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Design firm Civilization selected to create Connecting Artworks Project for the AIDS Memorial Pathway

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Design firm Civilization was selected to create a series of artworks conceived as a “connective tissue” that will create thematic elements across multiple sites at The AIDS Memorial Pathway. These artworks will be at points around the pathway to help identify the multiple art zones, and guide individuals towards them. The artworks will be located within three art zones specified in The AMP Master Art Plan.

In 2020, the plaza over Seattle’s Capitol Hill Light Rail Station and the north edge of Cal Anderson Park will become home to The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway. The way-finding artworks designed by Civilization will help visitors find the art zones from the transit entrances/exits, through and around the plaza, and to Cal Anderson Park. They will allow visitors to encounter the different experiences provided by the art pieces along The AMP, create attractive sightlines, and connect all of The AMP without using formal text signage.

The AMP will offer visitors opportunities for meaningful participation in the ongoing fight to end HIV/AIDS and discrimination that can arise in a community during a crisis. It will be a reminder of our collective need to be active, remain vigilant, and stand ready to fight scapegoating and discrimination however and whenever they may arise. A passionate group of volunteers and community leaders, including people living with HIV, people of color, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, are working to make The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway a reality.

Civilization is a design practice that builds identity systems, digital experiences, printed materials, environmental graphics and exhibitions that are engaging, empathetic, sustainable and create meaningful connections. They work on a variety of projects for public, private and non–profit clients that share their commitment to creating positive change and promoting greater insights about our world.

Their practice is a recipient of the National Design Award for Communication Design from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in honor of “excellence, innovation, and enhancement on the quality of daily life.” Their internationally recognized work is included in the permanent collection of SFMOMA and the Milton Glaser Design Archives at the School of Visual Arts, has won numerous awards including a Webby Award for Best Activist Website, and is regularly featured in print publications as well as most major global media outlets such as The Guardian, The New York Times, The Huffington Post and NPR.

Indigenous Art Installation Debuts on King Street Station Plaza

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Free celebration includes blessing, and storytelling.
Friday, June 21, 2019, Noon – 3 pm
King Street Station Plaza, 303 S. Jackson Street at the corner of 4th Avenue S., Seattle

Brings the Medicine Sundial, a temporary public sculpture intended to bring healing, recognition, and awareness of this land’s First People by activating the King Street Station Plaza, debuts on Friday, June 21. The installation, which features six, 28’ tall fir tree poles that form a semicircle and public gathering place, is created by artist and architectural designer Kimberly Corinne Deriana (Mandan/Hidatsa) in collaboration with Coast Salish carvers. Brings the Medicine Sundial is Deriana’s first major public art commission.

On the day of the installation’s debut, the summer solstice, the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, in collaboration with yəhaw̓, will host an afternoon of celebration and arts engagement, aligning with its goal of creating an outdoor gathering area honoring the Earth. Planned activities – all free and open to the public – include a land acknowledgement and blessing by Denise Emerson (Skokomish/ Navajo) and storytelling by Jill and Sasha LaPointe (Upper Skagit/Nooksack).

The sculpture Brings the Medicine Sundial features free-standing tripod structures forming a sundial/dais and gathering circle that honor the Earth. Six fir lodgepoles will stand on what is now King Street Station Plaza for the first time since 1855, when the Treaty of Point Elliott outlawed the construction of Indigenous structures within Seattle city limits. The logs, sustainably harvested by Skokomish foresters, illustrate a shared cultural reference central to the theme of “lifting the sky” from the inaugural exhibition at ARTS at King Street Station, yəhaw̓ (on view through Aug. 4). yəhaw̓ is inspired by the Coast Salish story of Indigenous people from many tribes coming together and using poles to hoist the sky above the Earth. The word yəhaw̓ is used across languages to communicate and to form unity in this process.

yәhaw̓ is a year-long Indigenous community-based project culminating in the inaugural exhibition at Seattle Office Of Arts & Culture’s ARTS at King Street Station from March 23 – August 4, 2019. The exhibition is accompanied by a mentorship training cohort, satellite shows, residencies, vendor opportunities and partner programs. yәhaw̓ features the work of 200+ Indigenous creatives at over 20 sites across Seattle and beyond. Curated by Tracy Rector (Choctaw/Seminole), Asia Tail (Cherokee), and Satpreet Kahlon, yәhaw̓ celebrates the depth and diversity of Indigenous art made in the Pacific Northwest. Learn more at yehawshow.com.

