DF Move
If it wasn’t made obvious by last month’s missing newsletter, please note that the Drachen Foundation has a new location in Seattle! The Foundation’s study center and administrative offices now reside in bustling lower Queen Anne.
Why, after 10 years residence, would the Drachen Foundation move?
Well, this was an decision made for us; after 6 years of donated, rent-free office space, our landlords sold the building and DF staff were challenged to find a new location that would work within our budget and programming needs.
Although the previous space was in many ways ideal, we at the Drachen Foundation would like to stress that the Foundation itself is not comprised of the building we work in, but the work that is done and the people who volunteer with and benefit from our programs. To this end, there is much in this move to look forward to.
The new space is larger and is located in the very heart of Seattle—within walking distance of major museums, cultural centers, theatres, other foundations (soon to be neighbors with the new Gates Foundation, just two blocks south) and the center of downtown. This adds ease to commuting to school workshops and makes collaborative programming and partnerships with other cultural institutions much easier. (See new joint program with Seattle’s ArtistTrust as just one example.)
During the summer, the Foundation will vacate the warehouse in which much of its archive has been housed and will move it 2.5 hours from the city to begin a transformation from “warehouse” storage to that of a more secure archival space. Again, this move was precipitated by rising rental costs and the unavailablilty of affordable warehouse space in growing Seattle, as well as the advent of a very unique opportunity to archivally store our collection in the cultural community of Tieton, Washington.
Those of you who have been with us for the last 10 years have witnessed slow progress in putting the collection online due to limited staff and ever-present programs. It is Drachen’s hope that this move to a larger, stablized space will allow us to better fulfill the organization, stabilization and preservation of our collection in a very professional manner for the future generation. (It will also allow visitors better access to the collection for viewing and study).
All of these changes have been taxing—no one really likes to move—but is worth the effort, as it provides us a better foundation for the future to come.
Ali Fujino
Executive Director