by Christian Carvajal with Ned Hayes
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. We’d met when I interviewed him for a Weekly Volcano article about the Capitol Playhouse board, of which he was a member. He demonstrated his Oly boosterism further 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. Although he’d previously worked as a journalist and magazine editor, Hayes was busy with his day job at Intel, so he offered to recruit me as the founding, managing editor. This new publication would put a spotlight on the arts in our region. Appropriately, we named it OLY ARTS. I was nervous but thrilled to accept.
OLY ARTS was given a bold mandate from the jump: Instead of just being an online blog or digital publication, Hayes had research from his past work at Adobe that demonstrated there was still a great deal of life in print publications – and early advertising partners like the Ballet Northwest, Capital Heating, Twin Star Credit Union and the Washington Center for the Performing Arts felt the same. In summer 2016, we debuted the first new print publication that covered the arts in the South Sound. We were simultaneously launching a complete website, a podcast, two mobile apps and a new print magazine, so we were nothing if not ambitious.
And time was not on our side. We planned to distribute the first, full-length print version of the publication at Lakefair, only two weeks away from our initial meeting. I’d been writing professionally for years, but editing and creating a complete, bimonthly magazine was a new challenge. I hastily commissioned articles from friends and fellow Volcano writers while educating myself on brand creation, print publication, online advertising, AP Stylebook, and everything else I’d need to know to meet our delivery deadline. Hayes and I drafted an eight-page demo issue to help attract advertisers, then set to work on the longer, official debut we’d hand out to fairgoers and offer free in local shops.
Hayes contracted with former Starbucks corporate designer Dorothy Wong to create a layout style that would leverage the best of the web, plus enhancements to make our coverage readable, actionable and quickly consumed by an audience used to smartphones. This initial design was modified by layout maestro Adam Blodgett during our first five years. Today, many news organizations have adopted a similar style of content and layout: Axios calls it “smart brevity.” Back then, we were making it up as we went along – and it worked. I see traces of Wong’s careful work in OLY ARTS’ print and online incarnations even now, a decade later.
In 2016, Hayes and I made crucial editorial decisions that continue to resonate in current issues. For example, OLY ARTS’ articles, even critical essays, still lean toward the positive. We consider this publication a megaphone to promote local arts organizations that
need all the marketing assistance they can get so, while we may critique local arts venues or particular exhibitions, we do so with great affection and support.
It’s still surprising to me that we made our first deadlines and delivered a print publication for Lakefair. That first edition was followed by an even longer one two months later, which previewed Olympia’s fall arts attractions. Our early print editions distinguished themselves with fantastic layout from Blodgett and quality writing from Jonah Barrett, Guy Bergstrom, Alec Clayton, Jennifer Crain, Molly Gilmore, Kelli Samson, Kristopher Stewart and, beginning in its second issue, Adam McKinney. Meanwhile, Hayes and I continued to work on the digital version at OlyArts.org, a labor of love that included a thriving South Sound arts calendar.
Soon we expanded distribution and coverage beyond Olympia. We assigned writers to cover arts events in regions from Centralia to Tacoma and, occasionally, Seattle. We heard from readers around the world who were visiting the South Sound and appreciated our coverage of the local arts scene. We partnered with such local arts festivals as Lacey Arts, Music in the Park, Olympia ArtsWalk, Oly Old Time Festival, Procession of the Species and others to foreground their creativity and vitality.
Over those first five years, OLY ARTS became the publication of record for arts in the South Sound. The Washington Post contacted us in 2018 to find out more about Olympia, and the resulting article featured many of our favorite arts destinations and quoted Hayes by name. In 2019, the Seattle Times contacted OLY ARTS to find out more about changes at Harlequin. We transitioned from a newsprint version into a full-glossy magazine, which attracted even more interest from advertisers and readers.
OLY ARTS also helped produce various shows as a way of further elevating the arts in our region. We sponsored productions at Harlequin and other local theaters and sometimes created our own shows. In 2019, for example, Hayes produced Shakespeare’s The Tempest on stage at the Port, sponsored by OLY ARTS, which was to be his “swan song” in the South Sound as he moved to Portland a few months later. That production featured me and other OLY ARTS folks alongside Equity actors who’d worked at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. It showcased how arts coverage could intertwine with active participation. Hayes remains on OLY ARTS’ Board of Directors and supports the publication actively from afar.
Over the years, OLY ARTS has tried many ways of elevating the arts; some worked, some did not. For example, in the early years, OLY ARTS added a podcast lineup that expanded to five episodes per week. I hosted one of those, a theatrical interview series called Sound Stages, and recorded and/or edited the other four. We were happy to showcase our writers as hosts of series that covered Olympia’s book and culinary scenes along with theater and the visual arts. Unfortunately, none of those podcast series survived the 2020 pandemic.
OLY ARTS did, however. Arts marketing manager Billy Thomas assumed the role of associate publisher, and soon took on full publication duties. After the pandemic, Thomas
worked with Hayes to shift the publication to a nonprofit model. Hayes and I took reduced positions as new faces and voices stepped up to manage a thriving publication with active readership and a solid advertising and nonprofit fundraising base of support.
Today, longtime Olympia writer Alec Clayton serves as editor in chief, theater maestro John Serembe is OLY ARTS’ publisher, the capable Gabi Clayton is its online editor, and Lynette Charters Serembe serves on its board of directors. As a registered, federal nonprofit, OLY ARTS continues to fulfill its extraordinary and much-needed mission.
Despite managerial changes, the publication’s mission has never faltered. It continues to fill the role Hayes and I imagined as “your leading guide to Thurston County entertainment.” It promotes everything from Capital Lakefair to Pride Month, from Oly Old Time Festival to Emerald City Music, from book signings to Olympia Zine Fest. We tell the truth and elevate every arts event – Scrappy little puppet and storytelling performances get the same affectionate treatment as larger companies like Harlequin.
And now we’re a decade old. I can scarcely believe it myself. In the imperiled, impoverished environment of arts coverage, 10 years is a virtual eternity. I’m incredibly proud of what OLY ARTS became and continues to be: a lighthouse in an age of seemingly unending awful news. It proves Thurston County is still rich with the same creative energy that put it on rock music’s map of upstart capitals in the 1990s. I believe as long as Olympians feel driven to tell stories that comment on the world they inhabit and invent fantastic worlds that could come to be, we’ll need OLY ARTS to amplify their efforts region-wide. So happy birthday, old friend, and here’s to what you’ll show us in decades to come.
See this article in the Spring 2026 Print Edition.