Art Of Our City

KUOW Newsroom

Artist Aramis O. Hamer says her work has one message: Black lives matter. Period.

Seattle police officers cleared the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone earlier this week, but an indelible reminder of the occupation remains: the colorful Black Lives Matter mural that stretches along Pike Street near Cal Anderson Park. Aramis O. Hamer is one of 17 Seattle artists who collaborated on the mural. Each artist created one of the letters; Hamer painted the “V”.

KUOW Newsroom

'It’s about me getting back to myself.' Seattle artist explores identity in new photo series

Seattle art fans know Dani Tirrell as a dancer and choreographer, a recipient of the 2019 Mayor’s Arts Award, and a beloved teacher at Northwest Tap Connection. So they were surprised earlier this week when Tirrell published a series of self-portraits on Instagram.

KUOW Newsroom

She screamed so loud she scared off a rhino, and other Patti Warashina stories

Patti Warashina is a ceramic artist, but during the pandemic, she’s been drawing a lot; pictures of herself drinking martinis, yelling at news coverage of President Trump, and kicking a giant, spiked coronavirus out of her house. “He’s fleeing away from me,” she says with a laugh, “because I’m worse than he is!”

KUOW Newsroom

As we adjust to life in a long-term pandemic, we could learn a thing or two from this Seattle actor

When Suzy Hunt learned that state health officials had banned public gatherings, her first thoughts were for her friends in Seattle’s theater community. Everyone she knew immediately lost their jobs when performances were cancelled. “There will be more jobs in the future,” Hunt says, “but right now, it’s so unkind.”

KUOW Newsroom

Seattle poet Colleen McElroy weathers out the pandemic with words

At 85, Colleen McElroy leans into her poetry to weather what life throws her way

Creating Black-centric cultural spaces: "We need honest conversations about Blackness"

Last year Elisheba Johnson left her job at the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture. Although she loved the staff and the work she was doing, she needed a change. “I’d been having conversations with people about what it would mean to work more specifically with my community, the Black community,” Johnson says.

KUOW Newsroom

Seattle artist Noelle Price says 'it's not why art matters, it's what art matters'

Artist Noelle Price calls her art her megaphone. “The song, the illustration, the poetry, the dance, it amplifies, it magnifies,” Price says. “It provokes.”

KUOW Newsroom

Seattle artist says ending systemic racism takes more than a hashtag

A couple of weeks ago, Seattle artist David Rue started calling out local arts organizations by name on his social media feeds. Rue wanted them to take a hard look at the systemic racism inside their own organizations, then do something about it.

KUOW Newsroom

Marcie Sillman's weekend culture picks for June 5-7

We’ve witnessed more than a week of anguished demonstrations calling for racial justice, here and across the country. Seattle’s cultural community has been the target of calls to eliminate institutional racism. But it’s also a source of reflection and response. If you need to step back and see the world from a different perspective this weekend, KUOW’s Arts and Culture reporter Marcie Sillman offers these suggestions.

KUOW Newsroom

After 30 years, it's time for last call at Seattle's venerable Re-bar

Over the past three months, we’ve become accustomed to loss: the loss of lives, of livelihoods, and the loss of the way we used to go about everything from grocery shopping to educating our kids. Now we’re looking at the loss of Seattle cultural institutions.