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.

Oly Arts Now Offering Writing Classes!

Oly Arts is now offering classes! Hone your writing skills and learn more about the art and craft of writing. Our first two classes, which take place in November 2025 and have limited space, are: John Longenbaugh teaching “The 10-Minute Play,” and Alec Clayton teaching “Writing for Newspapers & Magazines.”

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.”

Lynn Di Nino talks TRIPOD in Tacoma

Tacoma’s TRIPOD began more than five years ago, where Lynn Di Nino brings artists of all stripes around to show off what they’ve done, what they’re working on, and where they’re going. Artists will come up on stage, readied with a projector, and show off 50 images over 15 minutes, guiding the audience through a story, or just giving them an inside look at their creative processes. The effect is somewhere between a TED Talk, show-and-tell, and a friend sharing their vacation slides.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Celebrates its 90th Season

Melanie Ransom, Harlequin Productions’ costume department manager, says, “We go (to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival) every year. When we’re driving down and we get to the Ashland exit, my heart starts beating a little bit faster. I am just so excited to be there. It’s always a slam dunk for me. it’s a really special place.”

Unique Immersive Show “Our House” Revived for July-August 2025

Our House, written and directed by John Longenbaugh, is inspired by Thornton Wilder’s classic play Our Town. This unique immersive experience is back for a limited run beginning on July 17. The 2024 production received rave reviews: “Nothing short of a triumph. By all means find yourself to Our House,” Margie Deck, Ineffable Twaddle; “enlarges what theatre can be,” James O’Barr, Oly Arts; “there’s also magic…a liveliness that theatre strives for” Gemma Wilson, Seattle Times — as well as a Critic’s Choice from Oly Arts.

Collaborative Paintings at Tobin Gallery: Jazz in color

“This work needs to be seen by more than the 120 people who attended the opening,” said Tobin Ropes, owner of the new Tobin Gallery in downtown Tacoma, which is showing Schmitt & Hall: Collaborative Improvisations through August 15. Thirty-one Schmitt/Hall paintings are on display in the gallery, mostly figurative, most telling a story. While the artists cite German expressionists such as Max Beckmann as an influence, they’ve veered away from the darkness of expressionist paintings. Rather, these works feature color.

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