Fall Arts Walk is back in a big way, including Luminary Procession
Arts Walk, Olympia’s twice-yearly celebration of creativity and community, is back in full swing.
The festival, happening Friday and Saturday, Oct. 7 and 8, will again showcase arts of all sorts at 80 downtown businesses and performances and recreational activities on the city streets, which will be closed to traffic from Fourth Avenue to Legion Way and from Franklin Street to Capitol Way.
The event will include a Luminary Procession — the first procession since April’s traditional Procession of the Species was canceled in 2020. Handmade paper lanterns, including large and elaborate creations, will move and groove to the drumming of Samba Olywa beginning at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7.
“It is so exciting,” said Arts Walk organizer Angel Nava. “It will be really special.”
Nava is equally excited about the map that documents the weekend offerings. Featuring “Where the Earth Meets the Sky,” an oil painting by Katherine Ransom of Olympia, the pocket-sized map is the first printed Arts Walk map since October 2019.
“It’s different,” Nava told The Olympian. “In the past, I would always see people take the big map and roll it up and stuff it in their pockets. We put so much information on the website now that we were able to create a simplified map.”
Both the city and Earthbound Productions, which puts on the processions, were awarded federal grants designed to help festivals and events resume after the pandemic shut them down. The Arts Walk grant is allowing the city to offer more activities on the streets, print the map and rent portable restrooms.
For Earthbound, the grant made the return of the Luminary Procession possible, said procession organizer Kris Geringer.
The procession isn’t included on the map because it came together late. “Everything happened so fast,” Geringer told The Olympian. “People generally don’t know about it.
“We hope people will dust off their luminaries and bring them to the event,” she said.
Those who don’t have luminaries are welcome to illuminate themselves with glowsticks or portable LED lights, or stop at the Lamplighters after 8 p.m. to borrow one of Earthbound’s luminaries.
The future of the Procession of the Species, the do-it-yourself Earth Day parade that coincided with spring Arts Walk, is uncertain, but Geringer hopes to produce another luminary event in the spring, if funding can be found to repair luminaries and transport them downtown.
Here’s the lowdown on a sampling of what you can see and do at the weekend event.
The basic Arts Walk info
Shops will become galleries and streets will become performance spaces from 6-10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7 and noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, in downtown Olympia.
Streets will be closed at the intersection Washington Street and Fifth Avenue.
You can find loads of information at https://www.artswalkoly.com/
The Luminary Procession
The parade of illuminated lanterns, a fixture at spring Arts Walk before COVID-19, makes its fall debut at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7. It will begin at Fourth Avenue and Washington Street and circle Sylvester Park before returning to its starting point.
All are invited to participate. If you want to carry a paper luminary, show up at 8 p.m. at the Lamplighters, 211 Fourth Ave. E.
On the streets
The center of the celebration is the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Washington Street; one block in each direction will be closed to traffic to make room for play. Among the attractions: LED seesaws, a giant chess board and an illumination station (a big version of the Lite Brite pegboards popular in the 1970s).
Poet laureate Ashly McBunch and artist Devon Damonte will play with words, art and poetry from 6 to 10 p.m. Oct. 7, and the Hands On Children’s Museum will have portable wind tunnels and other activities for kids.
Studio West Dance Academy’s EDGE will perform at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7, and other performances are in the works. Keep your eyes open for popup performances, too.
Also on the closed streets: food trucks, a seating area, a makers’ market — and those portable restrooms.
Visual art
Visit the Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts. Wait, what? It’s true that, officially, there is no such place, but Frederick Dobler of Olympia would like to change that. Dobler and other local artists, including Mariella Luz and Reid Urban, have created an “ephemeral museum experience” on the ground floor of the Olympia Press building, 109 State Ave. NE.
“When I served on the Olympia Arts Commission, one of the most frequent comments I heard from people was, ‘I wish we had an art museum,’ ” Dobler told The Olympian, adding that Olympia also doesn’t have many noncommercial spaces where artists can show their work without producing an entire show.
His solution: the popup museum, where art will be on view from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday and from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday. At 6 p.m. Saturday, there’ll be a closing ceremony with electronic music by Drops Acid Terence and Stereo Out.
Meet cover artist Katherine Ransom and see her work, including “Where the Earth Meets the Sky,” from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday at Splash Gallery, 501 Columbia St. NW. Her Arts Walk cover piece, inspired by her connection to and concern for the natural world, will be on view all month at the gallery before it becomes part of the city’s art collection.
Check out new paintings by Susan Christian at LGM Studios, 114 Capitol Way N. There’s an opening reception from 5 to 9 p.m. Oct. 7, and the show, “Blue,” will be up all month. The gallery, formerly Christian’s celebrated Salon Refu, is open from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.
Performances
Watch heavy-metal knitting. Put in your earplugs: The kooky mashup of fiber arts and loud music is happening from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday outside Our Local Yarn Shop, 1912 State Ave. NE. The fiber artists, who’ll rock out to the music of Olympia death-metal band Primordial Atrocity, will be judged on their enthusiasm and the quality of their knitting (or crocheting).
See Airbound Arts’ Circus Spectacular, happening at 7 and 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Airbound studio, 312 Columbia St. NW. Airbound’s monthly shows just happen to coincide with Arts Walk. The early shows are suitable for all ages, while the later ones are for mature audiences only. Tickets are $15, $5 for children 11 and younger.
Meet the Time Travelers. The multitalented Joe and Paula McHugh will take audiences back to the old days — of the Gold Rush, the Civil War, traveling medicine shows and more — with a blend of music, art and storytelling. The duo will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday at New Traditions Café and World Folk Art, 300 Fifth Ave. SW. Tickets are $15; call 360-705-2819. Also at New Traditions for Arts Walk is Fiddle Fest, a free showcase of fiddlers happening from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday.