The Fall/Winter print edition of Oly Arts magazine is published! Copies of the printed version are available free of charge throughout the area – find out where you can pick up a copy and see a list of articles in this issue.
Since her youth, local artist Kaia Selene has been driven to make art. Creativity has helped her to survive. In this Art Walk show at Lantern Records, there will be an array of wall art, miniature art, wearables, plus tea and treats. Selene has appeared as various personas and will be making her grand solo debut performance at this show as Miss Pink Pearls.
Oly Arts’ consistent presence in this community shows that there will always be a story to share, none of which would be possible without the important contribution of arts education in our public schools. Arts education has always been a target for budget cuts, often resulting in limited opportunities for students in schools. Oly Arts invited arts educators from North Thurston, Olympia, and Tumwater school districts to comment on the impact of the arts in students’ lives and describe the importance of the arts in our society.
A visit to the Kitsap Forest Theater, an hour from Olympia, is as much about the place as the plays. The productions, often old-fashioned musicals on a grand scale, boast strong production values, winning performers and well-played live music. But the theater itself is arguably the star of every show. “The space is magical,” said Gala Lindvall, a producer for the theater, owned by the Mountaineers. “As you walk down to it, it’s like it was 100 years ago. We take audiences on a journey away from regular life.” Next up at the outdoor theater, on a 466-acre nature preserve near Bremerton, is Oliver, opening July 25.
Line is the way we first learn to make a mark. From crayon drawings of infants to Kathe Kollwitz to a Leonardo da Vinci cartoon, quality of line has varied ways of evoking and portraying our experiences of life around us. Line is subtly seductive in its simplicity or can be bold, dynamic, and dramatic. The emotions we can evoke using line are as varied as any gestural mark possibly could be. “Form a Line” at Childhoods End Gallery July 31 through September 20 s a visual exploration of observations from nature through expression in line.
The summer print edition of Oly Arts magazine is published! Copies of the printed version are available free of charge throughout the area – find out where you can pick up a copy and see a list of articles in this issue.
“The point of the studio tour is to allow people to go behind the scenes and see how the work is made.” said Susan Aurand, acting president of the South Sound Studio Tour’s board of directors. Many artists are sharing their studio space with colleagues for the tour, happening the last weekend of May in Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater, so there’ll be about 80 artists involved, showing their work and offering insights into their methods.
The 2026 Center Salon will take place Mothers Day weekend, Saturday, May 9, in the Washington Center Black Box Theater with cabaret-style seating to provide an immersive ambiance. In commemoration of Mother’s Day weekend, many pieces included in this year’s Center Salon will tie back to the themes of mothers and motherhood. This includes a slideshow that will be projected ahead of the salon, featuring family photos of performers and audience members.
Similar to a vibrant garden, our arts scene in Thurston County is filled with a variety of artistic companies and artists who are consistently adding color, beauty, joy, and their own lovely fragrance to our lives. Let Oly Arts be your “florist” this spring and give ideas of what you can add to the bouquet of your lives: TAO’s Anna Considers Mars — Harlequin’s Where the Summit Meets the Stars — OFT’s The Hobbit — and SPSCC’s Anastasia the Musical.
In May 2016, in the best possible way, Olympia writer Ned Hayes was struck by lightning. His third novel, The Eagle Tree, was scaling bestseller lists as speedily as its neurodivergent narrator climbed trees. Hayes demonstrated his Oly boosterism when he decided to spend some of that authorial windfall on a new publication to highlight the manifold arts presentations and opportunities in the South Sound. This new publication would put a spotlight on the arts in our region. Appropriately, we named it Oly Arts.