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Office of Arts & Culture news and events

Celebrate Pride with Arts & Culture Events Near You

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Each June, our communities come together to celebrate Pride Month to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community’s resilience. Take a look at some of the many Pride events and programs taking place in our community below.

The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway

Ongoing
920 E Barbara Bailey Way, Seattle, WA 98122
Free

The AMP uses public art to create a physical place for remembrance and reflection, shares stories about the epidemic and the diverse community responses to the crisis and provides a call to action to end HIV/AIDS, stigma, and discrimination. The space features art by Christopher Paul Jordan, Civilization, Horatio Hung‑Yan Law, and Storme Webber.

They recently launched their AMP augmented reality (AR) app, which includes narratives, images, and interactive experiences around each of the physical artworks, as well as a virtual tour.

Learn More

ARTS at King Street Station: “Hanako O’Leary: Izanami and Yomi” and “Molly Vaughan: Her Body and After Boucher”

Photo by Chloe Collyer

Ongoing: On view through July 7
ARTS at King Street Station ( 303 South Jackson Street Top floor, Seattle, WA)
Free

Hanako O’Leary: Izanami and Yomi and Molly Vaughan: Her Body and After Boucher explore themes of feminine power, transgender transformation, fertility, and self-determination. Both exhibitions are on view May 5 through July 7, 2022. 

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Beneath the Streets: The Queer (Underground) Tour

Ongoing: Select Wednesdays and Thursdays
Ticketed Program

Beneath the Streets presents The Queer (Underground) Tour, a guided exploration into the history of pioneer Square’s underground nightlife and how Seattle became a queer cultural mecca.

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Molly Vaughan: Safety in Numbers

Ongoing: On view through July 2
MadArt (325 Westlake Ave N, #101, Seattle, WA)
Free

On view at MadArt, Safety in Numbers is an installation and performance created by artist Molly Vaughan. The exhibition includes functional elements of a salon that are intentionally set to stage the performance. Segmenting the space into areas for activation and secondary programming, Vaughan utilizes large abstract panels with designs based on places of personal importance. In Safety in Numbers she relies on her belief in the potency of hair to act as a vehicle for social justice, as well as aesthetic beauty. 

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Pacific Northwest Black Pride: Juneteenth – The Lituation

June 18, 10 p.m.
19309 68th Avenue South, R103, Kent, WA
Free before 11 p.m.

Pacific Northwest Black Pride presents the Juneteenth The Lituation, a night of dancing with music by DJ Bop. A portion of the evening’s proceeds will go towards PNW Black Pride scholarships.

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Taking Black Pride: Seachella

June 25, 10 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Seattle Center Mural Amphitheatre
Free, Donations Welcome

Taking Black Pride returns for a day of music, performances from BIPOC trans and queer artists, and community. Organizers of this event ask that allies and supporters respect who is being centered in this Pride Space and donate to the sustainability of this truly one-of-a-kind Pride event.

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Indigiqueer Festival

June 25, 3 – 7 p.m.
Pier 62
Free

Overflow with Indigiqueer Joy! Presented as a part of the Indigiqueer Joy Campaign, the Indigiqueer Festival is curated by the Quileute drag queen Hailey Tayathy. Enjoy food, music, drag and more while coming together with the Queer Indigenous community.

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PrideFest Capitol Hill & Seattle Center

June 25: 12 – 8 p.m. in Capitol Hill
June 26: 12 – 8 p.m. at Seattle Center

PrideFest returns with its Pride weekend events, PrideFest Capitol Hill and PrideFest Seattle Center, taking place on June 25 and 26 respectively. This year’s theme, “We’re Still Here,” celebrates the resiliency of the LGBTQIA+ community and reaffirms our communities’ fight for a more equitable and inclusive world.

Learn More

Queer/Pride Festival

June 24-26
11th Ave. Between Pike & Pine St.
Ticketed Event

Queer/Pride Festival returns to Capitol Hill for a three-day festival featuring musical performances by Kim Petras, Iggy Azalea, Princess Nokia, Adore Delano, Crystal Methyd, Laganja Estranja, and Queer/Bar’s very own Bosco.

