Capitol Hill has a new art gallery in a familiar space that — so far — has stayed clear of waves of redevelopment. It is brought to you by some familiar Capitol Hill arts faces.

The Great Jones Gallery, a joint project of Leah St. Lawrence and Timothy Rysdyke, is now open at 1216 10th Ave in a 1911-era former auto garage building that has made a home for a variety of arts and creative efforts over more recent years.

The location previously housed The Factory, another gallery of Rysdyke’s, which has since relocated to the first floor of First Hill’s Museum of Museums. In keeping with the namesake of The Factory, inspired by Andy Warhol’s New York City studio of the same name, Great Jones Gallery gets its name from the street where Warhol rented out one of his studio spaces to Jean-Michel Basquiat.

St. Lawrence and Rysdyke sought to create in Great Jones Gallery a unique space that resembles what the next phase of The Factory may have looked like.

“It’s a little bit more refined, a little bit more intentional, a little bit more mature in the kind of things that we curate,” St. Lawrence said.

The two curators will host a wide range of performances in the gallery space, including dance, theater, and drag events. They follow a hands-off approach to hosting exhibitions, in which the artists are given freedom to use the space as they wish in order to bring their artistic visions to life, St. Lawrence tells CHS.

“At the very least, I would like to be able to provide a supportive, emotional atmosphere where people feel like they’re not being hindered when they partner with us.”

St. Lawrence said Great Jones Gallery also was created to be an equitable space and hopes to enact a patronage model that is inclusive of all visitors, regardless of how much money they have. The gallery will be actively evaluating how to further embody its value of equity during its first year.

Exhibition opening nights at Great Jones Gallery are set on a Friday, with the gallery open from 1 to 5 PM on the following Saturday and Sunday as part of the opening weekend. Shows will generally run for two months.

Great Jones Gallery is debuting with Marin Burnett’s “Ascension” exhibition.

According to St. Lawrence, Burnett uses a series of portraits in “Ascension” to tell a story about the river baptisms she took part in as a Black woman growing up in the South. Even outside of their religious meaning, these remain powerful experiences in her life for their cultural significance.

A few weeks before the formal opening of the gallery with “Ascension,” Great Jones hosted a fundraiser for The Seattle Project, which describes itself as “a group of collaborative artists, led by Amanda Morgan, creating new work & dance that breaks down accessibility barriers in the community.” The fundraiser, which served as the soft opening for the gallery, provided support for an upcoming April event by the group at the Northwest Film Forum.

Ascension will run through May.

The Great Jones Gallery is located at 1216 10th Ave. Information on future Great Jones Gallery events and exhibitions can be found by signing up for its newsletter or you can get updates on the gallery’s Instagram page.

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