Water rippling gently about her stick legs, head topped by a distinct tuft of dark feathers, the heron waits with stony patience and unmoving eye the faintest flicker in the bank-hugging grass, the splash midstream.

This particular bird is actually Bonney Lake artist Mary Ellen Bowers’s clever mosaic of Starbucks cards, hung on the east wall of the art gallery at 113 East Main Street. (See inset photo).

Bowers was there Tuesday night for the gallery’s grand opening, delighted to be swallowed up by the crowd streaming into the storefront gallery to gawk at the work of 20 local artists. In addition to Bower’s blue heron, the collection includes paintings of quizzical owls, fierce tigers, lions, giraffes, flowers, Bower’s blue heron and stunning photographs.

Storefronts Auburn, Shunpike, the City of Auburn, King County’s 4Culture and Auburn Valley Creative Artists worked together to make the gallery happen.

Shunpike partners with city and business leaders in Seattle, Tacoma and now Auburn to activate the downtown cores by temporarily matching artists and arts groups with vacant storefronts. The programs are part of a national wave of community-driven collaboration between neighborhoods, cities, businesses and artists – including programs in San Francisco, Portland and New York.

If the storefront succeeds, a tenant rents the space and the art space goes away.

“We always say that one of the goals of the program is to run ourselves out of business, to not have any storefronts to fill up, to not have any clients to serve,” said Rebecca Solverson, operations assistant with Storefronts Tacoma.

“Really, what we are doing with the art is saying, ‘Look here, wouldn’t this be a cool place to rent, so somebody walks along and says, ‘Oh, wow, this is the spot we want,’” said Marie Lyndemere, co-chair of Auburn Valley Creative Artists.

That makes this gallery a success — a new tenant has already rented the space.

“You always know if you’re an artist that you could get a 30-day eviction notice,” Lyndemere said. “We got ours even before we opened our door!”

“We are activating three vacant storefronts along Main Street that are going to rotate around to different vacancies as they come up and disappear,” said Matthew Richter, Storefronts Program Manger. “We’ve got a roster that we’ve created of Auburn of area artists who applied to the program to either do static installations or creative enterprises like this, where the doors open and it’s a gallery, or a boutique, or a museum,  or a residence where an artist sets up shop and the passersby get to watch what he or she does through the windows. We’ll be doing it the next year, and the next year and beyond.

“… It’s a very intuitive marriage,” Richter added. “Artists are always looking at real estate, and real estate really looks at artists because it’s artists who gentrify neighborhoods, it’s artists who improve property values, it’s artists who make neighborhoods the types of places where people want to have dinner and walk around and live and eat.”

Beyond that, having such places has set every pore of the local artistic community abuzz.

“It’s very important for a lot of talented people that just didn’t have an avenue for showing their work and for having sales,” Bowers said.

That includes local artist Celeste Cooning, who has taken over the storefront at 123 E Main Street with a freshly-cut installation in her signature style. Cooning creates 3-D environments with paper. Experienced at installing in a variety of environments, Cooning’s hand-crafted creations are site-specific with lighting that sharpens and expands upon her work once the sun sets. Huge tree fronds, fluttery botanical forms and a honeycombed hearts are only a few of the forms she’s worked with in the past.

“There is incredible artistic talent in Auburn, and it is wonderful to see it on display in multiple locations for the public to experience,” said Debby Deal, a board member of AVCA. “AVCA is a two-year-old organization, and we are so happy to have such support from the City and interest from local artists. Art is the soul of any community, and we are glad to be part of it.”

The artwork of other talented members of the AVCA organization remains on display at the City Hall Gallery at 10 West Main Street through  March 28. In the City Hall Gallery, 12 artists showcase 33 works of art showcasing photography, watercolor, mosaic and pastel. It is presented by the City of Auburn and Auburn Parks, Arts and Recreation.

“Our long term goal is to have a permanent site,” said Lyndemere. “We believe the arts in Auburn are underrepresented. And we believe that art saves souls. It does. It would be so lovely if our community could have a connection to the arts, in addition to the symphony and theater. Because it does enrich lives. And we have a lot of people who could be enriched.”

As part of the Storefronts Auburn initiative, Auburn Valley Creative Arts members host workshops, offer demonstrations and artist get togethers.