Learn More

Gender Justice League: Trans Pride Seattle

September 2, 5:45 – 9 p.m.
Location TBD
Free

Trans Pride Seattle returns for an in-person celebration on September 2 (location TBD). Presented by Gender Justice League, Trans Pride Seattle (TPS) aims to increase the strength of the trans and gender diverse community and our allies—both within and beyond Seattle—through increased visibility, connection, love, and the celebration of our lives

They are currently accepting performer applications for the festival. You can apply here.

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Exhibitions on Feminine Power and Transgender Transformation

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May 5 – July 7, 2022

War Mask 1, Hanoko O’Leary, Clay and glaze, 2018
Self-Portrait With Clove Cigarette #2, Molly Jae Vaughan, Oil on canvas, 2020

ARTS at King Street Station is opening an upcoming exhibition from two exciting artists that explores feminine power, transgender transformation, fertility and self-determination: Hanako O’Leary: Izanami and Yomi and Molly Jae Vaughan: Her Body and After Boucher.

“Self-determination for marginalized people is always an act of rebellion. Many of the paintings here depict parts of my body that society is always demanding people like me reveal, while simultaneously insisting we never show. But they are also about challenging social norms and the understanding of trans bodies.”

Molly Jae Vaughan

“This piece (Yomi) is a continued invitation to trace back our buried herstory and tales of heroine-ism within our personal and collective lineage, and find freedom and power through our intergenerational experiences.”

Hanako O’Leary

About the Exhibition

Izanami features a series of ceramic sculptures influenced by prehistoric Japanese fertility icons, Noh theatre masks, and samurai armor. Izanami, meaning “she who invites,” is the Shinto goddess of creation and death. According to legend, after giving birth to many gods and goddesses, Izanami died while giving birth to fire and was sent down into the underworld. The vessels in Izanami symbolize a realm of self-mastery and the masks represent guides who offer protection as one navigates society.

Yomi, featuring a large-scale fiber installation, is a sister project to Izanami and means “the land of darkness,” otherwise known in western cultures as the underworld and is Izanami’s dominion.

After Boucher features paintings, drawings, lithographs, and textiles based on the works of 18th-century French painter, draftsman, and printmaker François Boucher. These works create visions of queer resplendence and pleasure. Baroque figures, furniture, and environments are infused with transgender bodies, process color palettes, and mythological characters. After Boucher features 60+ works based on the book The Drawings of François Boucher by Alastair Laing. Through these works, viewers are re-introduced to the excessively opulent world of 18th century Europe where aristocratic gender constructs operated in a fluid array of warm pastels and powdered wigs.

Her Body features a collection of self-portraits that depict a range of experiences, some emotional and psychological, others medical.

“The apparent conflicts of certitude, action, and outcome are paramount in the complex juxtaposition of these severable states of being,” shares royal alley-barnes, Acting Director Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. “Opening ourselves to the manifest of the possible, the remembrance of the done, and creating intensity beyond our understanding of the circumstance or outcome, is inherent in Molly and Hanako’s narratives that they are bravely sharing with viewers.” 

royal alley-barnes, Acting Director of the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture

This exhibition includes 2D and 3D portraiture of clothed and nude cis and trans women, and representations of medical instruments and post-surgical wounds and recovery.

ARTS at King Street Station is located at 303 S. Jackson Street, Top Floor, Seattle, WA. FREE and open Tuesday – Saturday, 10am to 6pm, and 8pm on First Thursdays.

These exhibitions are organized and presented by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture in partnership with program lead Jenny Ku and the ARTS at King Street Station Advisors. Support for the installation is provided by Benjamin Gale-Schreck and Blake Haygood. For more information, please contact Jenny Ku, King Street Station Programming Lead, at jenny.ku@seattle.gov.

Species Extinction Explored in New Art Exhibition

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A bear painted in acrylic on a piece of light fabric. Red and black lettering spell out: Bear, Extinction, Black, Polar, Brown.
Detail from The 1 Million – Multiple Species Eradication

February 3 – April 7, 2022

The 1 Million – Multiple Species Eradication explores bio-/multi-species extinctions and the species affected by humanity’s mass resource extraction.

