Sometimes the best galleries are not in big fancy buildings downtown, but tucked away into awesome little spaces. This is exactly the case with Proctor Art Gallery, located right in the Proctor District in North Tacoma. Started by owner Carolyn Burt in January 2009, this gallery has an amazing variety of art ranging from folk art to high-brow Impressionist works. October brings the regional Arts Crush events, and Burt's gallery is jumping into the action with an array of its own events throughout the month.

Better yet, Proctor Art Gallery is located just a couple blocks from the Metropolitan Market, meaning plenty of cheese samples are available to complete your day. (A small-yet-delicious square of Beemster gouda completes my day, anyway.)

Proctor Art Gallery currently features 17 local artists. "We've got a wide variety of styles and mediums," says Burt. "Every first Tuesday of the month, we take everything down, rearrange it and put everything back up again."

And, yes, this means they have all new artwork from their artists each month. All of the artists here are on one-year contracts and agree to bring in new art on a monthly basis. All artists also agree to man the desk at the gallery for a couple days each month, which means you can bring your toothpick cheese kebab and play artistic 20 questions if that floats your boat. The art here is diverse - amazingly diverse for a relatively small space. New artists are chosen first for quality, but also to help complete the diversity in the gallery. Expect to see woodworking, bronze sculpture, pottery, fused glass, an array of painting styles, jewelry and Ukrainian eggs - an art form in which an actual eggshell is painted with an amazingly intricate design. If you need a touchstone to ponder whether the chicken or the egg came first, I highly recommend one of these. They'll rock your world.

Burt herself does pen and ink artwork that integrates Escher-like patterns; she also paints.

"I'm retired. I'm in it because I love art. I wanted to show my art and make a place where other people can show their art. We really made it where there's something for everyone when they walk in the door," says Burt. "People are still discovering us."

Proctor Art Gallery is all kinds of involved with Proctor events, but for the month of October, it will be taking part in Arts Crush. Arts Crush is a month-long event designed to mix up the arts - combining them and re-combining them like a herd of eager singles at a speed-dating convention. The event takes place at venues up and down the Puget Sound region and focuses on different types of art each week of the month. Week one is visual art; week two combines books and music; week three takes on theater; and week four focuses on dance.

However, Burt specifies, "We just can't do dance here!" So don't expect to see any cavorting conga lines among the fused glass or Ukrainian eggs.

Arts Crush events at the gallery will include an assortment of Saturday fun.

Oct. 9 will bring demonstrations on both Ukrainian eggs and Raku pottery - a very cool style of ceramic work involving combustibles and smoke.

Oct. 16 features an art show in combination with an organ concert at the nearby Mason United Methodist Church (2710 N. Madison St.). The lobby of the church will have an art show from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and at 7:30 p.m. the organ performance will start. From 4-7 p.m., there will also be an art show and refreshments at the gallery.

Oct. 21 allows the visitors to be art critics. All artists in the gallery will produce work centered on a theme of "Pink Poppies." Visitors will decide the criteria for the best piece of art. At the same time, local classical guitarist Jasper Tollefson will perform and refreshments will be available.

Oct. 27 combines reading aloud, poetry and the gallery with local poet Carmen Sterba and other authors. From 6-7 p.m., sit back, relax and enjoy the haiku (literally, I'm not just being cheeky there), as well as coffee and cookies.

If you can't make it to the gallery for one of these events, the gallery is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Arts Crush

Proctor Art Gallery, 3811 N 26th St., Tacoma
253.759.4238

LINK: Arts Crush 2010 events