Just a month ago, Ballardites Aaron and Beth Morris signed the lease on the space at 2215 NW Market Street. Since then, they’ve been busy getting their new art gallery and retail space, Nightingale Gallery, ready to open.
The two live in Ballard so when they saw that Market Street Shoes had moved out, they knew this was the space they wanted. “It’s such a killer location,” Beth says. “We live here, I grew up in Ballard and it just couldn’t be a more central location.” In fact, Beth isn’t the first generation in her family to open a business in Ballard. Her grandmother opened what is now Larsen’s Bakery at 24th Ave NW & NW 80th St back in the 1940’s.
“We’ve been talking about in the next year or two, start a gallery, have it in Ballard, really focus on meshing music and art kind of together,” Aaron says.
Nightingale does just that – they have an eclectic collection of music posters (some autographed by the band, some by the poster artist) on the “rock and roll wall,” along with vintage-inspired posters and other locally-inspired posters, a back wall full of fun magnets and a wall dedicated to a rotating local artist.
There’s more to the couple’s philosophy than just owning this gallery. “We’re just really interested in building more of an art community overall here in Ballard,” Beth tells us, “And are hoping to become an anchor spot on the ArtWalk each month and really draw more art lovers here.”
Nightingale Gallery opens softly on Saturday with a formal open house from 6 to 10 p.m. After that, they’ll be open Wednesday and Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Bagdad Theater poster by local artist Steve Konz.)
