OLY - Arts

Arts

Olympia is a regional center for fine arts. A number of theatrical experiences are available with companies such as Capital Playhouse, Olympia Family Theater, Theater Artists Olympia (TAO), Olympia Little Theater, and Harlequin Productions at the historic State Theater. The Olympia Symphony Orchestra performs five regular season concerts at The Washington Center and two pop concerts.

Visual art venues include some of the local coffeehouses, such as SIZIZIS, Batdorf & Bronson, and Caffe Vita in downtown. A gallery called Art House Designs presents works of sculpture, painting, and printmaking and hosts a jazz performance space. Murals and public art installations of sculpture are prevalent in Olympia, and are especially featured on the State Capitol Campus and along Percival Landing on the urban waterfront. The Washington Center for the Performing Arts also presents visual art exhibitions throughout the season in the spacious lobby areas.

Notable art venues near Olympia include Art In Ecology, housed in Washington Department of Ecology's 322,000 square foot, three story building on the campus of Saint Martin's University. Art In Ecology is a long-established art-in-the-workplace venue that features works by numerous northwest artists. Permanent installations by Alfredo Arreguin, commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission, are accompanied by changing solo and group exhibitions throughout the year. Just off I-5. Appointments to view the works are needed; tours take about an hour.

The South Puget Sound Community College has a gallery in its Minnaert Center with rotating exhibitions. The Evergreen State College, northwest of Olympia, has a professionally curated gallery with rotating shows in the Dan Evans Library building. To the south of Olympia, Monarch Contemporary Art Center and Sculpture Park offers an 80-acre sculpture garden and art gallery.

Each year the Olympia Film Society (OFS) produces a film festival and fosters film and video education in Olympia. It also shows independent, classic and international films year-round at the art-deco Capitol Theater. A mostly volunteer-powered organization, OFS supports and presents a variety of culture events, including All Freakin' Night, an all-night horror film screening with a cult following.

Olympia is home to the aerial and trapeze performing group Tallhouse Arts Consortium. The group, founded in 2008, began training and rehearsing in a barn on Cooper Point Road until establishing other rehearsal spaces in the downtown area. Tallhouse Arts Consortium numbers approximately ten members as of 2012, and all five founding members are still active members of the group. During the year 2010, the group performed monthly at both the Brotherhood Lounge and The Royal Lounge, thus earning a devoted local following. Members of the group have since performed in many places including: Illinois, Oregon, Alaska, Israel, and Germany.

On the fourth Saturday in April, in honor of Earth Day, Olympia is host to one of the region's largest community celebrations - the Procession of the Species celebration. Held in conjunction with the city's biannual Arts Walk, the Procession is organized by the community-based non-profit organization, Earthbound Productions. Structured around an annual Community Art Studio that is free and open to the public, organizers provide art, music and dance workshops during the preceding seven weeks leading up to the Procession weekend. In its July 2009 Best of America feature, Reader's Digest magazine honored the Procession of the Species with the top spot in its “can’t resist” parades and processions list. Open to all, the Procession of the Species attracts up to 30,000 viewers, while its costumed participants of all ages frequently number nearly 3,000. On the Friday evening before the Procession of Species, a Luminary Procession is held.