This show will feature bike-adventure photos from around the world, showcasing our passion for two-wheeled travel.

Photos will portray all aspects of bike travel: Journey and destination, risk and rewards, characters encountered, hobo lifestyle, etc. Artists include Melanie Swanson, Tyson Minck, Cat Sieh, Meg Coulter and more.

**This show is on display for one weekend only, pending the remodel of our gallery ceiling. COME SAY HELLO!

We’re going to light up a Christmas tree for 24 hours with human-powered bike generators. You want in? Of course you do!

Beginning at 10 am at the Farmer’s Market in Depot Market Square, we’ll be cranking the generators for a full 24 hours until 10 am Sunday, December 11, to raise money for Make.Shift, the nonprofit that operates Jinx Art Space.

Read all about it here!

Reconception is a vehicle for insight, bringing an old idea into a new light. Mutual reconception refers to an agreement between these old and new aspects. By reforming an idea with its past in mind, we can steer it towards a future of greater potency, and intent. This show explores the evolutionary journey from concept to re-concept. Through December, gallery is open Tues-Fri 11am-5pm and during events.

In the gallery: Mutual Re-conceptions: A New Formula

Live Music and Psychedelic Karaoke
-Ambient jamz with regular Zach Zinn until 8:30, when Xtra Melt Karaoke Remix with Action Zach Zinn breaks out.

Jinx Artists Studio Tour
See what the Jinx resident geniuses have been getting up to.

There’s still time to submit to our December gallery show! (Opening reception Dec. 2 Art Walk).

Artists: Send jpg samples of current work to gallery@makeshiftproject.com by Nov. 18.

Join us for two days of artsy craftsy holiday joy! Jinxmas Holiday Bazaar  is happening Dec. 3-4 from noon – 6pm. There are still a few vendor tables available — email gallery@makeshiftproject.com to sign up.

Make.Shift is happy to announce that Jinx Art Space will now have open office hours from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays – Fridays.

Come take a look at the gallery, peruse our zine library, or check out one of our open studios for rent!

Make.Shift Finally Finds a Home!

WHAT: Jinx Grand Reopening & October Art Walk
WHEN: 6 p.m.-12 a.m. Friday Oct. 7
WHERE: Jinx, 306 Flora Street

Make.Shift is happy to announce the grand reopening of Jinx Art Space on Friday October 7. The local nonprofit, which bought the business and took over the building’s lease in July, has worked tirelessly to update and rework the space’s basement. Make.Shift has kept artists in place who are already renting studio space, while devoting more room to affordable music studios where bands can practice without fear of noise complaints.

“We’re excited to provide more infrastructure for artists and musicians, while retaining the character of the old Jinx,” said Cat Sieh, Make.Shift Director.

Sieh said the space will function much as it did before, with some additions and changes. The upstairs space will remain a gallery, and Jinx will still participate in regular Art Walks. Live music will still be held downstairs, and Make.Shift will also make the downstairs space available during weekdays for special events rentals such as fundraisers and event receptions.

The grand reopening will include Art Walk gallery reception “The Black Forest: Fear and Nature,” a group show featuring more than a dozen local artists including Aaron Brick and Kelly Hoekema.

Downstairs artists will open their studios to the public as usual, offering everything from paintings to handmade Halloween costumes! The Bellingham Circus Guild will be there with their usual fiery antics, in addition to a vaudeville act, and live music by Bar Tabac.

Come say hello and see the new Jinx. We’ve missed you!

Prom

We’re going out, high-school style with a formal dance and party in the basement.

Please join us for BBQ and circus performers in the parking lot, dance music by Platonic DJ and cover band Beach Boyz II Men (with Nora Hughes, Peter Woiwod, Kristin Allen-Zito, David Ney, more – I can’t keep track!) and punchy punch in the basement, extra Alterna-Prom in the back-corner lounge, hand-made corsages by Aireekah Laudert, prom photos by Morgan Ellis, and maybe a repeat performance by Zach Zinn and His Tent. It’s going to be a freak-show, in fancy dress.

Please, put on your prom gear (even if it’s just a hoody with a flower pinned to it), grab a date (or find one there), and give us some love.

