Seattle's Artistic Renaissance: Nordo's Journey Towards a New Creative Hub

Nordo co-Artistic Directors Terry Podgorski (writer) and Erin Brindley.

The search is on for a permanent venue!

Nordo is looking for a new home, a new production house to continue the storytelling that has been the central focus of the company: to be a unique brand of world building and sensory engagement that provides escapism and joy and wonder. That’s the hope. The task of finding this new home is daunting, and the possibilities endless.

To be honest, there are not many facilities in Seattle that are suitable for what we are talking about. We want a place for Nordo to stretch its wings, but where we can also partner with other experiental artistic businesses to create a destination for Seattleites. The facility will be a rare gem that checks all the boxes; we will know it when we see it.

People ask, “How’s it going? Has anything happened yet? What are you doing?” And the answer is, learning. There’s so much to learn when you want to take over the world. Or even just little old Seattle.

The REAL World

There’s learning commercial real estate, permits, zoning, development, investment strategies, purchasing strategies, and on top of all that learning is the art itself. What exactly does this new Nordo want to be? What kind of clothes does it want to wear? What does it imbibe? What stories does it want to tell?

At least we know how to do the latter. It happens through exercising the imagination, and dreaming, and conversing with collaborators. All that other stuff needs to be learned. And how does one learn? Through meetings.

Many meetings. There have been meetings with commercial real estate brokers, real estate investors, representatives from the office of economic development, the heads of local business improvement agencies, and fundraising professionals. Meetings are how relationships are made and relationships are the only way a dream like this could come to be. Also, through meetings you learn what is going on in Seattle. I don’t know about you but I find it difficult to hear what is really going on in our city. Where is the next art show? The next big event? The next big move that will change the city?

In these meetings I have learned of some important and very cool enterprises…

The Watershed Community Development

Born out of Equinox Studios begun in 2006 in Georgetown with the intent of providing affordable living and work space for artists this organization, the Watershed Community Development will take these ideas to the next level and change the fabric of the city. Over 4 city blocks of property along the 4thAve corridor in Georgetown will be developed into affordable live/work space over the next seven years bringing 1000 units online as well as providing shop and retail space for those artists.

I first heard of it during an initial conversation with Sam Farrazaino, the founder of Equinox, and the sparks of imagination immediately began to fly.

Imagine a hub of live/work space and in the same neighborhood an artist run hub of entertainment hiring those resources. It’s an exciting prospect. The Watershed group hopes to break ground this year, and the first building will not be completed until late 2025 at the earliest, so it’s a long-term project, but the final product will completely alter that part of the city and solidify a strong artistic community in Seattle for decades.

Perhaps Nordo will be a part of it.

Seattle Restored

This project, created years ago and curated by Nordo favorite Matt Richter, attempts to fill vacant storefronts with temporary art projects. It beautifies an area while bringing traffic and vibrancy, and giving artists the incredibly valuable asset of space.

Storefronts in Belltown, the Central Business District, Pioneer Square, and the International District have been embellished. Many of the projects are art galleries, but there are also retail stores of locally handcrafted goods and a couple of performance spaces including one inhabited by long time friends of Nordo, Degenerate Art Ensemble.

The DAE have yet to produce any live performances in their space, but they undoubtedly will and when they do we will be there.

COVID  hit the downtown corridor hard with vacancies, and no one sees this trend reversing quickly, so let’s turn it over to bright and creative stars who will happily fill the spaces with imagination and give all of us unique and entertaining things to do again.

The mayor is expected to announce a larger, stronger, more streamlined version of this project this summer, and hopefully there will be funding attached. Cross your fingers Seattle makes this concerted effort to fill our downtown with imagination and life.

This project may not lead to a long-term home for Nordo, but pay attention, because a pop-up Nordo performance may materialize amongst the desks of a vacant office floor or in the cavernous vaults of a bank. One never knows…

The Seattle Restored storefronts in the Downtown Corridor.

Location, location, location…

And finally, for those of you still reading, beyond meetings, we learn through site visitations. Many commercial buildings have been visited, and each time we learn more about what is available, but also what the needs for our dream project are.

Jackson and 26th?

16th Avenue in White Center?

Nordo in Ballard?

Nordo further south on 1st Avenue?

We have visited sites in SODO, White Center, Georgetown, and Ballard. Each neighborhood provides a different atmosphere for the business. As you walk down the sidewalk you ask, “What would it be like to be here?” In fact, every site visited conjures new visions of what could be.

The facility and its environs are a uniquely shaped vessel that will alter the contents that are poured into it. Here is where the possibilities can be daunting. Imagine our sign hovering over each of the facades. Each one is a new world.

What do you see?  

From the desk of co-Artistic Director Terry Podgorski