Need a little help sorting out Arts Walk offerings? Start here
Olympia’s Arts Walk can be overwhelming, with so many places to go and things to see. Here’s a sampling of fun and interesting stuff to get you started.
PAINTING
Refu returns
The independent Olympia gallery Salon Refu, which closed in 2016, is back for Arts Walk — at least in a manner of speaking. The space, now serving as a studio for mixed-media artist Lucy Gentry, is back in gallery mode for the month and showing new paintings by Refu founder Susan Christian. “Paintings and Constructs” features strongly horizontal works meant to be read from left to right. “Long paintings tell stories,” Christian told The Olympian. The gallery will be open from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday during Arts Walk and from 3 to 6 p.m. for the rest of the Saturdays and Sundays during October. Christian will talk about her work at 4 p.m. Oct. 14. Gentry, meanwhile, has work on view at Capitol Florist, 515 Capitol Way S., Olympia.
PAPER
Olympia illustrated
Nikki McClure’s scenes of life in Olympia — swimming and stargazing, protesting and berry-picking — are seen far and wide. They’re on gallery and museum walls, on calendars, on T-shirts, on posters and in books. And from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, a selection of her distinctive papercuts can be seen at The Mark, 407 Columbia St. SW, Olympia. The show will include images from her 2018 calendar and illustrations created for Colin Meloy’s “A Golden Thread: A Song for Pete Seeger,” published in April.
INSTALLATIONS
Ghosts in (and out of) the machine
Multimedia artist Ashley Corbett Williams explores the TV and movie trope of dead girls in “Between Ghost and Flesh.” The installation combines digital animation with two- and three-dimensional art, including ceramics. Williams, who grew up in Arkansas, creates work that reflects her roots as well as her lasting fascination with role of the feminine in Southern history. The piece can be seen from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday and from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday at Olympia Knitting Mills Artist Collective, 508 Legion Way SE, Olympia.
Lights fantastic
The Luminary Procession, held in conjunction with spring Arts Walk, is art in motion, drawing crowds to see a mini parade of glowing handmade paper lanterns. From 7 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, the lanterns will get another chance to shine. Accompanied by the music of the Gravity Quartet, the luminaries will light up the Procession Studio, 406 Water St. SW, Olympia.
KIDS STUFF
The young and art
Arts Walk offers plenty of ways for children to get in on the fun. Here are a few to get you started.
• The city’s family activity area, open from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, is a classic, offering face painting by the Capital Lakefair Royalty Court, a chance to experiment with found poems and haiku with Olympia poet laureate Amy Solomon-Minarchi and art projects developed by the Hands On Children’s Museum.
• Those Anklebiters, a local band specializing in music for kids, will play for a kids dance party from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at Rainy Day Records, 301 Fifth Ave. SE, Olympia.
• The Hands On Children’s Museum, 414 Jefferson St. NE, Olympia, offers free admission from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday. Besides exploring the museum, kids can make bugs from wire and beads, try animation and make microscopic drawings.
Want more? The Arts Walk map highlights all the options with a balloon icon. Just don’t expect balloons: The city stopped handing them out at Arts Walk several years ago out of concern for the environment.
This story was originally published October 3, 2018 at 6:36 PM.