About the artist: Kimberly Corinne Deriana is a Mandan and Hidatsa architectural designer and artist who specializes in sustainable, environmental, Indigenous architecture, housing, and planning. Her design methodologies focus on incorporating Indigenous lifestyle practices in relationship to past and present: design for seven generations. Deriana strives to achieve exceptional design by weaving together respect for individuality, honor for cultural identity, and appreciation for contemporary quality, manifested in the shape and structure of sustainable buildings and communities.

Facebook: @kimberlyderiana, @seattlearts, @yehawshow
Instagram: @kimberlycorinne, @seaofficeofarts, @yehawshow

Project Credits: Kimberly Corinne Deriana (Mandan/Hidatsa) – Artist & Designer; Rob Purser (Suquamish), Delbert Miller (Skokomish), Tina Kuckkahn-Miller (Ojibwe), Sayalts Miller (Skokomish) – Carvers; Absalom Shantz – Lead Fabricator; Christopher C. Shaw – Professional Engineer; Tracy Rector (Choctaw/Seminole), Asia Tail (Cherokee), Satpreet Kahlon – Curators; S Surface – King Street Station Program Lead, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.


Free celebration includes blessing, and storytelling.

Friday, June 21, 2019, Noon – 3 pm

The AIDS Memorial Pathway gets activated with temporary art this summer

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Five local artists will bring The AMP alive

The Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS), in partnership with The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway commissioned five artists to create a series of small-scale temporary artworks and performances for the AMPlify Memory Project. Beginning June through November 2019 the temporary art installations and performances will be situated at various locations in and around the future permanent site of The AMP, including the north edge of Cal Anderson Park and the Capitol Hill Light Rail Station.

The AMPlify Memory Project invited artists trained under the AMP’s Public Art Bootcamp to create temporary artworks that will bring awareness, remembrance, and reflection to HIV/AIDS, setting the stage for the permanently-sited projects.

Selected artists and projects:

Clyde Petersen

Drone Butch Blues, performance
Saturday, June 22; 6 p.m.
Cal Anderson Park, NW corner near the Chinese Scholar Tree

The music of Drone Butch Blues is based on writings by contemporary and historic GLBTQI authors like David Wojnarowicz, Joan Nestle and Tom Spanbauer. Topics of secret and forbidden love, sex with strangers, the lives of hustlers, the lasting impact of AIDS, historic events and rebellions, are all interwoven with personal narrative and oral histories. The entire album will be performed on June 22 at Cal Anderson Park, and a screen-printed poster with lyrics to Our Forbidden Country will be given to all attendees.

David Rue

A Physical Homage, performances
3rd Fridays, June through November, 5:30pm

The dancing body will be used to create a temporary living homage to those that dedicated their voice to the AIDS epidemic while also celebrating the lives of those affected by it. A series of curated pop up performances will exemplify the physical intersection of exuberance, effervescence, and resilience.

  • June 21, Students from the School of Spectrum Dance Theater, Capitol Hill light rail station, South Mezzanine;
  • July 19, Randy Ford, Capitol Hill light rail station, North Entrance;
  • August 16, Kyle Bernbach & Gilbert Small, Northwest Corner of Cal Anderson Park;
  • September 20, Nia Amina-Minor, Capitol Hill light rail station, North Entrance;
  • October 18, Marco Farroni, Cal Anderson Park, near fountain;
  • November 15, Dani Tirrell, Capitol Hill light rail station, North Entrance.

Gabriel Stromberg

Taking Shape
On view June 13—November 15, 2019
Sited on fencing along Broadway, between E John St and Denny Ave E.

Taking Shape interprets the evolution of queer history and identity through a sequence of forms. Starting with the pink triangle, the universal emblem of LGBTQI empowerment, a series of shapes progresses from contained and static geometry to the image of a circle—a symbol which evokes the concepts of connectedness and fluidity.

Pete Rush

Condom Quilt
On view June 13—November 15, 2019
Sited on fencing along Broadway, between E John St and Denny Ave E.

