Creators, Makers, and Doers: Elizabeth Tullis

Posted on 8/19/15 by Arts & History

The Modern Hotel is easily recognized by its swanky bar, high-end handcrafted cocktails, locally sourced Northwest cuisine, and of course, Modern Art. But behind it all is a rich history based upon owner  Elizabeth Tullis’s admiration for the local community.

Elizabeth Tullis  will accept the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Arts & History on September 10 in the Business Support of Culture category for the Modern Hotel & Bar. With events ranging from Modern Art to Campfire Stories, the plan for the Modern integrated collaborations with the artistic community from the start by providing an alternate venue to inspire conversations between the community and the artists that live and work here.

Can you speak about the inspiration for the Modern?

My grandparents owned a boarding house called the Modern Hotel in Nampa. My mother and her two sisters grew up there. There are pictures of them in the lobby. The Modern has been in our family for generations, one way or another. When I decided to build the Modern, I had been working at the Redfish Lodge for many years. I was part of the family that owned the Redfish Lodge. When we sold that, I decided I wanted to have a property down here. I started looking around and it took me a long time to find one. I found this mid-century modern place and called it the Modern Hotel after my grandparent’s boarding house. That was the inspiration.

Can you elaborate on the boarding house?

It was the first iteration of the Modern. My grandparents both came over from the Basque country in Spain and they ran sheep for many years before they bought the boarding house in Nampa. The sheep herders would come and stay for the winter and then go out and run the sheep all summer long. There were people back and forth all of the time. My grandmother did all of the cooking and my mother and her sisters did all of the cleaning. They grew up there and then went to Nampa High School. That is where my dad met my mother, at Nampa High. They got married and had seven children. Everyone has different occupations, but there are two of us that own the Modern, with the grandchildren, my brother and I. It is kind of a family run business.

What do you see as the Modern’s role in the arts community here?

We really wanted to build a place where artists had a different venue. There are a lot of really good artists and a lot of diverse artists working in different areas from painting to acting to filmmaking all over Boise. I have known a lot of them for years and years and we just thought it would be fun to create a different kind of place where they could show their art, no matter what it was, from performance art to film or painting, or music. I think the Modern is a good structure to do that. That is why we started Modern Art. People could take a hotel room and make it into anything that they wanted and open it up to the public so the public can experience their work. That collaboration between the public and the artists really works well, as you know if you have been to Modern Art. It is very crowded and people love to do it. It is a wonderful way to open up the hotel to give the artists a new venue to show their work, but also for the community. The community has a different way to engage with the artists and their work. The artists have always—no matter who they are—have always supported the Modern. They are here constantly. They bring their people here. It has just been a wonderful partnership ever since the beginning.

How did Modern Art get started?

The first year it was very organic. Of course, we didn’t have very high vacancy rates, so we had a lot of rooms that no one was in. One of the great ways to get the community in to see that we were open and what we had to offer was to put the artists in the rooms and have an art crawl. We started with word of mouth to artists that we knew and gauged interest in the project. The first year there was just a small handful of artists, maybe one wing of the hotel, who came in and did the first Modern Art. That first one was packed. So we then decided that the next year we definitely needed better planning and crowd control. We were very surprised by the turnout. We just did our eighth Modern Art. For years, many of the artists came back. It is certainly a lot of work for the artists because they come at three, they have to be set up and open by five, and then they have to be out the following day by noon because the rooms are rented the next day. It is a very tight turnaround and a lot of work for the artists. I am very grateful that the artists have put in the time and energy to do it every year with us. It has been a wonderful thing.

Also, things like Modern Art have spurred other projects here like 39 Rooms, an in room film festival. We take short films from all over the world, jury them, and then put them on channel thirty nine on a loop and switch them out every year. We are in the process of switching them out now to put in Basque films for Jaialdi. They will all be done by Basque filmmakers. 39 Rooms is really a great thing. Our guests love it. When they check in we tell them about it and they can actually vote on which one they like best. We then give that information back to the filmmakers. It gives the filmmakers a really different venue to show their work in. Showing short films is really very difficult. There are not that many venues to do that, except for some short film festivals or as part of a larger film festival. I realized that we have so many television screens with nothing good on them, so we decided to do something else with them, use them in different way. We are always trying to figure out what we can do differently with the resources we have. How can we use the rooms differently? How can we make a broader experience for both our guests and for the arts community?

Can you elaborate on your thoughts of how the Modern has impacted the community?

I think it has opened up a larger conversation between the community and the artists within the community. I think it gave them a place to meet and gather and have that conversation. Before, it was either at a gallery or different places, but this is kind of a broader place, and more public place where people can come together and discuss those things and see those things, and view them differently. So I think that we have given that to the community as well as the artists, and the community has certainly given back saying “thank you.” They support it, they show up. It is our way of giving back to the community that has given so much to us. The artists are right in the middle of it, they are the ones that made it happen. They are the link.

What are your opinions of the art community in general?

Well I think Boise has a wonderful art community and always has. I was raised here so I have a lot of friends that are artists that do a lot of really great and diverse things. I hope that things like Modern Art and Treefort and big events like that can evolve and keep evolving here becoming bigger and bigger and more sustainable and keep bringing more people in to create a larger conversation and provide a way for everyone to be involved. I think Boise is on the brink of doing that, but I think it has to be organically done to work.

Big performances are good to have and bring in, but they are really only accessible to certain people. We need things that are organic and on the street and in the public that are open to everyone and every age. That is what we need, that participation across all generations. Regardless of what it is that brings people together, it is important for any community.

Any new things planned for the future?

I would like to do another project here, but it is just finding the different space for it. We love the Modern, but we have kind of grown out of it a little. We only have thirty nine rooms. I would like to do something through art and keep art incorporated with whatever we do.

I would really like to do some projects with theater. Boise Contemporary Theater did a wonderful project S5 this spring and they just used the neighborhood and different places to create the performance. They went out and in a very artful way they used the community and the neighborhood. I would like to things like that with theater, if I can. Like, maybe some dinner theater at some point. I would love to do that.

Do you have any advice for other people who want to do what you do?

Here is a story as an example. I remember when Lori Shandro came and told me her idea about having a music festival right after SXSW all over town in different venues and hundreds of bands, similar to SXSW and have it in March. She asked if I would support something like that and I told her that I would absolutely support in whatever way I can, but I think you are crazy to do it. I wasn’t telling her not to do it, but it is a huge project and I will do whatever I can because I think it is great. But, just to do Modern Art alone takes a staff of fifty and months to do and you want to do a five day music festival? I was very impressed and of course she did it. Each year it has grown little by little, but how she did it was to go out into the community and ask for help. She went out and talked to everyone about it. She asked about ideas and participation and sponsorship. She went out and asked the right questions from the right people and she got the support of the artists, the business owners, and she was able to do it. That is the way that you do it. You have to go out into your community and talk to people about your idea. Find out what is right or wrong and find sponsors and grow from there. You have to slowly build a team of like-minded people on a project that is your dream, but you have to make it everyone’s. You have to make it a community effort and this community will do it. It’s like the old adage, “If you build it they will come.” They will help you build it too. It is a great community to start anything like that in. You just have to do it bird by bird, but they will do it and we are lucky that way.