On 11th Ave between Pike and Pine, a new chapter of art and creation with a familiar cast of characters has opened. Eleven : Eleven represents the culmination of years of work by Blue Cone Studios and Forever Safe Spaces: a presentation gallery that its creators say gives the community a venue to showcase art without the limits that have blocked and separated artists in the past.

For Carolyn Hitt, founder of Blue Cone Studios, the need for a space like this on Capitol Hill has been clear for a decade.

“I’ve always known that we needed a presentation space. I’ve always known that we needed to make this little campus of autonomous art studios and artists’ work,” Hitt explains. “We’ve had three incubation spaces, and finally, we have a presentation space.”

The timing felt serendipitous. Hitt recalls discussing the possibility of opening a venue with Julie C, a co-founder and organizer for 11th Ave’s On The Block weekend art and market series, just weeks before the space became available. “Julie and I, prior to us realizing that this was available, and then having the audacity to think that we could do it… we were like, you know what? When it’s our turn, it’s gonna be right.”

What makes Eleven : Eleven important isn’t just that it’s a gallery, Seattle has those, it’s that it is designed to be genuinely accessible. The founders chose to create an all-ages venue in the middle of Pike/Pine, not a bar relying on alcohol sales.

“To have a space that is not a bar, to be able to offer the community all ages venue that it so very much deserves,” Hitt says, adding with conviction: “I say, You lack imagination, because I’m pretty sure we were gonna sort this out.”

Japera Burres, a ceramicist and artist in residence, emphasizes the space’s commitment to accessibility beyond just physical access.

“I don’t give a shit about money, honestly. And the fact that that is the barrier to like, creativity or like involving yourself in community is just like, that doesn’t need to happen,” Burres says.

CHS reported here earlier this year on the project taking over the former nightclub backed by the group of artists and business owners who have fostered the On the Block series of 11th Ave street fairs led by Hitt, artist and organizer Julie Chang Schulman, Rialto “Rio” Estolas of nearby Throwbacks Northwest, and Diana Adams whose Vermillion art bar has a new neighbor in the all-ages venue.

Its opening comes more than a year after all-ages music venue Cafe Racer folded its physical location on the street after a few years of struggle under “rising fixed expenses and sluggish post pandemic revenue growth.”

While “secret” underground performances spaces will seemingly always have their place on Capitol Hill, the neighborhood hasn’t had a legit all-ages venue since Cafe Racer shuttered. On 15th Ave E, the someday-to-be-demolished Quality Flea Center has also doubled as an under-the-radar performance space. The street’s new home for LOVECITYLOVE is also an open arts space.

With a name that can be a reference to synchronicity and manifestation, Eleven : Eleven doesn’t exist in isolation. It is part of a broader network through the area that includes Blue Cone Studios (a 10-year-old arts space up some rickety stairs), The Study at Cry Baby Studios and So Below Photo and Design, founded in 2020, all operating on a “pay as you can” model with programming led by community members.

Jac Smith, who started as an intern at Blue Cone and is now helping lead the expanded effort, describes the impact.

“I’ve learned so many skills here, but it’s because I made it happen here,” Smith said. “I got the opportunity. The creative workforce outside of 11th Avenue isn’t the same in other spots in Seattle, it can be. There can be barriers, financial, mostly, or capacity.”

The spaces currently serve around 50 resident artists who use the facilities regularly, with many more having access throughout the creative ecosystem.

For Hitt, opening these spaces stems from a deeper conviction about creativity’s role in society. She challenges the hierarchy that values STEM fields over the arts, even though creativity underlies all fields:

“Every single one of those [professions like doctors and scientists] requires an artist and creativity to explain how to do your fucking job… The videos that you have to watch to be a fucking doctor, who made those?” She continues: “We’re the delivery system for every bit of information that exists on the planet.”

The cost of art supplies has been a particular focus. Hitt describes starting Blue Cone partly by sharing her own unused supplies: “Art is very expensive to try… The reality is, is that good supplies make good art, and most people who don’t have access to that, have to spend a lot of years to get to access to them.”

What’s perhaps most striking about the operation is that most of the team works as volunteers. Burres articulates the philosophy: “It’s not about the money here… People want to be here. They want this kind of space, the experience… It’s community first.”

The team, of course, knows that sustainable support for the space requires funding. As Burres notes, “That would, like, make it even more great than [it is] to have funding so that we could pay the people who have put so much work into this space.”

You can support the effort with the $11.11 membership drive.

Those behind the effort say they hope opening of Eleven : Eleven is part of shifts from private creation to public engagement. Julie C, a co-founder involved in the Seattle Artist Coalition for Equitable Development, frames it as part of a larger mission: transforming how creative labor is valued in society.

The space offers what the broader gallery world often lacks, an accessible entry point for artists and the public alike. With windows onto the street and a commitment to free or low-cost community engagement, it is hoped to challenge the assumption that serious art spaces must be exclusive or expensive.

For residents and community members, Eleven : Eleven represents validation that another way is possible. As one resident artist, Lady P, simply put it, “Everything that On The Block is doing has literally saved my life. Like, if it wasn’t for these spaces and me being able to do my artistry in these spaces, I don’t know where I would be.”

Eleven : Eleven stands as proof that you don’t need traditional gatekeepers, significant individual wealth, or compromises with commercial interests to create thriving artistic spaces. In Seattle’s increasingly expensive landscape, it’s a rare offering: a place designed by artists, for artists, and for a community that deserves access to creativity.

You can find Eleven : Eleven at 1512 11th Ave. Learn more at elevenelevenontheblock.com.

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