“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.
In recognition of 40 years of dedicated service to the performing arts in Thurston County and the South Sound, Washington Center Production Manager Roger McIntosh has been selected as the 2026 Excellence in the Arts Commitment to the Arts Awardee. The Center’s Star Dressing Room has been officially named in his honor in recognition of the organization’s “deep appreciation for four decades of service, care, commitment, and the philosophy that guided his work,” according to a Center Marketing and Sales Director Tineke Raak.
Double Shot Theater Festival in Tacoma is a kind of theatrical 100-meter dash. For roughly 20 years (festival creator Bryan Willis isn’t quite sure when it all got started), Double Shot has been assembling directors, actors, and playwrights to complete the Herculean task of writing, memorizing, rehearsing, lighting, costuming, and eventually performing 10-minute plays, all in about 24 hours. Saturday, April 18, and Sunday, April 19.
The print edition of Oly Arts magazine is published! This is our 10th anniversary edition and it includes The Oly Arts Origin Story and much more! Find out where you can pick up a free copy and/or read and download the PDF version.