New This Month

posts that will be on the front page

DARK TIMES

Harlequin’s 2026 season begins with a classic thriller, Wait Until Dark by Frederick Knott, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher. To heighten the film noir fun, the production is presented in glorious monochrome, with black and white sets and costumes, and make-up and light trickery to mimic the look of a classic black-and-white thriller. To assist both actress Helen Harvester who plays Susan, and the production team, the company brought in a sight-impaired consultant, Chandra Scheschy, a theater professional recommended by the Washington State Department for the Blind. The play runs January 23 – February 8.

Capital City Chorus of Olympia’s Chorale to Perform at Carnegie Hall. Concert and Fundraiser in Olympia January 17

Capital City Chorus of Olympia Chorale has been invited to New York City this May to perform ‘It Is Happiness’ at Carnegie Hall. In support of CCC Chorale members who will be traveling to New York, CCC is hosting the ‘It Is Happiness’ concert fundraiser which will take place Saturday, January 17 at United Churches of Olympia. The concert fundraiser will include a performance of ‘It Is Happiness,’ and will commemorate the seventh anniversary of Oliver’s death. To further celebrate Mary Oliver’s life and body of work, the event will include a live reading of Oliver’s poetry, in collaboration with Browsers Bookshop.

hummingbird studio: “Art Belongs To Everyone”

Many who come to hummingbird studio are defined by our society as disabled, and many are not. There are volunteers from Evergreen along with community members who just love to create and be part of this community of creators. “It’s the people,” said Willow, a former Evergreen College student who first discovered the studio through the college’s work-study program, but keeps coming back. “They (the leaders) do an amazing job of creating an environment where people feel safe and relaxed,” Willow said. hummingbird sudio is an inclusive art space where everyone is welcome, with people of all kinds and all abilities creating art together. At its foundation is a belief in the transformative power of art.

198 Artists’ Postcards in This Year’s Annual Postcard Show at SPSCC

South Puget Sound Community College’s Fine Art Postcard Exhibition 2026 includes 198 artworks by the local creative community of all ages, and the content of the pieces — on the theme “Out of Order” — is as diverse as the artists themselves. The annual show is the college’s best-attended exhibition and its most important in that it raises money for the college’s Leonor R. Fuller Gallery. It also provides a window into the minds of the contributors.

Art Story: Reflection of an Artist Couple at Tacoma Community College

Painters David Noah Giles and CJ Swanson, who, after 33 years as a married couple, are having their first two-person exhibition this month. The show runs Jan. 2-30. It is titled: Art Story: Reflection of an Artist Couple. It can be seen in The Art Gallery at Tacoma Community College. “This exhibition will give the viewer some insight into two artists’ lives together,” Swanson said. She and her husband view their experience to be similar to the experiences of other artist couples such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, Elaine and Willem de Kooning and others who came before them in art history.

Bella Kim’s Jogakbo Art and Classes to Grace Arbutus this Spring

Bella Kim will lead a community workshop at Arbutus Folk School in 2026 inspired by the resourcefulness of Jogakbo and the practice of transforming leftover and discarded materials into new meaning. Her art is both delicate and large in scale. As you encounter her pieces, the myriad of brightly colored, intricately stitched pieces in swirling matrices envelope you in a light embrace, seemingly inviting you to dance with them. When you look closer they are made of sterner stuff, recycled woven plastic packaging with writings and messages therein tell of more serious environmental concerns, and bring us necessarily back down to earth again.

Wild Child’s New Year’s Menu: “Eat the Rich”

Olympia’s family friendly Wild Child Taproom’s openness to a wider swath of the community is evidenced by their involvement with Arts Walk and SafePlace, and by the range of their events programming, whether organized in-house, or, in the case of music, by CapCity Presents, or in New Year’s Eve’s “Eat the Rich” by Capital City Pride, or by the many other individuals and organizations, large and small, who’ve come to see Wild Child as a welcoming venue.

Art of Light at AHA Museum for the Holidays

Light in the Dark, an exhibition of illuminated art at Olympia’s Arts & Heritage Alliance Museum, can be viewed not only from inside the museum but also from the sidewalk outside.
“We wanted to do something that would lighten our windows and celebrate the holiday season without leaning into any particular holiday,” said Ruth Kodish-Eskind, the museum’s exhibitions and programs manager. “And we wanted something that folks could engage with even when the museum is closed.” The panels describing the pieces are double-sided, so passersby can get the full experience.

Matilda the Musical at Tacoma Little Theatre

Given the flights of fancy of both the Roald Dahl novel and the Danny DeVito film of Matilda, it seemed only a matter of time for Matilda to get the musical treatment, which it did in 2010 with music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and book by Dennis Kelly. Now, Matilda the Musical is hitting Tacoma Little Theatre through December 28, directed by Jennifer York, with a sizable cast of child and adult actors, led by Hazel Barnett and Nell Edlund, trading off performances as Matilda.

The Carpenter’s House — A New Multidisciplinary Events Space

The Carpenter’s House was envisaged by Justin La Gra, who wanted to manifest a warm, intimate, and inclusive community space for creativity and art made for real people with real materials. Murphy and Ruiz joined the project, with their own specialized skills, resulting in a creative venue, involving a functioning carpentry studio, an art gallery, a live music venue, a community gathering space, and a developing broadcast and media studio. They say that it began as one person’s original idea that grew stronger with a collaborative vision, which was shaped by the community around them.

© Copyright Oly Arts, all rights reserved 2015-2026
Skip to content