posts that will be on the front page
Molly Gilmore “Arts Aficionado” #12 — September 16, 2026
Grand Stories, Van Tuinen Retrospective and Last Chance for ‘Kiss’
— StoryOly Grand Slam
— 57 years of art
— ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’
Audio artist Rob Patrick, long-time program director of the Olympia Film Society, has been awarded a fellowship by the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts). It has enabled Patrick to complete an experimental audio documentary. If Your Heart Hurts, Rub a Little Dirt On It: MGM and the Beginning of Everything is a free-form sound portrait of movie-making in the Hollywood studios during the 1930’s, and of some of the women who became stars during that decade.
Molly Gilmore “Arts Aficionado” #11 — September 9, 2026
Catch Blues by the Water and Laughs on Stage
— Blues benefit
— ‘Laughing’ ladies are back
— Last weekend to go ‘Barefoot’
Oly Arts is happy to publish part two of the introduction to the new column of culinary and artistic delight by the mysterious Phantom: “The Phantom of the Diner,” — “On Edible Art, an Introduction, Part the Second.”
“Keep on Laughing” by Paul Elliott is Olympia Little Theatre’s 87th season opener. This wacky and playful sequel to “Exit Laughing,” which was performed by Olympia Little Theatre in March, combines rapid-fire dialogue and plenty of entendre, presenting poignant undertones that explore an enduring question: are you ever too old to have fun? The main cast of “Exit Laughing” and director Dave Marsh have resumed their roles for this production.
Oly Arts is happy to announce the beginning — joyfully starting in September 2026 — of a new column of culinary and artistic delight, “The Phantom of the Diner,” by a mysterious and erudite writer who identifies only as The Phantom, and who asserts that “There simply must be some right perspective in the world, … a hierarchy of principle and right order to our existence, even in our world of postmodern relativity.” So welcome, dear reader, to the world of The Phantom.
Molly Gilmore “Arts Aficionado” #10 — September 2, 2026
Music on the Porch, Crowds at the Harbor, and ‘Kiss’ in Lakewood
— Porches become stages
— Crowds by the water
— ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’
https://olyarts.org/arts-aficionado-week-of-september-2-2026/
Because voters approved a one-tenth of one percent Olympia sales-tax increase (now in its third year) to fund the Inspire Olympia grant program, the city recently announced $3.3 million in grants for 2026-27, with $2.1 million awarded to 49 arts nonprofits. Thanks to this, Olympia has gained a theater and a gallery as well as other opportunities for the community to experience and participate in arts of all kinds.
Molly Gilmore “Arts Aficionado” #9 — August 26, 2026
— Sleater-Kinney Rockin’ the Block
— Art on the Farm
— ‘Improbable Peck of Plays’ returns
— ‘Broadcast News’ on Big Screen
https://olyarts.org/arts-aficionado-week-of-august-26-2026/
The woods come alive in the theatrical soundscape performance, part of the August 28 book launch at Browsers Bookshop of “Menagerie: A Cluster of Loss,” published by Countershade Press, a new micro press for queer speculative fiction run by husbands Jonah and Austin Barnett. Following the performance, Jonah Barnett will host a Q & A with Cecelia Meade, the author of the story “The Woods,” one of five by local writers in “Menagerie.”