Inspired by this National Geographic article, artist Carol Rashawnna Williams created the large scale monoprint installation with seven contributing local/national visual artists:

  • Amaranta Ibarra-Sandys
  • Paula Oliver
  • Noa Piper
  • Sydney Pertl
  • Kelly and Hope Bain
  • Rosalind Davis Guterson

“We are NO longer talking about animal extinction but entire species eradication, in which the tipping point of resource extraction symptoms, causes and old-world paradigms will either make or break human civilization.”

Carol Rashawnna Williams
Long pieces of colorful rectangular fabric hang from the gallery ceiling. There are images and words of different animals on them. All have red bleeding upwards from the bottom. A person walks between them pieces.
Photo by Chloe Collyer

While working in relative physical isolation for two years, the seven artists have worked to be in constant contact, learning, growing and exploring these topics together through their various art forms. The shared experiences, fears, hopes, dreams, visions and commitments to Mother Earth of the collective galvanized them to create this work. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the killings of African Americans by police and BIPOC housing displacement and insecurities also shaped the exhibition and artists work.

The collective also uncovered new research and awareness of resource extraction, climate change, and sustainable infrastructures. The 1 Million – Multiple Species Eradication seeks to connect our beliefs, ancestral knowledge and the impact humans have on mass extinctions. Resources to learn more are collected here.

About the Organizing Artist

Carol Rashawnna Williams, a Black woman with long hair in a braid that hands over one shoulder. She's smiling in front of an art piece of a flower.

Carol Rashawnna Williams is a Seattle-based, interdisciplinary artist who makes work that engages audiences in conversations about social, environmental and racial justice.

Throughout her practice, Williams contends that the only way to shift race relations and understand climate change is through collective imaginings and re-imaginings of equitable relationships to the land, animals and resources. Williams’ aesthetic forms fall, swim, fly, drip and grow through various layers of reality, spirituality and data analysis. Her narrative installations reject the tidy, toxic logic of scarcity models, suggesting powerful alternatives in collective storytelling, collective ownership, collective re-valuing of biospecies and collective commitments to sustainable environmental practices over time.

Williams earned the ArtsWa Public Artist Roster (2021), International Masters Book World Wide Art Books (2021), Artists to Know World Wide Books (2021), Rachels Network Catalyst Finalist Award (2020) and the Cornish Fine Art College, Neddy Finalist Award (2020), The Office of Arts and Culture Artist Up Mentorly Scholarship (2021), Residency in Berlin, Germany (2021) and the 4Culture Conductive Garboil Award (2018), an Artist Residency AADK Spain (2018), a 4Culture Artist Community Grant Award (2017) and was accepted to Seattle Office of Arts & Culture’s Public Art Boot Camp (2018).

She is the owner of K-Love 4 Art, co-founder of both Race & Climate Justice Art Collective and ARTifACTS, and the Co-Executive Director at Community Arts Create. She was accepted into both the Environmental Leadership Program, a yearlong national fellowship to support emerging leaders in environmental justice, Interweave, Sustainable Seattle’s (S2) support, mentorship and fiscal sponsor for the BIPOC Sustainable Tiny Art House Community Campaign.

Also on view

Three additional installations will also be on view in the gallery: A Clearer View: The Last Days of the Alaskan Way Viaduct by Roxann Murray and Eirik Johnson; Home of Good: A Black Seattle Storyquilt by Storme Webber; and Diversity by Design by AIA Seattle’s Diversity Roundtable.

Ken Workman, a descendant of Chief Seattle, stands with traditional hat and vest, on a stairwell above the Viaduct.
Duwamish Land, Roxann Murray, Archival giclee print, 2020.

A Clearer View: The Last Days of the Alaskan Way Viaduct features 11 photographs by Roxann Murray and Eirik Johnson that documented the monumental transformation of Downtown Seattle’s waterfront as the Alaskan Way Viaduct was torn down. The Seattle Office of the Waterfront and Civic Projects and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture commissioned photographers Murray and Johnson to document the last days and demolition from the 2019 Goodbye Viaduct celebration to the removal of the final sections, each artist spent months documenting the last days of the iconic elevated roadway that divided the city.  