Alongside the rise of the AIDS epidemic was a sudden and widespread use of condoms. The natural act of having sex suddenly became a scary proposition for many. Condom wrappers attached in a patchwork quilt pattern will depict symbolic and human heart shapes, bringing joy and delight while transforming a symbol previously seen as a harbinger of doom, into something to be celebrated.

Timothy White Eagle

There Comes a Time When You Have to Give Them Back
On view June 13—November 15, 2019
Sited on fencing around the Chinese Scholar tree at the corner of Denny Ave E & Nagle Place.

In Apache tradition, the Gaan or Mountain Spirits are called to bring healing. Dancers embody the Gaan while wearing elaborate headdresses or crowns, and it is said that the moment the crown touches the head, the individual is gone and Spirit is now present. The artworks will be representations of loved ones lost to AIDS, with symbolic faces and crowns. The faces will be drawn with soluble charcoal paint, which will slowly fade while the permanent crowns remain.

Trading Secret Sauce Recipes in the Creative Careers Cohort

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Written by Erin Naomi Burrows, Seattle University MFA in Arts Leadership practicum student.

The Creative Careers Cohort, launched in March, 2019, wrapped up three-sessions of sharing best practices (i.e. secret sauce). Through these in-person learning gatherings, the Cohort surfaced core themes, strategies and questions on how best to serve Seattle youth in career-connected learning. Six participating organizations presented their programmatic components, integral skills cultivated and offered each other feedback via “notice, wonder, challenge” Post-it notes.

During the second session a number of resonating issue areas connected the three presenting organizations. Reel Grrls teaching artist staff shared their new pilot program for Big Picture High School students, Learning Immersive Technology (LIT), a partnership with Arts Corps and Totem Star, that connects teens to emerging virtual and augmented reality, 360 filmmaking and video game design art forms. By exposing young people to these cutting edge forms of media making, Reel Grrls emphasized their role in co-creating the future. Youth participants are connected with industry professionals and encouraged to dream big and allow room for the importance of failure, flexibility and perseverance.

MoPop’s The Residency, an intensive summer hip hop production and performance program backed by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, shared their belief that creativity is not a form of enrichment but a clear pathway to career development. By focusing on building up both technical and interpersonal skills, youth quickly gain the confidence to record and perform with mentorship from former program alumni.

One organization with deep roots in Seattle’s hip hop history, Massive Monkees, shared their vision of the philosophy “each one, teach one” in their youth program, Extraordinary Futures, which supports students becoming teaching artists. Youth gather after school in their International District studio space, The Beacon, and focus on dance and “adulting” sessions ranging from cooking for yourself to financial planning.

The final session of the Creative Career Cohort in May focused on dialogue between the Cohort members and brainstorming across six themes that emerged from the first two meetings:

  • Accessibility
  • Accountability
  • Aging Out / Alumni Engagement
  • Belonging
  • Evaluation
  • Assessment, and Sustainability

One observation across all six presentations is the resounding love that all teaching artists and staff have for youth participants. In many presentations, the work of building long-term relationships and structures for alumni to return as mentors, and furthermore, as colleagues, was emphasized as a primary way to build a culture both of belonging and accountability. The most substantial brainstorm of the final session was on how to make programs even more accessible to participants via travel support, augmenting programs for youth with disabilities including scent-free policies or sections at events and translating flyers and program information for families.

The balance of current strategies and questions raised for continual improvement and inclusivity demonstrates that even at our best, we all have room for learning and growth.

The Secret Sauce of Creative Career Connected Learning

A bottle labeled "Love"

Combine ingredients with love and 2-10 hours weekly of high quality, fresh arts programming with as many dedicated teaching artists as possible.

Serves hundreds of Seattle youth via six incredible arts organizations with plenty to share.

1 cup creativity
1 cup collaboration
1 cup growth mindset
1 cup resilience
1 cup critical thinking

Mix in youth-led events, storytelling, radio, music, hiphop, dance, spoken word, VR/XR films and other art forms.

