‘Anything Artistic’
Investing in a haven for art-making in Vienna
By Janet Rems
Courtesy of the Soundry
It takes real passion to invest your life savings in anything, especially the arts, in these precarious financial times. But that’s exactly what Thor Berglie and his wife Jennifer Crawford-Berglie did when they founded The Soundry, a haven for making art in the Town of Vienna, at the end of last year.
Caught in the credit crunch, the Fairfax couple, both 38, screwed up their courage and paid about $200,000 of their own money to transform a former 5,000-square-foot auto-body shop in a semi-industrial neighborhood into the place of their dreams. More than two years in the making, the idea, they say, is to provide a comfortable, uncomplicated space where artists of all kinds can create, teach, rehearse and energize each other.
“We want people to think of us as the place they come to for anything artistic, and that’s starting to happen,” Crawford-Berglie says.
The Soundry’s name was inspired by Crawford-Berglie’s husband–a full-time software engineer, part-time bass guitarist–and his involvement with music. The Soundry, at 316 Dominion Road, now houses approximately 30 artists, who each pay $99 a month to work there.
(April 2009)
Tags: art, The Soundry