posts that contain mini-bios of our writers
The Funk Fest is seen by the organizers, Ecstatic Sound Collective, as “more than just music—it’s a celebration of community and culture.” To that end, downtown Washington Street will be transformed into a lively street party. This 2nd annual Olympia Funk Festival is an incredible lineup of talent coming to three Capital City venues—the Olympia Ballroom, the Olympia Center, and the historic Capitol Theatre!
Many of the South Sound’s best theater and visual arts critics write for OLY ARTS. We asked six of them to highlight some of their favorite visual and performance art shows from 2024, and we congratulate and celebrate the Olympia and Tacoma-area artists selected. Due to the limitation we put on the critics of no more than two or three shows, we are aware of and acknowledge that many great shows and artists were not picked. We are lucky to live in such a vibrant creative community.
There is a world of fun planned for this year’s Lacey Cultural Celebration, happening Saturday, Feb. 1 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at St. Martin’s University. There will be dance and music, activities for children and adults and food vendors from around the world. Jeanette Sieler at Lacey Parks, Culture & Recreation advises to “come early and plan to stay the whole day … don’t try to do it all in an hour.”
Lynette Charters, now showing through the end of January at the gallery at Tacoma Community College is having fun setting the record straight. “The Matildas are the joyful part,” she said. “The Missing Women series poses the question of why women aren’t included in exhibitions and museums and history, but the Matildas are all about what women achieve and how important their achievements are.”
Steven Miller is a local artist and photographer with work in Tacoma Art Museum’s collections. The museum approached him about creating a workshop on queer photography. “As part of his practice, he’s been experimenting with cyanotypes, and we wanted to host a workshop about this unique photographic process,” said Rachel Ervin. Director of Marketing and Communications at TAM.
Tacoma Light Trail, December 31 through January 12, brings much-needed illumination to the dark winter streets of Tacoma. The Light Trail will line the streets of Tacoma with light art installations, and the entire free event will be blessed by the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. Food trucks will be on hand to make this a perfect family-friendly way to ring in the new year.
Olympia’s own Billboard hit singer and songwriter, Gretchen Christopher, whose music career began with her 1959 hit “Mister Blue,” has performed solo and with her group, The Fleetwoods. She will be releasing a new album, “21: The Times of Our Lives (Tomorrow is Not Promised)” in the near future.
The current Childhood’s End Gallery show, up through December 23, is visually impressive and stimulating and yet simultaneously very relaxing to be with, demonstrating the versatility, and diversity of paper. The variety of styles and skills of the artists are cohesively unified by their shared love of the material.
Olympia Family Theatre, which has closed its adjacent all-ages space and reduced staff hours, is hard at work on raising the money it needs to keep the theater on solid footing going forward. Dean Shellman, chair of the non-profit theater’s board, said, “We’re carefully looking for savings opportunities that don’t change the experience for our audiences and students. OFT provides magical moments for families, and that won’t change.”
In this rendition of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play at Lakewood Playhouse there’s an added meta structure where the actors we see on stage are playing actors in the ‘40s, who are then playing the characters we know from It’s a Wonderful Life. “You’re an audience within an audience in the play within a play, which I think some people will be surprised by,” says director Brittany D. Henderson.