Dawna Holloway
609 S. Brandon St. | Seattle WA, 98108 | 206 762 3322Skills and Experience Summary
Gallery director | Curation | Juror | Public art consulting | Board member | Fabrication & Installation | Lighting design | Manufacturing | Collaboration and meeting facilitation | Business management and development
Work examples
Pioneer Elementary School curated collection: Worked with a committee to select works for the school.
December, 2020
Develop concept for collection and create proposal for committee | List to and envelope committee requests and interests |Artist selection | Curation| Work collection coordination| Installation assistance
The original request from the committee was to have art that reflected the beauty of the area. But after our first meeting I suspected they might actually prefer to have something that showed them views of the world beyond the one that they saw every day. The committee spoke about not having the resources or time to visit museums or teach art classes. I proposed a meandering exhibition that would offer the students examples of many styles of art works as well as examples of many mediums that could serve as a casual or informal art education.
Schedule: The project was discussed and developed during early covid over zoom. We installed the exhibition over two days.
TREE: A group exhibition for The Vashon Center for the Arts
June 2019
Artist selection and coordination| Curation | Catalog Production | Installation | Lighting | Co-promotion with the VCA | Accounting and artist payments
Tree was thematic show focused on the unique nature of trees, which are both intricately structured and, new research has revealed, intricately interconnected as a community. In addition to including artists I represent through studio e, I reached out to solicit work from a wide variety of Northwest artists -- all those whose work resonated with the theme. This being the first show of “outsiders” to which the regulars of this Arts Center had been exposed, the variety at first ruffled feathers but in the end energized the community.
Schedule: Proposal and concept were selected one year in advance, allowing a great deal of time for artist selection and curation. We collected, delivered and installed the entire exhibition in less than 1 week.
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Taking the arboretum as its inspiration, TREE celebrates the community that sustains studio e. Through an eclectic group of works united by a common theme — “tree-ness”— the show emblemizes their makers’ connection to studio e as both gallery artists and talented friends of the gallery. The contrasting and varied approaches to the subject offered by these 20 or so artists range from new abstract expressionism to color field painting, to conceptual, video work and design, all of them contributing to and coalescing in the ecosystem of Tree.
Tree ecosystems mirror human communities in striking ways. Contemporary forestry research has revealed that, beneath the forest floor, trees are constantly engaged in resource exchanges and other interactions that likewise unite them as an ecosystem of individuals. Trees thrive in community. Via a network of roots, fungal web, and interaction with insects, they communicate information, share resources, and attract help.
Natural science in general is undergoing a similar paradigm shift, from examining organisms in isolation to understanding them as players in inextricably interconnected systems. If we bring this lens to Tree, the web of interconnections that relates these works finds its nexus at studio e.
Having grown from no more than a well-lit space for a showing of the work of friends, studio e’s vitality depends on the artists, photographers, designers, writers, curators, collectors, fellow gallerists, and art administrators-in-training who make it the thriving arts ecosystem it is today.
“The reason trees share food and communicate is that they need each other. It takes a forest to create a microclimate suitable for tree growth and sustenance.
-Tim Flannery, Introduction to The Hidden Life of Trees (2015)
1 ROOM: A 50 artist exhibition at the Alvera Hawk Tower
August 2018
Artist selection and coordination| Curation | Registration | Catalog Production | Installation | Promotion | Gallery collaboration and accounting | Lease negotiations and coordination
One Room came about when I negotiated with the owner of the newly completed Alvera Hawk Tower near Pioneer Square to activate large (60’L x 18’w x 20’h) room on the ground floor during the month of the Seattle Art Fair. I carefully composed a salon style exhibition highlighting the work of 48 regional artists alongside others from New York, Boston, and San Francisco.
Schedule: Conception and negotiation took 3 weeks, artist selection, space preparation and installation was conducted within three weeks.
3 ROOMS: A group exhibition at the King Street Station
August 2017
Lease negotiations and coordination with City of Seattle Offices and Amtrak| Space preparation | Initiate collaboration with Art Zone and Join Design for the 3 ROOMS | Curation | Installation | Promotion
Three Rooms (Aug 2017) came about when I convinced Amtrak and the City of Seattle to give me access to the entire first floor of the historic King Street Station prior to the building’s renovation. The space was raw -- no lighting and a variety of walls services, ranging from brick to exposed to old plaster. I attracted a community art program, Art-Zone, and a local design collective, Join Design, to activate one room a piece, while the third room displayed a ten-person show for studio e.
Schedule: One month from acceptance of proposal
Affiliations and collaborations
Member of the Georgetown Arts and Design District steering committee 2018 - current
Georgetown Merchants Association memeber 2019 - current board President
Juror for the 2019 Southwest Washington Juried Exhibition
Member of Cephalonia: a Nonprofit org dedicated to bringing international contemporary art to the Pacific Northwest through site-specific projects.
Juror for the 2018 Juried Exhibition at Columbia City Gallery
Panel member for talk about Arts in Seattle, Greg Kucera Gallery, 2018
Work
Founder, Director | studio e gallery
2014 – to present
Curation | Artist collaboration | Installation | Promotion and documentation of art exhibits by local and national artists and designers
President | Eastbay Sculpture & Lighting Inc.
2007 – to present
Lighting design | UL certification and testing | Light fixture design & fabrication | Art production technical and logistical support
Electrician | Elmecco Inc
2000 – 2008
Field electrician, lighting specialist
Education
Lighting Design Lab
2000-2006
lighting design classes
BA Evergreen State College
1998
Studio arts and Middle Eastern studies
Press Links: City Arts | The Stranger
