle-body-image-whatevz. It may feel righteous as hell to put that up on the gallery walls and feel woke AF. But I wonder how many people relate to that stuff? There are galleries I never step foot in because every show is about "the struggle" and the gallery owners are almost all cracker-ass motherfuckers so fuck that. OK, fine - challenge me with some really great art that addresses this kind of thing (Kerry James Marshall, anyone?) but every now and then? Give me a goddamn Butterfield horse. Sheesh.

I'm sure pursuing an MFA in London will broaden her perspective /sarc. People do appreciate digital art but it's viewed and experience online through apps like Instagram and YouTube where there is 3D, graphic,video game concept art, Lo-Fi. And it's way easier to find. Have a show by a competent artist and technician and not someone who just grasped Photoshop and maybe people will be interested enough to see it in person.

Omaha hmmmm…. yeah right!

Well that sucks.... I like to think I'm on top of the scene, generally, but I managed to completely miss the place and looking at Interstitial's previous shows, I'm sorry I did (shorts clips of the video would be nice).

I wish Ms. Greenwood greener pastures in a place where this kind of work might garner more attention.

Ugh. Ms. Greenway, that is.

Interstitial was a poorly executed gallery with flimsy installations. Top tier galleries would survive in Seattle if and when they exist in Seattle.

Okay, so I'm not usually a snarky commenter, and I confess I don't live in Seattle, but jesus christ this woman seems insufferable. ("I feel like Seattle isn’t and hasn’t been ready for me and my work”) Yes, yes, your "work" is just so that important. I'm trying to imagine her on a lunch date.

And frankly, some of the writing in the article reads like a parody of pretensions:

"This type of work, and digital media itself, transcends borders and language barriers by utilizing sensory symbols and digi-manifestations to communicate deeply personal identity concepts."

"With the loss of technology and digi-art galleries such as Interstitial, Seattle runs the risk of becoming obsolete on the national scale; not to mention internationally."

So without this tech-art stuff, Seattle is "obsolete"? I assume that sentence should have ended with "in the art world" or "in the digi-art world"?

Also, this is odd, too:

"Greenway, in a recent conversation, pointed out that while she is the only gallery in Seattle focused on this specific medium,"

"She" is the only gallery? Shouldn't it be "hers"?

Best of luck to you in London, dearie. Fuck, I wish I had the money and time to afford both a Seattle area rent on an apartment, and a failing gallery space, and then to ditch it all and swan off to hyper expensive London, frowning all the way.

Yikes people. Pump the brakes a bit? Providing a public space for contemporary visual art is a shit-ton of work with few extrinsic benefits. I'm not reading the sense of entitlement the peanut gallery is focusing on here, just a sense of disappointment that something didn't work out.

@16 - You read what you read, but for many commenters here a prominent aspect of the article, beyond her disappointment, is a clear statement of what drives it -- and comes across as pretentious and off-putting. The gallery owners I know don't hate the people walking through their door, nor the ones who walk past it.

Alrighty then. This woman sounds obnoxious, the article is both poorly written and pretentious, and yeah, I don’t know that there’s an audience for that kind of art here. Oh well.

Seattle’s not the place you come to be a part of the “international conversation about XYZ”. It’s the place you come to do something different, where the buzz isn’t so loud you can’t hear your own voice anymore. I’m not convinced we need or want art galleries that would really play well in London. Go to New York if you want to sell out. That’s what it’s there for.

As far as what tech money likes, this is not a mystery. They like old computers, art about their industry, and outer space. But I love the constant push from the art world to tell these quirky nerdy old white dudes they should like and be interested in something else. It’s not gonna work, fools. Paul Allen gives no fucks if you think he’s a philistine. Jeff Bezos bought a f-ing mountain and turned it into an art installation. They are who they are. That might be the one likeable thing about them. Come on.

Pretentious and boring, both Seattle and this person.

Greenway has valid points here but comes off as less than sincere. I once sat behind her during a lecture and she talked, laughed, texted, and showed images and videos on her phone to her friends in the seats next to her as the presenters spoke. I introduced myself to her on multiple occasions and she never seemed to remember the previous meeting.

That being said...

I attended a good number of the shows at Interstitial, I found them engaging, progressive, and a great way to spend an afternoon in Georgetown.

Furthermore, to any of the commenters above complaining about not knowing about this place; You, and your lack of curiosity are part of the problem here. The existence and location of this place could very easily be found with a short internet search about galleries in Seattle.

All you pansy, higher than thou, know-it-all dim witted hypocrites that are too scared to use your real name when criticizing someone who worked their ass off; did you enjoy your kale smoothie as you threw you conscience and empathy to the wayside? Go trim your beard.

Warmth,
Joe Freeman