ZEE TAI Collective
918 Water St, Port Townsend, WA
The sign outside says “Come On In!” Light streams in the huge, uncluttered, sundrenched windows of what used to be the wildly successful ZEE TAI Chinese Mercantile started 1879. ZEE TAI has been translated as Greater Harmony and this suits the new life of the space perfectly. The paintings on the old brick walls are colorful, complex, and fresh. Mike Biskup and Brighid Grahan are inside painting, listening to music, enjoying interesting conversations together, and the whole scene from the sidewalk beckons visitors and locals to come inside and join in the experience.
ZEE TAI Collective is a new creative Studio/Gallery space at 918 Water St in downtown Port Townsend. The idea is a tried and true classic - The space is both a working artists studio and a gallery for selling the products of the same. Member artists staff the space while working on their craft. They get to know each others work in detail from a technical, emotional/intellectual, and spiritual perspective. Sales are a natural outcome of sharing this process in real time with people from all over the world.
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When visitors step in, it’s a studio tour. Brighid and Mike welcome folks directly into their artistic lives. Fresh palettes, brushes, and variety of paintings at various stages of completion are a welcome sight to people getting more and more used to seeing art and life happen on a 3” screen. Folks enter mostly in silence taking it all in, happy to have found the obvious fruit of Port Townsend’s Artist Community - Real live artist making art. The responses are endlessly varied. Conversations about inspiration, dreams, a life’s work, inner wisdom, improvisation, music, spiritual dimensions, flow states and mindfulness are common.
ZEE TAI has several spaces for artists/creatives available immediately. $300/month gets you 12 ft of (14 ft high) wall space and plenty of space for a work table or easel plus a table for selling. We envision makers of almost any kind who can cohabit well with other makers, the public etc. Paintings, drawings, jewelry, sculpture, woodcrafts, etc etc. (Non toxic materials are important. Noise, dust, fumes and lots of clutter won’t work well) Products which can’t be made on site can be sold as well. We want to highlight local creatives of all kinds. There are no commissions on sales, members need to be on site and helping to sell others work at least one day a week, spaces may be shared, initial timeframes can vary from one month to six or more depending on your application and interview.
There is also a separate 500sq ft space available just behind the main room. $1-1300/month. Come in and check it out!
Email us at mike@mikebiskup.com. Tell us what you make and send some photos and we’ll send you an application. Thanks for reading!
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ZEE TAI COLLECTIVE on Instagram
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