Dem Dong by Nguyen Van Thuong Opening this First Thursday at ARTS at King Street Station
Seattle, WA – The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture is opening two exhibitions that explore immigrant resilience and how art can bridge the past and present: Eight Years of Inscape AiR: Resistance and Belonging out of the Historic Immigration Building and Kho Tàng Nhạc Vàng / South Vietnam’s Golden Music Archive.
“The Inscape AiR Program was initiated by Inscape artist tenant Susanna Bluhm and made us reflect more deeply on how to invigorate the space as the former immigration building in the C-ID,” says Eight Years curator Tara Tamaribuchi. “It was a truly unique program in this nation — prioritizing diasporic artists, and one we hope to someday bring back. Together their work is a huge disavowal of the xenophobic thinking that fuels our current political reality, and an inspiration for viewers to resist and finding belonging and home in the many wonderful communities of this region.”
Participating artists in Eight Years: Tara Tamaribuchi, Curator, Carina A. del Rosario, Ching-In Chen + Cassie Mira, Jo Cosme, Sophia Fang, Sabella Flagg, Pete Fleming, Alice Gosti / MALACARNE, Barry Johnson, Haein Kang, Emily Tanner-Mclean, Lila Thomas.
“These songs survived bombs, bans, and oceans,” says Golden Music Archive curator, Thanh Tân. “Kho Tàng Nhạc Vàng invites us to listen not only with our ears, but with memory—and to feel the ache and beauty of everything that was almost lost. As the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, I created this exhibit to make sense of the music that raised me. Every vinyl crackle is a voice calling home.”
Both exhibitions are on view June 5 – Aug. 9, 2025. ARTS at King Street Station is open Wednesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., and until 8 p.m. on First Thursdays. It’s located at 303 S. Jackson Street, Top Floor, Seattle, WA 98104. Admission is FREE.
Join us for the opening reception on First Thursday, June 5, at 6 p.m. to hear songs from the Golden Music Archive spun by curator Thanh Tân. Drinks and light snacks will be provided.
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About ARTS at King Street Station
ARTS at King Street Station is a dynamic space for arts and culture in the heart of the city dedicated to increasing opportunities for people of color to generate and present their work. Housed above Seattle’s historic King Street Station, this 7,500-square-foot gallery and cultural space includes a studio for artists-in-residence and offices for the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.
Exhibitions and programs come to the gallery through an open application and are selected by a cohort of King Street Station Advisors. These advisors are a group of community leaders and arts/culture enthusiasts who work with our staff to ensure that the programming at ARTS at King Street Station centers racial equity, represents and welcomes diverse communities, and showcases many creative disciplines. Advisors serve a two-year term.
About the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture
Formed in 1971 with a mission to activate and sustain Seattle through arts and culture, the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture manages the City’s public art program, cultural partnerships grant programs, The Creative Advantage arts education initiative, and cultural facilities such as the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute and ARTS at King Street Station.
In alignment with the City’s Race and Social Justice Initiative, we seek new solutions that use arts as a strategy to drive not only our office, but the City as a whole toward racial equity and social justice. We will continue to break barriers and build arts-integrated tools that challenge the status quo and push us toward the inclusive society we envision.
We are supported by the 16-member Seattle Arts Commission, citizen volunteers appointed by the Mayor and City Council.
