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New home for artists
Soundry provides arts space in Vienna: Thor Berglie and his wife Jennifer Crawford-Berglie are staunch believers in the fundamental human need to make art. That belief was affirmed when Berglie, a software engineer, took his bass guitar to work one day and began playing.
“People came out of the woodwork,” he recalls. Talk drifted not only to music but also to the need for an affordable, inviting place to create music and other art.
The incident propelled an idea that had been gestating in the couple's minds for a while.
It took more than two years of planning (including devising a rock-solid business plan), approvals, construction, and overcoming the inevitable obstacles, but The Soundry, at 316 Dominion Road in the heart of Vienna, opened Dec. 13.
Fairfax residents compare The Soundry to a “gym,” where visual artists, musicians and other performing artists can exercise their creative muscles in a member-driven, shared space -- and the public can get involved, too.
Soundry artists are not juried. Its space is open, for a fee of $99 a month, to “anyone doing art,” from people fresh out of school to veteran artists who are simply “sick of creating alone,” Crawford-Berglie says.
She is not an artist herself but is an unabashed admirer of those with the ability to create.
“The arts bring color and vibrancy to a community and can only help ... And let’s hope I’m right,” she said.
Besides their resolute commitment, the couple, both 38 and the parents of three pug dogs but no children, have invested more than $200,000 of their life savings into making The Soundry a reality.
When they found the perfect location -- a spacious former auto-body shop in a safe, semi-industrial, semi-historic section of Vienna adjoining the W&OD Trail -- the economic crisis was breaking and no bank would give them a loan.
Even their solid business plan -- compiled with the help of SCORE, a Herndon-based nonprofit organization that counsels small-business owners -- did not help.
So the couple self-funded their dream business.
They were encouraged that they were on the right track when their SCORE counselor, an accordion collector, asked if they could find him an accordion teacher, which they did.
The Soundry, whose name comes from Berglie’s involvement with music, offers members 4,300 square feet of shared space where visual artists will work, and an additional 800 square feet of private rehearsal and teaching space.
Space also is allocated for exhibits and the sale of artists’ works, special events, lockers, and, eventually, a full coffee/espresso bar with Wi-Fi open to the public.
The Berglies see The Soundry not as a performance venue but “as more of an incubator where you go before you perform in places like Jammin’ Java,” also in Vienna.
So far, The Soundry has signed up 30 diverse artist members, including a muralist, photographers, painters, a didgeridoo (an Australian wind instrument) maker, a collagist who also does altered books (converting books into works of art), a jewelry maker, a sculptor who works with found objects, graphic artists working on their own T-shirt line, and musicians.
“The idea is to build a community of [100] artists … but just being open is the key for me,” says Berglie, who plays part-time in the band Grand Theft Radio.
“I see a strong membership, people consistently here, walls filled with art, coffee brewing -- and breaking even would be nice,” says Crawford-Berglie, who used to own and run a pet-sitting and dog-walking business before devoting herself to The Soundry full-time.
Going several leaps further, she envisions The Soundry as the start of a walkable “artists' alley” along Dominion Road and Church Street.
The Soundry will never be fancy and probably always will physically retain some of its industrial roots, the founders say. But, they promise, the artists who work there will always feel comfortable, appreciated and creatively energized.
Contact the writer at editoratlarge@cox.net
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