Photo by Isabela Garcia

Soft Spot 
Co-Facilitators: Megan Edson, Caitlyn Edson & Rain Sissel

​Soft Spot was a pocket-sized DIY community arts space and gallery located at 2544 Beacon Ave S in Seattle on unceded Duwamish land from 2019-2021. 

A note from our co-facilitator, Caitlyn from September 1, 2021:
This message is dense with many feelings⸺gratitude, some grief, anxiety, exuberant joy. We have decided that after two incredible years it’s time to gently tuck away Soft Spot as we know it and close up shop in our beloved Beacon Hill. When we first got the keys to this special place (a small one-room rental that was never really meant to be a gallery) we were told we’d only have 6 months before ours and the surrounding buildings would be demolished. When 6 months became 8, then one year, we couldn’t believe it. The pandemic afforded us even more time⸺a conditional kind⸺that produced months fraught with concern for safety and more uncertainty about the future than ever before. We stayed open during this time. We pushed ourselves to continue reaching our community in whatever ways we could. 

We are so proud of what we have been able to create with limited funds, space and resources⸺a profound testament to the power of community and how it shows up when you need it most. In those earliest days as a brand new arts space we sought to collaborate with artists that possessed visions beyond what was imaginable in such a small space. Who could forget Kim Selling’s Saturn Return group show in which they guest curated an interstellar lineup of 30 local artists? Or Lauren Rodriguez’s totally immersive “Hysterics,” complete with an original score and video installation? “Rest Altar” by Grey Ellis and KT Twiss transformed the space into a shrine to softness, ease, and care⸺all plush textures and warm hues. Every once in a while a tiny paper cut-out with the word “Rest” printed on it reappears, a memory from their long-past show….