The No Vacancy Window Gallery is a self-guided art tour through Portland’s Old Town-Chinatown neighborhood. It launches on September 4 and runs through November 30. The gallery aims to create accessible art in the area by turning boarded-up buildings into exhibition venues. We hear more from curator Lauren Lesueur about the exhibition.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. A new art installation is opening in Portland’s Old Town-Chinatown neighborhood this Thursday. It’s called the No Vacancy Window Gallery. It’ll feature the work of 17 local artists in the windows of 17 vacant buildings. Lauren Lesueur created the exhibition, which is part of a larger effort to revitalize a neighborhood that is still struggling to bounce back from the pandemic. Lesueur is also the owner of elle Gallery, and she joins us now. It’s great to have you on the show.
Lauren Lesueur: Thank you. Thanks for inviting me.
Miller: I mentioned this window gallery project is part of a larger no vacancy initiative. What’s the overarching idea here?
Lesueur: The overarching idea is to say plainly that there are these existing spaces that we have and we also have a lot of artists in Portland. And why wouldn’t we utilize this as an opportunity to activate the neighborhood and get people walking around?
Miller: When you walk around and look at these buildings – and I’ve done so for a couple of years – what’s gone through your mind?
Lesueur: I love it! [Laughs] It reminds me of home. I’m from Cleveland and Cleveland has a very … I don’t know … there’s a lost industry there. So I fantasize about what existed in these huge buildings and factories. To me, it’s very inspiring and I think that’s the way that my mind just thinks about things.
Miller: As opposed to seeing stuff that’s broken down, you imagine what it could be?
Lesueur: Absolutely, yeah. So in that way, I don’t love to see boarded up buildings and cracked windows, but I will just say it doesn’t make me sad. It makes me very optimistic and energized about what could happen, which is probably why I’m great to be on this team.
Miller: How did you choose the artists for this project?
Lesueur: The way that I chose the artists, it’s a little complex. But basically I started from wanting different mediums to be able to be viewed from these activations. From that point, it was introducing the idea to several artists I was interested in working with and then seeing how the artists may react to it – if they were for it, if they could see themselves placed in the windows and doing something.
Miller: How much did the artists that you were contacting want to actually make art that somehow was about or spoke to the building?
Lesueur: With the time frame that we had, there wasn’t really the opportunity to do a lot of work for this specific project. The work that’s being done for the specific project is, more so, how we’re utilizing the storefront. I really encouraged artists to see this as their storefront and see it as, if they had an open book to the public, what does that look like? So let’s not just place artwork in windows, but let’s fantasize how you would insert yourself in this neighborhood.
Miller: And am I right that there’s going to be glass between the viewers and the art? This is purely … you’re on the street and you’re looking through the window at a window display, but you’re not walking into a building.
Lesueur: Correct. All of the displays can be viewed from the sidewalk, from the street. Then there’s some depth to some of these installations. There also is a lot of mystery and things that you have to figure out yourself, and following the artist and what, how and why they did what they did.
Miller: Oh, so will there be little placards saying this is what it is?
Lesueur: Yes. You will be able to see that this is this artist’s window and then you will also be able to navigate to a statement, not just about the artist, but about the specific installation.
Miller: But there’s room for mystery here. People are going to be looking at things and they may not necessarily understand it or know what they’re looking at?
Lesueur: Yes. You can find the clues. You can find the answers through the clues, but every artist isn’t going to be as blatant with what their installation is.
Miller: I think a lot of people who have been in Portland for a while, they look at various neighborhoods, especially various downtown neighborhoods now, and they compare them to what they were like 10, 20 or 40 years ago. You’ve been here for eight years. I’m curious what you remember about the city when you got here?
Lesueur: I will say, when I first got here I was very head-in-the-books, but more so, working. I had three jobs and I was so sidetracked by working that I wasn’t actively in the community doing things. So when people do refer to how Portland used to be, I’m like, I don’t know. Nothing has changed for me as far as what things were like beforehand because I wasn’t really involved in the community.
Miller: But it also sounds like it means that you don’t have some image of a golden better time that we need to get back to.
Lesueur: I absolutely do not. No. I hear that a lot from so many people and I have no idea what that was. I just think we actively should be working towards our idea of what we want to see.
Miller: What difference do you think art can make in a neighborhood? I mean, the whole idea here, that by activating these spaces – another buzzword – in this case with art, that you can change a place. How do you think that works?
Lesueur: I think it is very impactful. I think art is very inspiring and if it’s not put in the forefront, we won’t have children who think that art is important or it’s something that can be your passion and job when you’re growing up. So I want to say that I hope that these activations will show how much the county and city is investing in artists and promoting and putting on a platform of artists’ work. And I hope that inspires everyone. Being an artist is really about creating and your audience is large or as small as you make it.
Miller: Am I right that you have one of the windows, just as an artist? Can you tell us about your window?
Lesueur: I do. Oh wow. I will be one of the artists that has kind of a mystery to where my installation is coming from. But I am in the Tuck Lung Building and I will say that my installation will be an ode to the Wong family that had a restaurant there, a grocery store then restaurant. So what you will see on the surface is an ode to the restaurant, but there’s much beneath that. So yeah, you can follow along the story of how I’m doing things and what certain things mean in the installation on my Instagram.
Miller: What are your own hopes for how this neighborhood might evolve in the coming years?
Lesueur: I see a lot of my now neighbors, because I also have the galleries in Chinatown, who are there, staying there and resigning leases. I have new neighbors since I’ve been in. But my hope is that people find spaces and retail fronts, and they’re inspired to start businesses and things like that. Fill these spaces, because the more that we occupy the space, the more people are going to walk around and they’re going to discover what’s in the neighborhood.
Miller: When I think about window displays, I think about department stores and, in a sense, physical advertising to attract passersby’s attention but to buy something. Did any of the artists play with that idea? I mean, that this is often a way to say this is what we’re selling and look at the fun way we’ve organized the stuff that you can buy?
Lesueur: Yeah, we actually have a footwear and sportswear designer that will be in the White Stag Building. You definitely can purchase things from them. And we also have another, I should say Franz ‘N Family Footwear. Then we have Amen, Amen [Studio], which is also a clothing designer. So they have a full brand in the line, you can purchase things. And then we have Ruby Webb and she has her own women, and I believe some non-binary, pieces that she’s selling. So those will definitely look like storefronts.
Miller: How will you know that this project is having its intended effect?
Lesueur: Oh, that’s a great question. I don’t know. My highest hopes are to see, in return, that more artists are coming out of the woodwork. I can kind of see those things online, the more that “follows” happen to the gallery. I want to see more artists collaborating and working together, and also taking the initiative to start campaigns like this. And I think Portland does a great job of making exhibition space available in different ways – backyards, homes, things like that.
Miller: Lauren, thanks very much.
Lesueur: Thank you, you too.
Miller: Lauren Lesueur is the owner of elle Gallery and the curator of Portland’s new No Vacancy Window Gallery. It starts this Thursday. It goes through November.
“Think Out Loud®” broadcasts live at noon every day and rebroadcasts at 8 p.m.
If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983.
