<p>Walking through the historic Kerry Hall building on Capitol Hill this week felt like stepping inside the movie <em>Fame</em>. On a small first-floor stage, <em>folklórico </em>dancers twirled bright skirts in rhythm with traditional Mexican music. At the end of another hall, a jazz trio was in full swing. On the upper floors, a sitar group practiced classical Indian music, a solo singer/songwriter prepped for a set and a packed dance class practiced a graceful ballet adagio.</p>
<p>Every corner of the 1921 Spanish Revival building — former home of Cornish College of the Arts founder Nellie Cornish — felt newly alive with performance and potential.</p>
<p>It was all part of a well-choreographed press preview designed to show how the <strong>Seattle Theatre Group</strong> (STG, which also operates the Paramount, Moore and Neptune theaters) is utilizing the newest addition to its bouquet of historic arts spaces. </p>
<p>“Today we can feel what the building is intended to be,” said STG’s Marisol Sanchez Best during the walk-through. As music lilted through the halls, she exclaimed, “Do you feel it? I’m getting chills.” Her comment brought to my mind the decades of young artists who walked the same halls, from John Cage to Reggie Watts.</p>
<p>When Cornish College put the building up for sale in April, students, teachers and alumni <a href=”https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/cornish-college-of-the-arts-students-protest-sale-of-kerry-hall/”>protested the loss</a> of the original school site and longtime location of dance and music classes. But in what seems like a best-case scenario for rehearsal-space-strapped Seattle, STG purchased the building for $6 million just before Thanksgiving, and opened its doors in late November. </p>
<p>The locally based Jovino Santos Neto Trio practices at Kerry Hall. (Brangien Davis/Cascade PBS)</p>
<p>In opening remarks, STG chief operating officer Nate Dwyer noted that Kerry Hall is already “purpose-built” as a rehearsal and recital space, so rather than reconfiguring the facility, his organization can focus on “the awesome privilege to steward this building … for another generation.” </p>
<p>Sanchez Best said she’s especially thrilled that the additional space will allow STG to expand its community offerings to more people — such as the long-running AileyCamp dance program, which can now accommodate twice as many aspiring young students. </p>
<p>The nonprofit plans to invest $10 million into the space over the next three years, for needs from basic repairs to musical instruments to new sound systems. Rehearsal spaces of several sizes are now <a href=”https://www.stgpresents.org/stg-venues/kerry-hall/”>available for rent</a>, including dance rooms with barres and lovely arched windows and music studios with Space Needle views. </p>
<p>“We feel strongly about preserving cultural space,” said STG executive director Josh LaBelle. “Job one is carrying on the legacy that Cornish started many years ago.” </p>
<p>Related: In early December, Cornish College and Seattle University announced an “<a href=”https://www.seattleu.edu/newsroom/2024/seattle-university-and-cornish-college-announce-intent-to-join-institutions.php”>intent to join institutions</a>.” Under this plan, Cornish would retain its South Lake Union campus but operate as <strong>Cornish College of the Arts at Seattle University</strong>. Over the next months both private schools will be poring over the details, with hopes to finalize the arrangement in May.</p>
<p>The Grand Illusion Cinema will close its tiny but lush screening room at the end of January. (Grand Illusion)</p>
<strong>More Seattle arts space moves</strong>
<p><strong>Century Ballroom</strong>, beloved Capitol Hill home to countless tango, swing, hip-hop, Lindy-hop and other dance classes, announced it <a href=”https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2024/11/time-to-let-that-go-capitol-hills-century-ballroom-will-close-in-2025/”>will be closing in 2025</a>. Owner and founder Hallie Cooperman with partner Alison Cockrill said that after 28 years, they will not renew their lease in the historic Oddfellows Hall building. Closing date is TBD, but watch for one last anniversary bash in March. </p>
<p>Long-running pop-surrealist gallery <strong>Roq La Rue</strong> has closed its Madison Valley storefront and announced plans to reopen in Belltown — the neighborhood where owner Kirsten Anderson opened the gallery in 1998. Set to open in March, the new gallery will be housed in a 2,500-square-foot space in the Northwest Work Lofts near Olympic Sculpture Park.</p>
<p><strong>Fruitsuper</strong> — the supercool Pioneer Square gallery/wine bar/gift shop — announced that after doing some “soul searching” and “number crunching,” the storefront will close at the end of January.
In mid-December, <strong>TASWIRA Gallery</strong> reopened in a new Pioneer Square storefront (in the Delmar Building) with a show by Seattle painter Cristina Martinez (through Jan. 15).</p>
<p><strong>Cannonball Arts</strong>, the forthcoming gigantic arts space that will occupy Downtown’s former Bed, Bath & Beyond store, has posted several (paid!) <a href=”https://cannonballarts.com/”>open calls for artists</a>, including for intriguing creations such as functional “<a href=”https://cannonballarts.com/open-call/shelter-sculpture/”>shelter sculptures</a>,” <a href=”https://cannonballarts.com/open-call/mechanical-soft-form-sculpture/”>mechanical bull sculptures</a> and <a href=”https://cannonballarts.com/open-call/lobby-mural/”>enormous murals</a> (applications for these due Jan. 15; see website for other projects and deadlines).</p>
<p>And this is the <a href=”https://grandillusioncinema.org/moving/”>final month of screenings</a> (through Jan. 30) at the <strong>Grand Illusion Cinema</strong>, so catch a classic flick in the tiny but lush red-velvet room — perhaps <em>Cinema Paradiso</em>? <em>The Last Picture Show</em>? — before they move out in search of new U District digs.</p>
<p>“An Expansive Breath,” one of several seascapes in Steven Nederveen’s new show ‘Between Worlds.’ (Foster/White Gallery)</p>
<p>My first arts outing of 2025 was last week’s Pioneer Square Art Walk. One of the shows that caught my eye was Toronto artist <strong>Steven Nederveen</strong>’s <a href=”https://fosterwhite.com/collections/steven-nederveen”><em>Between Worlds</em></a> (through Jan. 25 at Foster/White Gallery). At that time I was drawn closer to these large-scale, ethereal seascapes in part to figure out how he achieved them. The works seemed both realistic and dreamlike — were they photographs or paintings?</p>
<p>Turns out they’re both. Nederveen begins by taking a photograph (so as to start with something grounded in reality, he says in <a href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puJmrOj5Dp8″>his recorded artist talk</a>), then adds a soft layer of paint to it — sometimes more, sometimes less, sometimes realistic, sometimes imagined. Guided by his meditation practice, Nederveen says he’s working to express both “the serene and the stormy” in natural environments, which often exist simultaneously.</p>
<p>As I’ve been following the horrific Los Angeles wildfires over the past two days, keeping in frequent touch with family and friends who have been evacuated, I’ve found myself returning to these coastal visions online — the cool water, the calm before the storm.</p>
<p><strong>Topics:</strong> <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/arts” hreflang=”en”>Arts</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/artsea” hreflang=”en”>ArtSEA</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/features” hreflang=”en”>Features</a>, <a href=”https://www.cascadepbs.org/things-do” hreflang=”en”>Things to do</a></p>
Source