Murray’s work captures the transformation of the Central Waterfront through the people and communities shaped by the highway, while Johnson memorializes the last views and the perspectives that went away with the roadway. Together, Murray and Johnson captured over 100 images of the monumental transformation to Downtown Seattle and the people who lived and worked in the area. The photographs featured in the exhibition were purchased using Seattle Department of Transportation 1% for Art funds (generated by the waterfront and seawall projects) and will be added to the city’s Civic Collection. Additional photographs can be viewed here.

Visit ARTS at King Street Station

ARTS at King Street Station is FREE and open to the public:

Tuesday through Saturday, 10am – 6pm
10am – 8pm on First Thursdays

Please visit us on the top of King Street Station at 303 S Jackson Street, Seattle, WA 98104.

COVID Safety

In accordance with King County’s vaccination verification guidance, people ages 12 and older will be required to show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test result to enter. Masks are required, regardless of vaccination status.

The 1 Million – Multiple Species Eradication is organized and presented by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture in partnership with program lead Jenny Ku and the ARTS at King Street Station Advisors. Support for the installation is provided by Benjamin Gale-Schreck and Blake Haygood.

The Creative Advantage’s “1619” Exhibit Resource Guide

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The Creative Advantage invites visitors to engage thoughtfully in Mr. Delbert Richardson’s exhibition, 1619: Resistance/Resilience/Remembrance/Liberation, on view at ARTS at King Street Station through January 15, 2021. 

They are collaborating with educator consultant Rachelle Horner on these support resources for the general public and educators. 

About The Exhibit

Created and curated by Mr. Delbert Richardson of The Unspoken Truths, 1619: Resistance/Resilience/Remembrance/Liberation takes viewers on a chronological journey – from the beginnings of our origins in Africa, American Chattel Slavery, and the Jim Crow Era to modern-day African American originators, inventors, and innovators.

*Please note: 1619: Resistance/Resilience/Remembrance/Liberation may contain works that some visitors could find upsetting. Please connect with a visitor services staff member for more information and references.

Learn More

Exhibit Resources

*Please ensure you give yourself time to center yourself before you visit the gallery. Please make sure to prepare young people for the exhibition experience and follow-up learning too. 

About Rachelle Horner

Courtesy of Rachelle Horner

Rachelle Horner (she/her) is a 14-year teaching veteran of the Lake Washington School District. She taught AP US History and the University of Washington in the High School Composition 131 and Comparative Literature 240; a social justice-focused English class. She led her school’s equity team that provided professional development on social justice pedagogy and cultural humility for staff members through collaborative and equitable partnerships with parents and students. She started a Student Equity Advisory Board and was the Black Student Union Advisor. In both spaces, she built students’ capacity for leadership on equity issues which culminated in a variety of student-led initiatives to create an equitable school culture. As a consulting teacher, she now mentors first and second-year teachers throughout the district. In addition, Rachelle is a social justice consultant working with companies around equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts. Her motto is “social justice is not an additional burden you have to shoulder; it is the lens with which you choose to see the world.” 

Digging Deeper

  • Seattle Public Schools Antiracist Arts Education Task Force has developed The Roots Framework that The Creative Advantage supports.

The Unspoken Truths Museum comes to ARTS at King Street Station

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November 16, 2021 – January 15, 2022

This November, ARTS at King Street Station will host 1619: Resistance/Resilience/Remembrance/Liberation from November 16, 2021, through January 15, 2022. The exhibition features stories and objects from the American History Traveling Museum: The Unspoken Truths that are new and unfamiliar to many.

The exhibition, created and curated by storyteller Mr. Delbert Richardson, takes viewers on a chronological journey through the beginnings of our origins in Africa, American Chattel Slavery, the Jim Crow Era to modern-day African American originators, inventors, and innovators.

Ceremonial Mask, 20th Century, Wood, Beads, Cowrie shells, courtesy of the American History Traveling Museum: The Unspoken Truths

“As the “story” goes in August of 1619 “20 odd negroes arrived” in the British colony of Virginia (which was not yet America). American Chattel Slavery as an institution, had the primary function of feeding the greed of wealth and capitalism by white men of European decent both in Europe and the Americas. The commodification of human beings primarily from the continent of Africa provided a free labor force for over 400 years. There are many histories that are still debated and told through different lenses, but stories that are centered on the attributes, perseverance, and courage, of a great people are rarely shared.”