Logos for The Creative Advantage, Arts Corps, Massive Monkees, KUOW Radio Active, Reel Grrls, The Residency, Totem Star

Civic Poet honors our Seattle Living Legacies

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Saturday, June 29, 2019, 2:30 – 6:30 p.m.
ARTS at King Street Station
303 S. Jackson St, Top Floor
Seattle, WA 98104

On Saturday, June 29 writers and poets will recognize and honor our 2019 Seattle Living Legacies:  Storme Webber, Georgia MCdade, and Mary Ann Moorman with written work and readings. The inaugural celebration will focus on active and instrumental ways each nominee has raised the bar and who live exemplary lives that change and impact multiple people in many ways. The reading and celebration will take place after the nominees are interviewed about being a Living Legacy by Seattle Civic Poet Anastacia-Renee. 

photo by Brad Curran

Mary Ann Moorman (Seattle’s Aunt Mama Storytable) is being honored for her storytelling, artistic, multicultural commitment to diversity and personal social change agent contributions to Seattle communities (and beyond), which have been historical and monumental.

Storme Webber’s cultural, artistic, humanitarian, philanthropic and interdisciplinary work for and about-marginalized voices are only a few of the contributions she has made to Seattle communities (and beyond). Over the years, her grassroots’ work with Voices Rising and pivotal public readings and programming have been historical, her/storical and monumental.

Georgia McDade is being honored for her work as the charter member for the African American-American Alliance Writers as well as being a trailblazer and role model as the first African American woman to earn a Ph. D. in English from the University of Washington. In addition she has made numerous creative, humanitarian, philothrapical and social justice contributions to Seattle communities (and beyond).

ARTS Welcomes Rick Reyes as Racial Equity Coordinator

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Rick is a Seattle-based, Tacoma-born, researcher, organizer, creative, and the new Racial Equity Coordinator with the Office of Arts & Culture. Trained in writing, critical race theory, and public policy at Seattle University, Rick’s previous research, art, and work explore epistemologies to better understand assumptions on race, class, and gender that produce real-life impacts on people of color and those at the center of structural oppression. As a researcher, his work includes discussions on disaster politics and the privatization of education, the power of narrative, and the intersections between science and social construction.

Rick’s work experience includes community outreach, communications, and program development at and in partnership with organizations such as the Museum of Pop Culture, Seattle University, the Office of Arts & Culture, Napster, and Seattle Theatre Group.

An avid musician and writer, Rick finds community in performing with, recording alongside of, and going to performances with fellow musicians, writers, and creatives.

Square Feet 2019: Staying Power

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On April 28-29, ARTS hosted the fourth installment of the Square Feet event. This roughly annual mini-conference explores different issues related to cultural space. This year the keynote speaker was Gus Newport, who spoke (at the Wing Luke Museum) about his work as a community organizer, a developer of affordable housing, and a cultural space creater in neighborhoods and cities across the country. His talk was streamed live and is archived here.

Karen Toering, Uche Okezie, and Gus Newport (L-R). Photo by Sunita Martini

The conference (at King Street Station) also included breakout sessions, a panel discussion, and the graduation of the 2018 Build Art Space Equitably (B.A.S.E.) Cohort. The sessions ended with the return of the Large Foam Check Challenge, an inclusive budgeting exercise that offered participants the opportunity to direct over $10,000 of ARTS spending towards a project of their devising. Last year, the funding was aimed towards the creation of a Tiny Cultural Space. That project is underway in partnership with Sawhorse Revolution and Estelita’s Library. This year the idea the group generated was about honoring and recording the oral histories of Indigenous people who are living in Seattle unhoused. The project, in partnership with urban Indian organizations, would directly pay participants for their stories.

Large Foam Check Challenge winners 2019. Photo by Sunita Martini

Structure for Stability (The PDA Report)

Following nearly two years of work and a significant Racial Equity Toolkit process, ARTS also presented its newest publication. Structure for Stability: Recommendations for Developing Affordable Community-Based Cultural Space provides an in-depth analysis of the challenges facing cultural spaces and artists’ spaces in Seattle and offers recommendations for the creation of a new, independent, mission-driven entity, to be capitalized through the Office of Arts & Culture’s bonding capacity, that will lease, develop, and hold real estate in partnership with community for use by artists and cultural organizations. The report is available here.

