Memorial Gallery, Seattle-Based Firm Invites Americans to “Bring Out Their Dead”

Seattle, Washington. March 29, 2008 — Millions of Americans share a secret. Packed away in closets and attics all across the country there are millions of plastic and cardboard boxes containing the cremated remains of deceased family members and loved ones.

Now, a young Seattle-based firm, Memorial Gallery is inviting families to bring these boxes out of hiding and celebrate the lives of their loved ones by placing their cremated remains in a work of art that doesn’t look anything like a traditional cremation urn.

“Traditional metal and stone cremation urns, look like, well… they look like cremation urns, kind of a gloomy reminder of death,” says Memorial Gallery co-founder, Michelle Bailey. “Our urns don’t look like cremation urns at all. That’s because they are inspirational works of art handcrafted by the artists themselves from materials such as blown glass, natural wood, pottery and mixed media. No one will even know it’s an urn unless they’re told.”

Bailey, a CPA, and her husband, a marketing professional, launched the start-up just a little over a year ago. Today Memorial Gallery offers art urns that bear little resemblance to the traditional mass-produced urns for sale at local funeral homes. Memorial Gallery urn designs range from a spinning “prayer wheel” which smoothly rotates on a turntable when you give it a gentle spin, to richly painted boxes that can be personalized with hand-lettered calligraphy. There’s even an artist who will create a custom urn of decorative “bone” china using the ashes of your loved one (cremated remains are mostly bone fragments).

“It’s a great reason to buy a gorgeous piece of art,” says Bailey. “But it’s more than that, too. It’s a way for families to honor and celebrate life, and to leave future generations with an inspirational symbol of their family legacy.”

In addition to the art urns, Memorial Gallery also offers Cremation Jewelry —necklace pendants designed to hold a small portion of the cremated ashes or lock of hair in a small compartment—and Biodegradable Urns for eco-friendly land or sea burial.

For additional information about Memorial Gallery and their innovative ways to create enduring family legacies, visit http://www.memorialgallery.com/