Mr. Delbert Richardson

About the Exhibition

The mission of The Unspoken Truths’ 1619: Resistance/Resilience/Remembrance/Liberation is dedicated to the education of children, students, and adults of all ages to tell and share through a non-sanitized version of American History, using authentic artifacts, multi-media presentations, storyboards, and the ancient art of storytelling. This work is centered around an anti-racist curriculum, unbiased histories, and the journey of African people to the Americas and Europe in an effort to recognize and strengthen positive identity development and a positive self-concept and image of African people of the Diaspora. 

The exhibit is organized into four themes: 

Mother Africa, which features some of the great contributions that Africans have made throughout the world. This section connects Africa’s global impact in the areas of its rich traditions, cultures, rituals, and ceremonies.  Equally as important, are the global contributions in S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, & Math)  

American Chattel Slavery breaks down the type of slavery where human beings are considered to be property and are bought and sold as such. This section utilizes authentic artifacts, documents, and storyboards, to expose the Impacts on enslaved Africans physically, spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically.  

Jim Crow Era is an explanation of the racial caste system geared around white superiority. Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second-class citizens. Jim Crow represented the legitimization of anti-black racism.  

Still We Rise highlights African American inventors and inventions. A 40-foot display features everyday items that African Americans have invented or improved upon.  

For over 30 years, Richardson has collected and amassed an assortment of artifacts that symbolizes Africans’ contributions to Africa and the Americans. 

About Mr. Delbert Richardson

Mr. Delbert Richardson, the founder of The Unspoken Truths, is a self-taught educator, second-generation storyteller, ethnomuseologist, and community scholar. Born in Detroit, his family of six siblings moved to the Seattle area in the mid-1960s. He attended Coleman Elementary, Washington Middle School, Franklin High School, and graduated from Antioch, Seattle with a B.A. in Liberal Arts: Global Social Justice.    

Mr. Delbert Richardson is a husband and father of four amazing children. Richardson has won numerous awards including:    

  • 2013 National Campus Compact Newman Fellows Award  
  • 2017 National Education Assoc. (NEA) Human and Civil Rights Award  
  • 2019 Seattle Mayor Arts Award  
  • 2019 Seattle Crosscut Courage in Culture Award  
  • 2020 Assoc. of King County Org. (AKCHO) Heritage Education Award  
  • 2020-2021 National Maquis Who’s Who Award
  • 2021 Governor’s Arts & Heritage Awards (GAHA) 
  • 2021 MOHAI’s Educator of the Year 

ARTS at King Street Station will have two additional installations on view in the gallery space: Diversity by Design by AIA Seattle’s Diversity Roundtable and Home of Good: A Black Seattle Storyquilt by Storme Webber. 

Ethiopian Coptic Bible, 19th Century, Cowskin and wood, Ethiopia, courtesy of the American History Traveling Museum: The Unspoken Truths

Exhibition Exploration for Educators with Delbert Richardson (December 11, 2021)

The Creative Advantage invites educators to this special exhibition exploration session to tour the exhibit and think critically together about ways to share this exhibit and its themes with students.

December 11, 2021
11am  – 1pm
Free
ARTS at King Street Station

RSVP

ARTS at King Street Station is free and open Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm. In accordance with King County’s vaccination verification guidance, people ages 12 and older will be required to show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test result to enter. Masks are required, regardless of vaccination status. 

The Unspoken Truths: 1619 – Resilience/Remembrance/Liberation is organized and presented by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture and is curated by Ricky Reyes in partnership with the ARTS at King Street Station Advisors. Support for the installation is provided by Benjamin Gale-Schreck and Blake Haygood. 

ARTS at King Street Station Reopens with ‘Close to Home’ Exhibit

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ARTS at King Street Station is proud to announce its official reopening with the exhibit, Close to Home, on view from July 22 through August 14, 2021. 

Created by 14 BIPOC artists, this exhibit showcases artworks that explore definitions of “home” using abstract and literal representations of their experiences of home and place. 

About the Exhibit:

Close to Home challenges audiences to think intentionally about the idea of “home” through the use of paint, sculpture, quilting, and textural arts. The representations of “home” also span depictions of historical artifacts, to abstract illustrations, to what home might look like in the future.  

