Olympia All-Ages Project has a new space

By Molly Gilmore on April 12, 2012

IT'S OPENING DURING OLYMPIA ART WALK >>>

After eight months without a space to call its own, the Olympia All-Ages Project has a new space for concerts, art shows and more.

"We're going to be opening there on Arts Walk," said Mariella Luz, who spearheads the All-Ages Project. There'll be a group show of prints for Arts Walk on April 27 and 28, and a concert by the Hive Dwellers and the Cavities.

The new space is a former machine shop at 414 1/2 Legion Way, near Planned Parenthood. "It's kind of hard to find right now," says Luz.

The space is about the same size as the project's former home at 321 Fourth Ave. E. "The old space was technically a bit bigger," Luz says, "but it had so many weird cubbyholes and storage spaces that we couldn't use that I think that the show space and the gallery space in the new space will feel bigger, even though it's not."

There is more dedicated gallery space in the new building, she tells me. Gallery hours have yet to be decided.

There will also be more events centered around filmmaking and animation, thanks to Devon Damonte. Damonte hosted a monthly workshop and film screening at the former location and brought in other filmmakers for screenings. He will have his own dedicated workshop in the new space.

It didn't take long to find the new spot, Luz says, but it took all this time for the current owner to get the space ready for music and art. When the former owner sold the machine shop, he left decades of detritus behind.

"There was all kinds of weird stuff in there," Luz says, "like phone books from the '60s, rocks, candles, empty coffee cups and all kinds of metal parts and machinery."

[Olympia All-Ages Project, Saturday, April 28, 8 p.m., $5, The Hive Dwellers and The Cavities, 414 1/2 Legion Way, Olympia, northernolympia.org]