Anyone who’s ever caught wicked air knows that if your wheels are turning but you can’t get off the ground what you really need is a ramp. For the last three years, Tacoma artists have learned to fly using a particularly steep ramp known as RampArt. Tracing backward the paths of a few of Tacoma’s most prominent movers and shakers in the art community, it became apparent that RampArt artists (past and present) had a lot to do with the recent surge of interest in local art and art related gatherings.



RampArt Gallery was a giant empty space behind the RampArt antique store in downtown Tacoma on Broadway until one day owner Steve Craig allowed Linda Honeck and Johanna Gardner to use the 3,000 square foot back room space for an art/music party. With the 15-foot ceilings and 1919 vintage ambiance, the space was ideal for displaying art. Craig decided to continue showing the work of promising young artists and have monthly parties for them that coincide with Tacoma’s Third Thursday Art Walk. Craig formed an artist co-op where artists were required to pay monthly dues of $20, attend the monthly planning meetings and the Third Thursday Art Walk party. As a result, the artists began to join forces and plot together to create other art related events in Tacoma. A few art happenings that spawned from this fertile breeding ground include Art in the Park Under the Trees Festival, Urban Arts Festival, Eyeful and Kulture Lab. Also, the first 100th Monkey Party took place at RampArt, and Daniel Blue’s Loyalty Clothing held its first Tacoma fashion show there.



“He let us use the space and didn’t ask for any money, and he wasn’t concerned about how many people came or if there would be any damages,” says 100th Monkey founder Lynn Di Nino, adding, “and that’s really amazing. I guess there were about 90 people at that first 100th Monkey.”



“RampArt has this space that we all saw as a possible gallery” says Tacoma artist Houston S. Wimberly III. “And that’s the reason we invested so much time transforming the space. I saw the space like something from the Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground times ... so ... electric.”

Today the space is freshly adorned with white paint to emphasize the colorful large paintings that fill every available space. Several retro style couches and chairs are spattered about begging visitors to take a seat and soak up the eclectic coolness of the sometimes controversial and always interesting underground style artwork and multimedia offerings. 



“Nothing is too edgy for RampArt,” says artist Laura Eklund, who along with her husband, Matt Eklund, created the RampArt Web site and also organizes the annual Urban Arts Festival. 

Another Tacoma artist, Jeff Olsen of the Dead Artists group who authored the very trendy Kulture Lab parties, says, “The RampArt gallery is an excellent venue for the emerging artist. The first time I ever exhibited work was at RampArt. I may have never begun showing otherwise. It is also a great venue for the community to see who its emerging artists are.”



“What happens at RampArt is limited only by the imagination of those who choose to participate,” says Jim Price of the Seattle based artist collaborative group Hogbot and a member of the Rampart co-op family.



“The knickknacks and antiques pay the bills,” admits Craig. “Plus I have a day job working for the city; otherwise, the gallery wouldn’t exist.”



The gallery is open just 13 and a half hours a week, but despite its lack of bread winning, Craig says, “It’s been a real pleasure to be able to work with emerging artists and provide a space to have art, music and networking.”