Grand SLAM

Soap Lake Art Museum taps into Basin's artistic side

SOAP LAKE — Brent Blake pauses on the steps of his building and indicates the signs on the glass panel of the door.

There's a lot going on there, he says before entering.

Indeed. The building, located at 410 E. Main St., houses the Venue Magazine, is headquarters for the Soap Lake Giant Lava Lamp Project, Inc. and became the site for the Soap Lake Art Museum, or SLAM, Feb. 25.

The museum, owned and curated by Blake and Melea Johnson has a priority to promote all arts and to "aggressively promote artists," Johnson said. That's all artists, even though the museum is looking to showcase contemporary artists' recent works from around the area.

For this month, Blake's work has been on the walls. Johnson's work will be displayed next, beginning with an event March 25 at 7 p.m.

"After that, we're going to have other artists every month, and have a little party on the last Friday every month," Blake said, noting that the first party held more than 100 people. While there are people doing the work in the area, Blake said, the gallery would also like to give people in the Basin exposure to outside artists.

The gallery can show about 15 larger pieces, and has space to show smaller works as well.

"What we do with other things here is not going to be disruptive to the effort to have a gallery at the same time," Blake assured, noting that the bulk of people will show up at the artists' receptions. Following that, people should make an appointment to come in and see those items on display.

"The whole goal is to have a separate type of venue for contemporary art, and allow the contemporary artists in the area that sometimes will take their works outside the area because there's not a real solid understanding of what contemporary art is in this area," Johnson said. The gallery will allow for education about contemporary art, as well as provide a potential venue for artists to show and sell their creations as well, she added.

Blake said SLAM is excited about having a relationship with the Moses Lake Art Center, and the possibility of sharing shows and displays. SLAM is also working with the Pitcairn Scott Gallery in Seattle, to allow residents of that area to keep abreast of what's going on in the Basin, Johnson said.

Blake and Johnson said they have been looking to open a gallery for almost two years.

"We'd been searching and looking around for the perfect place to have a gallery," Johnson said. "It was one evening that we looked around and realized that we were sitting in one. We just simply needed to move some things out and utilize the space that was already developed."

In fact, Johnson continued, there were many hints that the space might be well-suited for art gallery purposes.

"Because of the traffic on this road and our big open windows, tourists would drive by and stop because they could see all of this artwork that was our own personal paintings," she said. The passers-by would ask what the building was and try to figure out if it was a gallery. "Once that happened multitudes of times, we decided that we have a very good location."

Blake said that any time there's a storefront with something happening in it, that's all the better for the public and for the city of Soap Lake.

"It's a cultural contribution to the community and the region," he said. "That's really important to have happen, and everybody's very excited about that. There's a tremendous interest in revitalization … of the whole area, and so having a gallery, a boutique or having any business is wonderful."

Johnson and Blake also credited the Art Guild of Soap Lake with helping the Soap Lake community come into its own as an artist community.

The reception for Johnson's show will take place March 25 at 7 p.m. The reception will also include a preview of the next artist.

Artists interested in showing their work at the galley should contact SLAM.

"They should simply express an interest in having a show and then (give) us examples of their work," Blake said. "We would make an evaluation and determine the calendar, the schedule and that sort of thing. We encourage people to do that. There's a lot of artists that would fit in what we're trying to do here, but we don't know about all of them — who we are and where they are."