Consolidated Works

Consolidated Works was a "multi-disciplinary contemporary arts center" located successively in two former warehouses in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, USA, just west of what would be considered the Cascade neighborhood within South Lake Union. It incorporated an art gallery, theater, cinema, and music/dance/lecture hall, as well as studio spaces for artists and a bar and lounge.

The center was founded in 1997 by Matthew Richter. Richter had previously worked at Seattle's alternative newspaper The Stranger as theatre editor. Funding came from grants, donations, and corporate sponsorship, and The Stranger also agreed to provide advertising for events at ConWorks in exchange for storage space at its warehouse. Richter became the center's Executive Director, with Meg Shiffler becoming Director of Visual Art until 2003.

The center opened in 1999, working from temporary premises on Terry Avenue for three years. ConWorks' renovated facility at 500 Boren Avenue North opened on 13 September 2002. The refit of the 35,000 sq ft (3,300 m2) warehouse, built in 1948, cost almost half a million dollars.

Consolidated Works' aim was to give all the art forms equal billing - to be "neither a theater with art in the lobby nor a gallery with a stage in back; it is neither a cinema that plays music nor a music hall that shows films" . To this end, its presentations offered high profile artists like Andy Warhol alongside emerging talent, primarily from the Pacific Northwest. This policy of encouraging young creative professionals also included an Artist-in-Residence program.

As well as mounting its own productions and exhibitions, the center also hosted touring events - and critics have voiced the opinion that it is these shows that were the most successful: for example, the Curiously Strong contemporary art program (sponsored by Altoids) and the popular 14/48 theater show (where 14 short plays are written and produced in 48 hours, begun in 1997). However, Richter's vision was one of experimentalism, and he argued that "if the quality of the programming was always of a strong finished caliber, then we weren't doing our job right" .