Art for Music

Make.Shift’s mystical menagerie

By Amy Kepferle · Wednesday, December 9, 2009

On the surface, this story is about an art show. But it’s not what’s hanging on the wall that’s actually at the heart of the matter.

While the 40-plus creative contributions currently on display at Casa Que Pasa that comprise “A Mystical Menagerie of Miraculous Oddities” are indeed a wondrous sight to behold, they are there for a higher purpose. The art is there for the music.

To explain, let’s go back to the beginning. Like a lot of “a-ha!” Bellingham moments, this one started around a table at the Horseshoe Café. It was June of 2008 and the conversation turned toward musician friends who’d recently gone on tour in a borrowed van. When the van broke down in Montana, it ended up being a pricey pain in the ass for everybody involved.

As the friends theorized about what it would take to make it easier to be an independent musician in a town where most band members are apt to live paycheck to paycheck, the glimmer of make.shift was born. Cat Sieh, now 26, remembers that meeting well. It was the night she realized she might be able to do something about the problem.

“It started out that we should go in on a van share, and let bands who need it, use it,” Sieh says. “But how do you fix problems like, ‘I don’t have enough money to pay my rent, let alone power a van’?”

Since then, Sieh and a board of dedicated volunteers who are part of make.shift have made it their mission to create a support network for independent musicians who are too broke to accomplish their goals on their own, while emphasizing environmental responsibility and DIY innovation.

While the organization has been deemed a nonprofit and has fulfilled goals such as purchasing a touring van that was once a member of the Bellingham SWAT team and converting it to biodiesel—as well as concocting something called a Power Wheel that requires humans to pedal it in order to amplify sounds without needing an electrical outlet, among other things—there’s consistently the need for additional funding in order to keep the engine running.

Which brings us back to the art. To raise cashola for insurance on the van, practicing space so musicians don’t have to rehearse in storage units and a steady supply of biodiesel, make.shift is constantly looking for new ways to raise money. “Mystical Menageries,” which will exhibited at Casa Que Pasa through New Year’s Eve—in fact, they’re throwing a party that night to close out the exhibit—is turning out to be a success.

“So many artists donated works to make.shift in order to see us thrive,” Sieh says. “We weren’t expecting many people to buy $400 paintings at Casa, but they have been.”

Sieh says even if it’s not in your budget to pick up a new piece of art, $20 will buy you membership in make.shift and a T-shirt, and you’ll be eligible to win a custom-built bike. Even if all you want to do is volunteer some time—or donate, say, a new copy machine—your talents, whether artistic in nature or of the hammer-and-nail variety, will be utilized.

In short, those supporting the local music scene don’t have to be musicians themselves. Sieh says the make.shift board is made up of friends who value the music culture in general, and want to do what they can to see it thrive.

“All of us grew up in a vibrant music scene and have a love of the local music scene,” she says. “This effort is from a lot of people who were sick of doing nothing in the music scene they were part of.”