Help Gallery Boom Transform to Boom Studios!

Hi!

I'm Christine, owner of Gallery Boom. We've been supporting the artistic community in the Olympia area for nearly 10 years. This has mainly taken the form of a retail art gallery. Since the shutdowns of 2020, retail has been a wild ride! People support our art & artists, they just don't always have the means to financially support them. Commercial retail renting has also taken its toll on morale. We have been in 3 different locations since March 2020. Typical leases now charge tenants costs that once were handled by the landlord and their large assets. I'm tired and need a reprieve from the daily rat race of brick & mortar retail.

Looking back on the past 4 years, I would like the focus of Gallery Boom to go back to the community of artists that nurtured this idea of having a space for local artists to share their talents. I see a need and a desire for people to gather. Art classes, art openings, community meet ups, craft shows, book clubs, quilting/scrapbooking/drawing/crafting/etc clubs and more. At our current location, Gallery Boom has been fostering successful Watercolor, Mixed Media and Palm Reading Classes. I would like to grow and expand on these successes.

In looking for a new direction for Boom to go, away from a physical store, a large older office space behind the new Vic's Pizza on the Eastside came to my attention. It's been empty for some time and has a private entrance, large naturally lit first floor meeting space with adjacent kitchen area and two large bathrooms, all ADA accessible. Plus, a parking lot, plenty of street parking and near bus routes. There are also 6 large offices/studios upstairs with big windows in each. Unfortunately, they are not ADA compliant. The studios above will be a good home to artists looking for a safe, quiet art home away from home, including myself who will also hold an office/studio/cozy spot upstairs.

Gallery Boom will live on in our online store, www.galleryboomshop.com. We will be focusing on small items, stickers, pins, patches, zines, jewelry, cards, etc. that we will be mailing out across the country and selling at Art Fairs & other events across the region. This website will also be the home of Boom Studios where you can sign up for both classes and to host classes in our new space.

This fundraiser is to help with our deposit, website apps to accommodate class calendars, fresh paint, carpet cleaning, appliances for the kitchen (refrigerator, coffee pot, tea kettle, microwave) and minor improvements/refresh of this 3000sqft locale from empty space to bustling art hub.

Thank you for your support now and over the years of Gallery Boom and our hundreds of local artists.

Here's to hundreds more!