Thanks for the memories, have a nice summer, and don’t do anything we wouldn’t do. xo-Michelle and Django

Jinx Art Space is owned and operated by local artists and business owners Michelle Schutte and Django Bohren, and located at 306 Flora Street. Jinx is an artist collective in the heart of the Bellingham Arts District. The art and music venue has become a nexus for local artists and musicians since opening nearly three years ago when it quickly filled an important void in the Bellingham music and arts scene. The space has provided 14 work studios for visual artists and 3 practice spaces for artists and musicians with a broad spectrum of experience, a gallery to showcase monthly art shows, and an all-ages music venue for over 100 shows and around 300 bands in the last few years. Since opening, Jinx has received the Mayor’s Arts Award (nominated by the Bellingham Arts Commission), as well as Best Gallery from the Cascadia Weekly and an Appreciation Award from What’s Up Magazine for support of the arts.

Make.Shift is a Bellingham-based nonprofit established in 2008 that supports independent musicians through innovative and environmentally friendly programs. With programs such as bicycle-powered generators (used to power amplified music), and the Magic Van (available to local bands for touring throughout the PNW), Make.Shift has worked steadily towards their goal of supporting musicians while keeping the environment in mind. For some time, the non-profit has searched for a physical home from which to base these operations as well as provide additional arts and music resources to the community. The plan for a new space to provide affordable band practice space, a community silkscreening studio, a local art gallery, and a resource library, in addition to other prospective ideas such as a rentable darkroom, has been forming since the non-profit first worked towards a prospective lease agreement for a different address. Volunteers were forced to continue their search for a commercial space in downtown Bellingham when those negotiations fell through in February.
“We had checked out virtually any vacant space on the market that even vaguely resembled what we were looking for.” (Make.Shift Director Cat Sieh)

After hearing for several months of the non-profit’s struggle to find a space, Michelle Schutte contacted Cat Sieh and made a proposal. The resulting agreement means that Make.Shift will absorb the existing Jinx space, while expanding the business to incorporate the new projects and programs.

“Owning Jinx has been an extraordinary experience, but recently we have found ourselves wishing for more time and energy to devote to the project. We hadn’t even considered selling Jinx before I had a sort of epiphany. I realized that Make.Shift was looking for a space to do much of the same thing we’ve been doing at Jinx for years, but on a bigger scale, and that handing the business over to them may be the perfect solution to both of our problems.” (Jinx Co-founder Michelle Schutte)

“Jinx has earned a deep respect in our music and arts communities. We want to keep the programs that have made Jinx such a unique place, and to expand to create even more opportunities for artists and musicians.”
 (Make.Shift Director Cat Sieh)

The group plans to devote additional studio space for musicians, while encouraging current tenants to keep their studios.
Schutte said she is confident that Make.Shift will work to retain the character of the space, and continue to provide a home for her current tenants.

“Jinx has a personality of its own in our community and selling it means handing over not only the physical space, but also all of our artists, renters, and supporters. The real value of our business can be found in our people. It’s a special situation, and I trust that Make.Shift understands that. I know that they will take what we’ve created, add their own ideas, energy, and volunteer-power, and make it even better.” (Jinx Co-founder Michelle Schutte)

At this point, Jinx and Make.Shift management hope to include Whatcom All-ages Arts and Music (WhAAM!) in the new space, but final arrangements to combine efforts have been put on hold pending negotiations.

“Jinx, Make.Shift, and WhAAM! have each operated separately for years, and the best case scenario will find us all in the same building. I’m certain that collecting all three organizations under one roof will create a force to be reckoned with. I’m just really excited to see what happens next.”

Schutte will continue to run the space through June 30, when Make.Shift will take over operations. The space will reopen with few changes by September 2011. Make.Shift will retain and incorporate the name Jinx Art Space.

LAST JINX EVENT:
During their tenure as Jinx managers, co-founders Django Bohren and Michelle Schutte have organized and orchestrated several events beyond their standard Art Walk reception, including Halloween parties, Christmas Pageants, a charity army wrestling competition, a water-balloon fight, art auctions, and Band Lotteries. Before they’re through, they will host one more party for Jinx artists and supporters. The Jinx Formal (Final) Dance, July 2nd, is chance for all of us to get dressed in our Prom Best (even if that may be a hoody with a corsage pinned to it!), dance (or not) to some live music and DJs, and maybe make out in a corner with someone else’s date. Expect treats, punch, and a Prom Photographer…because it wouldn’t be a Jinx party without a chance to have a stupid amount of fun and get your picture taken in the process.

http://www.jinxartspace.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jinx-Art-Space/149908468396570
http://www.makeshiftproject.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/MakeShift/83909532568?ref=ts
http://www.facebook.com/whaam?sk=info