Howard House was a contemporary art

Contemporary art

Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...

 gallery located in the historic Pioneer Square District in Downtown Seattle

Downtown Seattle

Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared to other city centers on the West Coast because of its geographical situation: hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by the Elliott Bay, and on the south by reclaimed land that was once...

. From its inception in 1997 to its closing on June 12, 2010, the gallery fostered the careers of several local, national and international artists. Billy Howard, the gallery's owner, cited slow business as the basis for the decision.

Gallerist Billy Howard has been credited with introducing the Seattle art scene to the concept of the alternative space

Alternative exhibition space

An alternative exhibition space is a location, et al. other than the normal professional venues, for the exhibition of artwork to the public. Located in places which have been converted, such as a store front empty space into an exhibit space, for an organized assembly of artworks from an...

 and has championed artist-run spaces

Artist-run space

An artist-run space is a gallery space run by artists, thus circumventing the structures of public and private galleries.Artist-run spaces have become realised as an important factor in urban regeneration...

. He first began Howard House by hosting performances

Performance art

In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...

 and site-specific art

Site-specific art

Site-specific art is artwork created to exist in a certain place. Typically, the artist takes the location into account while planning and creating the artwork...

 works in his Capitol Hill home, inviting visitors to see works installed in his stairwell, dining room and bedroom. In an interview with art critic Jen Graves of The Stranger

The Stranger (newspaper)

The Stranger is an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle, Washington, USA. It runs a blog known as Slog.-History:The Stranger was founded by Tim Keck, who had previously co-founded the satirical newspaper The Onion, and cartoonist James Sturm. Its first issue came out on September 23, 1991...

, the gallery's owner said that he will continue to work with artists on a projects basis.