Comix for All Exhibition at City Hall

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May 8 – July 11, 2019; Anne Focke Gallery, City Hall
Reception on Thursday, June 6, 4-6pm

Detail from nice neighborhoods have nice signs, by Myra Lara

Presenting fourteen local artists whose multiple styles and subjects demonstrate the flexibility of the comix medium. Meet the artists on First Thursday in June, 4-6pm at City Hall.

Featured artists

  • Handa
  • Eroyn Franklin
  • ET Russian
  • Megan Kelso
  • Darin Shuler
  • Mita Mahato
  • Simon Hanselmann
  • Max Clotfelter
  • Jason T. Miles
  • Marie Bouassi
  • Lauren Armstrong
  • Ryan Sadler
  • Myra Lara
  • Kelly Froh

Presented by Short Run. Short Run celebrates and strengthens Seattle’s lauded comix and arts community

Save the date!

9th Annual Short Run Comix & Arts Festival at Fisher Pavilion, Seattle Center, Saturday, November 9, 11am-6pm.

Nominations are Open for the 2019 Mayor’s Arts Awards

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Photo by Sunny Martini

The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture’s Mayor’s Arts Awards celebrates the people and organizations that broaden our horizons and humanize our city and our world

NOMINATE

Nominate a person or an organization who you think should be recognized and celebrated! Nominations are open until June 3, 2019 and will be evaluated by a panel of Seattle Arts Commissioners and previous award recipients. Four awardees will be recognized from the pool of nominations, based on the following aspirations:

  • Furthering racial equity and social justice
  • Exemplifies artistic excellence
  • A leader in the field
  • Emerging artistic voice
  • Cultural Icon
  • Innovation incubator
  • Fights for justice in arts education

Nominees may be a person of any age and background, or an organization or community group.

2019 marks the 17th year ARTS has asked the community to nominate the people and organizations that represent our city (past and present), our environment and our aspirations. You tell us who should be recognized for their work in community, in education, in the arts landscape and in living out our hopes for a more just and racially equitable society.

Recipients for the 2019 Mayor’s Arts Awards will be announced in July and celebrated on Thursday, August 29 at the Mayor’s Arts Awards Ceremony at Seattle Center.

RSVP button

New public artwork rises at the new City Light Denny Substation

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Denny Substation is now home to two incredible new public artworks, the towering Transforest by Lead Pencil Studio and a kinetic piece, Switchwall, by Ned Kahn. The Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) worked with Seattle City Light to incorporate artworks and cultural planning that supports the utility’s mission and goals at the Denny Substation.

ARTS worked with City Light and architects to develop a temporary art program prior to construction of the substation, and permanent art installations at the new facility that are responsive to the surrounding community and reinforce the public nature and essential function of the station.

Please note: the site is still closed to the public. There will be a dedication sometime in the summer of 2019. Check our calendar or sign up for our email newsletter to get updates.

Denny Substation Permanent Artworks

Transforest by Lead Pencil Studio

  • A view of Transforest from The Mirabella next door, photo by Jason Huff
  • Street-level view of Transforest, photo by Jason Huff

Transforest is a site-specific sculpture developed to address important qualities inherent to the Denny Substation site and its broader context. The large-scale sculpture combines forms drawn from Seattle City Light’s industrial history and those of our Northwest landscape, creating a narrative of Seattle’s system of electrical generation that has been placed into the wilderness of Washington. The artwork is designed as an integrated landscape element that serves the place-making needs of the future public space.

Watch Seattle’s tallest public art combines old and new from KING 5 News.

Switchwall by Ned Kahn

Switchwall by day

Switchwall is a kinetic artwork that covers three faces of the substation façade with an array of thousands of light “switches” that are flipped by the wind. During the day the polished aluminum surface of the swaying panels reflect light and color from the sky and surrounding buildings. As the wind flips the panels from side to side they will reflect light from very different parts of the sky and surrounding environment. These light contrasts will animate the façade. As night approaches, or on dark cloudy days, the blue and orange LEDs will become visible and the artwork will reveal a different luminosity but will still create the impression of movement.

  • The Denny Substation is shaped like an elongated, metal pyramid.
    The Denny Substation with Switchwall at the top
  • Photo shows the Denny Substation next to a tall apartment building next door.
    The Denny Substation next to The Mirabella

Watch this video of Switchwall both during the day and night to see how it moves.