Arts Walk returns to downtown Olympia. Choose from 102 locations to visit
Thinking about what you’d like to see and do at Olympia’s fall Arts Walk, happening Friday, Oct. 4, and Saturday, Oct. 5?
The Arts Walk map lists 102 downtown locations showing visual art and/or hosting performances. Bands will be playing. Dancers will dancing. Jugglers, if past years are any indication, will be juggling at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Washington Street, where the streets are closed to make room for an arts market, food vendors and kids activities.
If you’ve been to the twice-yearly celebration before, you probably expect all that — and you’re likely familiar, too, with the Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts, which is popping up once again with its second annual Coast Salish Museum of Fine Arts exhibition, happening Oct. 4, 5 and 12-14 at 120 Olympia Ave. NE, Olympia.
What you might not expect: This Arts Walk also offers opera, a chance to explore your feelings and ideas about death and life after death and — wait for it — armored combat.
Members of the Olympia Onslaught, a part of Armored Combat Worldwide, will fight from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday outside Cup of Swords Tavern, 1005 Fourth Ave. E, Olympia.
The combatants, dressed in steel armor, will use medieval-style weapons to fight one another. And passersby can take a shot at the well-protected fighters, too.
“They will let you come in and participate and whack them,” Cup of Swords owner Lina Ciampi of Olympia said in an interview with the city.
This highly unusual activity, along with a costume contest and other activities, won the Renaissance-themed tavern an Innovation Award, which the city gives to the hosts of particularly engaging and inspiring projects.
Also winning an award is “On the Edge,” a multimedia exploration of death created by Jennie Beth Banks of Olympia, founder of Death Dancer, which uses art, film and writing to help people learn about and come to terms with death and dying.
The interactive exhibit, in the former Olympia Glass building, 111 Cherry St. NE, Olympia, will be accompanied by performances (6:30 p.m. Friday and 1 and 3 p.m. Saturday) by the Olympia chapter of the Threshold Singers, who sing at the bedsides of ill and dying people., and music by harp thanatologist Marianne Guerin of Olympia (7 p.m. Friday).
As for the opera, Olympia Opera Theater will present a variety of popular arias and songs from musical theater at 7 p.m. Saturday at Rhythms Coffeehouse, 210 Fourth Ave. W., Olympia. The coffeehouse also received an Innovation Award, as did The Washington Center for the Performing Arts and Last Word Books.
But wait... there’s more
▪ See the cover art: Eileen Bochsler’s “Forest Awakening,” an evocative encaustic painting, is on view at Splash Gallery, 501 Columbia St. NW, Suite C, Olympia. More of Bochsler’s work can be seen at Endless Sound Cellars, 222 Capitol Way N,, Suite 107, Olympia. Bochsler will be at Splash from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday and at Endless Sound from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday.
▪ Welcome Soul Café to downtown: Soul Café, formerly located next to True Self Yoga on the west side, opens at 4 p.m. Friday inside New Traditions Fair Trade, 300 Fifth Ave. SW, Olympia. While you eat — or sip one of the café’s signature beverages with ultra-creamy cashew milk — you can savor New Traditions’ annual Fiddle Fest, happening from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. Soul Cafe will have regular hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday-Tuesday and be open at other times for events.
▪ Check out “Precarious Stacks”: The installation, by David Sederberg, Whitney Sederberg and Natalie Coblentz, will be on view starting at 4 p.m. Saturday at Heritage Park, Olympia, and will be illuminated as the sun sets.
▪ Watch a dance concert or two: Random Acts of Dance Collective (RADCO), long an Arts Walk staple, is back on stage at 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 6 at the Eagles Grand Ballroom, 805 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia. Word is that the audience will be invited to join in. Admission is by donation, with $15 suggested. Moving Parts Dance is having a multimedia performance of dance, music and poetry at 1 p.m. Saturday in the company studio, 302 Columbia St. NW, Olympia. Admission is by donation, with advance tickets and reservations available online (https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6447870).
Olympia Arts Walk
What: Olympia’s twice-yearly arts celebration fills downtown with art, music, dance — and people.
When: 6-10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, and noon-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5
Where: Downtown Olympia, with street closure at Fifth Avenue and Washington Street
Maps: Find maps — featuring “Forest Awakening,” an encaustic painting by Eileen Bochsler — at participating businesses and at The Olympia Center, 222 Columbia St. NW, Olympia.
More information: http://artswalkoly.com