A public place for fine art on Occidental Square.
The Occidental Fine Arts Center is a gallery, a house of studios, and a workshop floor in Pioneer Square. People come here to stand in front of ambitious work. Artists come here to make it.
The Conru Art Foundation funds the building and the teaching as an experiment in philanthropy: can one city block give the public real art experiences, and give working artists the room to raise their craft?
We are trying to breathe more life into Occidental Square. Street-level exhibitions, free and subsidized workshops, and programs that treat fine art as something Seattle can share, not something reserved for a ticketed few.
The standard
Everyone who walks through the door walks in over those three words. They are one measure for the work, not four separate campaigns.
Beauty is what you recognize before you can explain it. It asks you to become a little more careful, a little more awake.
Truth is human experience, honestly seen. Not slogans. Not a pose. The real stuff of a life.
Love is why the work is made: so the person looking at it can feel what we have in common, and why the hard parts of life are still worth it.
Great work is not made in isolation. It needs time, teachers, neighbors, and a reason. The studios upstairs, the gallery at street level, and the workshops on the floor are one community in one building. We have been filming that process for a documentary next year, so the public can see what it takes.