While being some of the most vulnerable to forced migration and displacement, the 14 artists in Close to Home actively celebrate the resilience of people of color using nuanced understandings of place.   

Close to Home asks viewers to actively engage with questions of what makes our homes distinct. Who gets to define what makes places important or meaningful? Where do we individually fit into community definitions of belonging? What does it look like to keep records and pay respect to our community members who have stewarded the land for generations? The 14 exhibiting artists’ practices grapple with these questions using ideas and physical objects that represent meaningful parts of their own homes and communities. 

The exhibition also displays the range and growth of the City of Seattle’s Civic Art Collection, which includes pieces by instrumental Pacific Northwest artists. This exhibition consists of portable artworks in the City of Seattle’s Civic Art Collection, purchased between 2020 and 2021 in partnership with Seattle Together and Seattle City Light. Close to Home is organized and presented by ARTS (Office of Arts & Culture). The exhibition is curated by Ricky Reyes in partnership with the King Street Station Advisors. Support for the installation is provided by Benjamin Gale-Schreck and Blake Haygood. 

  • Metaphor of my mother, missTANGQ, Mixed Media, 2018
  • Salmon Spirit, Crystal Worl, Gouache Paint, 2017
  • My Jazzed Mountains, Gwen Maxwell Williams, 100% Cotton, 1998

Featured Artists:  

  • Romson Regrade Bustillo 
  • Ka’ila Farrell-Smith  
  • Jonathan Wakuda Fischer 
  • Hongzhe Liang /名媛  
  • Micah Mccarty  
  • missTANGQ  
  • Miya Sukune  
  • Earnest Swanson  
  • Robert Running Fisher Upham  
  • Markel Uriu  
  • Gwen Maxwell Williams  
  • Jennifer Angaiak Wood 
  • Crystal Worl  
  • Junko Yamamoto 

Close to Home is on view at ARTS at King Street Station, Thursday – Saturday, 10am – 6pm, from July 22 through August 14, 2021.  For your safety, and that of our staff, visitors must wear a face covering while inside ARTS at King Street Station.

The city of Seattle to Temporarily Close ARTS at King Street Station, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute to Public to Prevent Further Spread of COVID-19

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ARTS at King Street Station and Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute closed, March 13 - April 13

To prevent the further spread of COVID-19, the Office of Arts & Culture will close ARTS at King Street Station and Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute to the public. All programming, rentals, and events at both locations are canceled.  All closures will take effect at 6 p.m. today, March 13, and will last until at least May 2. The City will be in continuous contact with public health officials to evaluate our facilities beyond this timeline.

This announcement follows the State and County’s new measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, including a prohibition of events with more than 250 people, and a prohibition on events with less than 250 people if they don’t meet public health guidance on social distancing and hygiene, and the City’s decision to temporarily close Seattle Public Library locations and community centers.

The Office of Arts & Culture continues to provide support for local arts organizations and artists through our grants, creative youth, cultural space, and public art programs. Staff will continue working during the temporary closures of ARTS at King Street Station and Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute and remain available to respond to email and phone inquiries from the public.

The City of Seattle is working to combat the spread of COVID-19 in our region. For up-to-date Public Health – Seattle & King County guidance, visit kingcounty.gov/covid.

New exhibition at ARTS at King Street Station

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Opening reception Thursday, November 7, 2019, 5-8 p.m.
Featuring CityArtist Shareout, a facilitated artist Focused conversation

Brighter Future: To be heard. To be seen. To be free., on view at ARTS at King Street Station November 7, 2019 through January 11, 2020, is an exhibition featuring artworks created by more than 50 local artists of color reflecting on freedom. The exhibition is organized by the Ethnic Heritage Art Gallery (EHAG) Board, a collective of City of Seattle employees including people who are of Black, Latinx, Native, White, Asian, and Indian backgrounds who showcase local artists of color and build appreciation for diversity and social commentary expressed through art.

