Food & Drink
Meet the Woman Curating Seattle’s Most Interesting Art Gallery
At Mount Analogue, Colleen Louise Barry takes a multifaceted look at Seattle arts
By Danielle Hayden August 18, 2018
This article originally appeared in the September 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print in the September 2018 issue. Read more from the Fall Arts Preview feature story here. Click here to subscribe.
“The things I wanted to see in this city either weren’t here or weren’t accessible to me,” says Colleen Louise Barry, an artist, poet and curator who moved to Seattle from Amherst, Massachusetts, in 2016. She opened Mount Analogue (Pioneer Square, 300 S Washington St.) just over a year ago in what was formerly the G. Gibson Gallery in Pioneer Square.
In that short amount of time, Mount Analogue—part of an arts collective in the space that includes indie publisher Cold Cube Press, Specialist, a contemporary art gallery and Gramma, a poetry press, for which Barry serves as editor—has evolved into a magnetic community arts center, bookshop and publishing studio that hosts monthly exhibits across disciplines and forms, sometimes even beyond gallery walls. That was the case with her late-spring exhibit, A Lone, a group show exploring the idea of connection and loneliness in our digitally fragmented world, which was installed on billboards and signposts across the city. It challenged the idea of what a traditional gallery does—or should do—while providing provocative context to explore the exhibition’s thesis.
Other recent shows have featured the poetry of Seattle civic poet Anastacia-Renée; a corporeal mime performance set against a papier-mâché set from musician Jess Joy, aka the Singing Mime; and a BDSM opera (with one $30 performance accompanied by a “whipping from your cast member of choice”).
“I wanted to create a space [where] you have this immersive experience with other people. It’s like when you go to a concert and everybody is singing this song, and you get that feeling like you’re high; I wanted to create that…I ask artists when they come into this space to really think about the experience of it and to really try and transform the space.”
Upcoming fall shows:
Designer, comic, musician and artist Aidan Fitzgerald, Content Aware, 9/6–9/30
Tattoo and performance artist MKNZ, self-titled, 10/4–10/28
Artist and illustrator Tara Booth, self-titled, 11/1–11/25
Painter Sara Long, Building a Body of Light, 12/6–12/30
Follow Us
Book Excerpt: Old White Man Writing
Seattle resident Joshua Gidding examines his own white privilege
In his book, Old White Man Writing, Seattle resident Joshua Gidding attempts to come to terms with his privilege. Gidding grapples with the rapidly changing cultural norms in 21st-century America while examining his own racial biases and prejudices. As Manhattan Book Review notes: “Old White Man Writing is an introspective deep dive into an eventful life…
Glacial Expressions
Local scientist and painter Jill Pelto spotlights climate change in a multi-artist show at Slip Gallery
The divide between the arts and sciences is long-fostered and well-documented. From elementary school onward, children are often singled out for their penchant for math or artistic ability and guided toward classes — and later careers — that align with their right or left brain tendencies. For Jill Pelto — a local climate scientist, painter,…
How Taproot Theatre Survived A Financial Crisis
Theatre is planning for its 50th birthday next year
Karen Lund vividly remembers that sinking feeling she had in the fall of 2023. That was when Lund, producing artistic director of Taproot Theatre Co., first realized that the financially strapped, midsized professional theatre in the Greenwood neighborhood might not survive. The theatre had already weathered the worst of the pandemic, but costs were mounting….
Humanities Washington Fights ‘Midnight’ Cuts
Nonprofit loses previously approved federal grants with little warning
The letter came without warning, like a slap in the face from an invisible hand. Humanities Washington CEO and Executive Director Julie Ziegler had already been talking with peers in other states, and she readied herself for the blow. The National Endowment for the Humanities (think DOGE) had terminated her nonprofit’s previously awarded federal grant…