Arts Spaces & Companies

Patton Oswalt Presents Pig and McCabe & Mrs. Miller

These two films depict the Pacific Northwest in two radically different times. In Robert Altman’s classic revisionist Western, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Warren Beatty moves into a mining town in 1900s Washington, trying his best to become a big shot in the middle of a boom period. Michael Sarnoski’s new classic, Pig, explores the fringes of modern-day Portland, with Nicolas Cage starring as a reclusive former chef whose truffle pig gets stolen. The films – showing at Capitol Theater November 15 & 16 – showcase the Pacific Northwest’s natural wonders as an overwhelming force that has to be bent to, not conquered; and both films have an elegiac atmosphere that hangs over them.

The Olympia Armory Creative Campus Looks to Reconnect With Its History As a Community Hub

Since the Olympia Armory’s construction in the late 1930s, the building has cemented an illustrious legacy, from serving as a facility for the Washington National Guard to hosting regular sporting events and community dances. The Armory, nestled off of the tree-lined Legion Way just outside Olympia’s downtown corridor, will house eight nonprofit anchor partners who are set to hold long-term leases and programming inside the Armory Creative Campus. They will carry out their regular programming in addition to special events and workshops, with community access in mind.  

The South Sound Story Guild‘s Monthly Story Swaps and Annual “Tellabration!” Fundraiser

On the second Wednesday of the month, the South Sound Story Guild gathers at Olympia’s Harbor House, where attendees preserve and celebrate the art of oral storytelling. Whether a funny yarn passed down through the generations, a spooky legend or the tale of a great mythological hero, the South Sound Story Guild holds space for members of the guild and the greater community to be entertained, learn something new, and share their own stories.

Murder Most Moral

It’s autumn, and time for a classic whodunnit — and you don’t get more classic than Agatha Christie. What most people enjoy about her mysteries are the ingenious plots, the wickedly complicated alibis and ruses, and of course the eccentric detectives — brittle but brilliant Mrs. Marple, delightfully dippy Tommy and Tuppence, and the “little grey cells’ of that Belgian prodigy, Monsieur Hercule Poirot.
Starring John Serembe as Hercule Poirot, and Russ Holm as Monsieur Bouc, and directed by Scott Nolte, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express plays Oct. 3-Nov. 2 at Harlequin Productions.

Oly Arts Fall Winter 2025 Print Edition

The Fall/Winter print edition of OLY ARTS N0. 34 is published! Here is a list of the articles and where in the Olympia area you can pick up your FREE copy. Enjoy!

s’gʷi gʷi ʔ altxʷ The House of Welcome at The Evergreen State College Celebrates 30Year Anniversary

Nestled in the heart of the beautiful and lush grounds of The Evergreen State College is s’gʷi gʷi ʔ altxʷ House of Welcome, also known as the Longhouse, on the Indigenous Arts campus. The gathering place hosts many opportunities for Native artists as well as workshops providing a nurturing common ground to share art, wisdom, cultural practices and experiences which educate and empower the community. The Longhouse helps promote self-determination and cultural resilience, representing, facilitating, and nurturing Pacific Rim Native arts and culture by creating programs through grants that create and host Native arts classes. These programs connect Native artists with students and collaborators.

SPSCC’s 2025 SW Washington Regional Juried Exhibition

There’s a sense of spaciousness and silence in the art of the Southwest Washington Regional Juried Exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College in such works as Danny Schreiber’s graphite-on-paper Lost Between the Stars and Foam and Jeanette Jones’ Fire Hazard, a still life that illuminates, as gallery manager Sean Barnes put it, “a quiet moment of rest.”

25 Years of Oly Ink

The Sunday, August 10 art show celebrating Spidermonkey’s 25th anniversary features artists that have become part of the Olympia tattoo circle over the past few decades, some stretching as far back as Bryan Childs’ early days over 30 years ago. As Childs says, these pieces will not be physical tattoos, but rather “a gallery of paintings that dream of being tattoos tailored for the back.”

Bear’s Souper Sunday Cookbook: Recipes for Hungry Animals

Bear’s Souper Sunday Cookbook: Recipes for Hungry Animals is a charming cookbook for the whole family with recipes and stories by Olympia author Chris Hyde and illustrations by Olympia artist Roxanna Groves. The Souper Sunday movement began with an idea that came to Hyde to foster community togetherness and feed his neighbors in a world isolated after the Covid pandemic. What started out as a Facebook group that offered free soup to community members flourished into something bigger including this book.

The Book of Mormon arrives in Olympia

In his New York Times review, critic Ben Brantley compared The Book of Mormon, coming to Olympia’s Washington Center, favorably to The King and I and The Sound of Music, adding “… “but rather than confronting tyrannical charismatic men with way too many children, our heroes must confront a one-eyed genocidal warlord… and a defeated, defensive group of villagers, riddled with AIDS… In setting these dark themes to sunny melodies, The Book of Mormon achieves something like a miracle.”

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