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Innovation Awards

The Arts Walk Innovation Awards were created to honor and support excellence and innovation in community engagement through the arts.

In 2023, up to five awardees will be selected for each the spring and fall events. Projects will be selected based on how well they exemplify innovation/creativity and community engagement through the arts. Registered participants are automatically considered for the award based on the information included in their registration form by the corresponding event registration deadline.

Projects can include but are not limited to: new works of art; performances; and art activities designed to engage community members in unique ways. Projects must be free and open to the public.

Selected awardees are highlighted in event publications and receive a complementary Olympia Arts Walk registration for the following Arts Walk.

Join us in celebrating the Fall 2023 Honorees: Community Print, Olympia Artspace Alliance - Art in Storefronts, Our Local Yarn Shop, Sparrow Studios, and YMCA (Plum St.)

Fall 2023 Innovation Awardees

Community Print Community Print is a volunteer-run letterpress shop that has been operating out of downtown Olympia for over 25 years.
Join us for a display of postcards and interactive letterpress activity with guest artist Hope Amico's Keep Writing Project.

Olympia Artspace Alliance - Art In Storefronts Art in Storefronts presents "Our Fragile Planet - Climate Change through the Artists Lens". OAA invited artists to respond to the Climate Crisis by creating artwork that galvanizes our community towards resilience, adaptability and making a difference.

Our Local Yarn Shop Get your fiber fun fix! Friday - a display of yarn bowls created by local artists/artisans. Saturday - OLY’s 3rd Annual Heavy Metal Knitting & Crocheting Competition! Featuring Primordial Atrocity, Hangmans Park and 5 performative knitters & crocheters.

Sparrow Studios Sparrow Studios provides adults and children with high-quality aerial, acrobatics, and circus arts instruction in a safe and supportive atmosphere in downtown Olympia. We invite you to try it out on the Saturday of Arts Walk.

YMCA Join in celebrating muralist and painter Elisa Del Guidice. Elisa is the creator behind the Plum St YMCA Mural, whose design elements include images unique to our region. The work is also part of a larger, national project - You Are Not Alone Murals.

Spring 2023 Innovation Awardees

Window Seat Media Experience an immersive exhibit of Window Seat Media’s community oral history archive. Share stories at the "Listening and Playback" station, where artists from Brave Practice Playback Theatre Collective listen to your stories and....

Arbutus Folk School Join Arbutus Folk School and fiber artists Wendy Clark & Liz Frey to follow wool from sheep to shawl! Attendees will be invited to touch and feel real fleece from a sheep, and then observe Wendy as she cards the wool to untangle the many fine fibers...

OlyFilm & OlyActing at The Olympia Ballroom Lounge Come see real life local filmmakers shoot a 10-minute film in 10 hours (the duration of Arts Walk)! Join filmmakers from OlyFilm and youth actors from OlyActing to witness the magic of cinema. Between takes, visit The Olympia Ballroom's lounge to view....

Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts The Thurston County Museum of Fine Arts (TCMoFA) is back! Thurston County’s ephemeral pop-up museum returns with a fresh team of hyper-local artists working across a variety of mediums. This iteration of the museum will feature a new collection of....

The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice (RCF) RCF in partnership with Art Forces marks the 20th anniversary of RCF and Rachel Corrie's stand in Gaza. Over the weekend of this spring's Arts Walk, the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project (ORSMP) will add several new leaves to the mural and....

Innovation Awards

Fall 2023 Innovation Awardees

Past Honorees

Spring 2023 Innovation Awardees