The latest in cooperative art galleries, Impromptu Gallery next to the Grand Cinema in downtown Tacoma, had its debut this month with an eye-pleasing multi-artist show. The gallery cooperative is not a new concept — it’s one that allows member artists more control over the space they show in and how they price their art. A similar cooperative gallery down the street from Impromptu, Rampart Gallery, has been up and running for almost four years now.



The space formerly housed the Dead Artists’ Kulture Lab, an extremely non-traditional gallery that featured wild, sometimes shocking art, raucous live music and sensational parties that catapulted what some considered true raw art (some questioned publicly if it was art at all) into the eye of Tacoma. After the Kulture Lab parties came to a close, Art on Center moved off Center Street into the space and became the a.o.c. gallery hanging more mainstream art.



It looks as though the five founding Impromptu Gallery artists — Trinda Love, Bea Geller, Bill Colby, Chip Van Gilder and Jason Sobottka — are aiming for a happy medium.

Drop by the gallery Thursday through Saturday, 4-8 p.m.



[Impromptu Gallery, 608 South Fawcett, Tacoma, 253.307.1011,

grandimpromptugallery@yahoo.com]