Marilyn Montufar, Dani, Mexico City, 2011. C-Print, 16"x20"

The exhibition features 100 artworks including paintings, photography, sculpture, print, video and four installations. Artists on display include Aaliyah Guptah, Angie Hinojos Yusuf, Barry Johnson, Blanca Santander, Carina del Rosario, Erin Shigaki, Hugo Moro, Juliana Kang Robinson, Lauren Iida, Marilyn Montufar, Naomi Ishisaka, Susan Ringstad-Emery, Tatiana Garmendia, Vikram Madan and Xavier Lopez Jr.

Brighter Future: To be heard. To be seen. To be free. was organized through an open call, asking artists of color what it means to be heard, to be seen, and to be free. The call was open to the Ethnic Heritage Art Gallery artist roster, the Office of Arts & Culture Ethnic Artist Roster, and artists of color from the general public. All artists who submitted work were accepted in the exhibition.

“We believe in the power of artists and the voices of those most impacted to redefine how we as a society address structural racism,” says Bradley Wilburn, Land Use Planner IV at Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections, the Ethnic Art Heritage Gallery Board Chair. “Brighter Future asks artists to envision a place where we can foster trust, respectful discourse, openness, liberty, and expansion of the human spirit.”

The Ethnic Heritage Art Gallery Committee was founded in 2009 to build and strengthen relationships with communities of color, and to foster pride and appreciation for diverse cultures. In collaboration with Arts & Culture, EHAG presents quarterly exhibitions showcasing local artists of color selected by the EHAG‘s team of City of Seattle employees.

ARTS at King Street Station is a new kind of cultural space where communities of color have increased opportunities to present their work, and be seen and heard. Grounded in community feedback, the programming and cultural space on the third floor of King Street Station is an incubator for artists and communities, experimenting with the best ways to respond to the cultural needs of an ever-changing city. A cohort of King Street Station Advisors select and respond to community exhibition and programming ideas. ARTS’ goal for King Street Station is to be a resource for the city and the embodiment of the Office’s commitment to racial equity. Admission is free.

Tagalog sa King Street

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A workshop production of one-act plays written and performed in Tagalog (with English surtitles), September 5 – October 5, 2019 at ARTS at King Street Station
Admission is free

September 5-October 5, 2019
Free to the public, all ages
ARTS at King Street Station
303 S. Jackson St, Top Floor
Seattle, WA 98104           

Intermittent open rehearsals in the gallery
Tuesdays-Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; First Thursday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.  
Performances: Thursday, October 3, 6:30 p.m.;
Saturday, October 5, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
RSVP button

ARTS at King Street Station will host the workshop production of Tagalog sa King Street, a collection of one-act plays written and performed in the national language of the Philippines. With creative use of live English surtitles and shadow puppetry, non-Tagalog speaking audience can enjoy the innovative, brave, new voices selected from the prestigious Virgin Labfest of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

This is a workshop production that will be presented in two parts. The first are open rehearsals as the creative team comprised of Lorna Velasco, Joyce Juan Manalo, Ai Lalo, Alyza DelPan-Monley, Arlo Magpoc, Nina De Torres Ignacio, Leah Mitts, Manny Golez, and Pia Rivera will transform the space into a world of shadow and light. The open rehearsals will culminate with three performances of the completed work that are free to the public on Thursday October 3rd and Saturday, October 5th. Tickets are available here. The production was made possible through at grant by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture. The performance is ADA accessible.

 Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady (How I became the Leading Lady), by Carlo Vergara, is a story of two sisters, Mely and Viva, who turn a small grudge into a superhero battle between good and evil.

Hintayan ng Langit (Heaven’s Waiting Room), by Juan Miguel Severo is about 67-year-old protagonist Manolo meeting his unrequited love, 64-year-old Lisang in purgatory. Their spiritual ascent is delayed until they resolve a lifetime worth of heartaches and regrets.

 ARTS at King Street Station is a new kind of cultural space where communities of color have increased opportunities to present their work and be seen and heard. Grounded in community feedback, the programming and cultural space on the third floor of King Street Station will be an incubator for artists and communities, experimenting with the best ways to respond to the cultural needs of an ever-changing city. A new cohort of King Street Station Advisors will select and respond to community exhibition and programming ideas. ARTS’ goal for King Street Station is to be a resource for the city and the embodiment of the Office’s commitment to racial equity. Admission is free.

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