OUR STORY AND MISSION
Discover the history and vision behind Seattle's first Black-owned creative hub and the people who make The Union a space for collective growth.
#getonpace
For as long as there have been Africans in America, there have been numerous examples of Black social, cultural and economic solidarity. Often formed in response to systemic exclusion and economic stagnation, cooperative economics is how we #getonPACE
Established in 2018, The Union is the first black-owned and longest-running modern co-working & creator space in the PNW. Originally founded to house our education programs, we quickly grew to include media capabilities to support our communities' needs beyond education. This modular space supports education, events, business and everything in between.
OUR JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEARS
2018
Education & Coworking
We opened our doors to the pubic on Juneteenth in 2018. After successfully running a coding bootcamp for 2 years in a small office space in Belltown, we expanded to downtown Seattle to better serve our community after writing and securing the Obama-era TechHire workforce development grant.
2019
Art Gallery
The Union has always served as the foundational space for PACE, its parent non-profit organization. Instead of purchasing art to decorate our walls, we created our first artist-curated residency program. By giving space to artists and curators, we created a new black-owned art gallery across the street from the prestigious Seattle Art Museum. By participating in monthly art walks, making artists' gatherings, salons, and talk-backs, we quickly became a gathering hub of black creative genius downtown Seattle.
2020
Pandemic Live-Stream
When the world shut down due to a global pandemic, we shifted our mission to serve our community virtually. Many of our members and artists had already been using the facility to create podcasts and produce high-quality audio-visual content. We doubled down on our support and invested in state-of-the-art infrastructure to ensure top-notch digital creativity could take flight from our space. We quickly became the go-to creative hub for those finding their way in the new creator economy.
2021
Launched Film Residency
Storytelling is a tradition that is deeply rooted in black community traditions. In 2021, we launched our creator residency programs that provided space to aspiring podcasters and filmmakers needing to reduce the barrier to entry to begin their storytelling journeys.
2022
Launched Creative Hub
Coming out of the pandemic, we remodeled our facility to embrace the needs of our creative members who desired to create podcasts and launch a coaching business. Now we offer over 15 sets and many more arrangements to support podcasting, documentary-style videos, and a myriad of content types from audio recording to post-production.
