Kaleidoscope: Celebrate Art and Community

Start off your October with an evening of creative fun at the historic Normanna Hall in Hilltop neighborhood!

Presented by the Tacoma Arts Commission and Spaceworks, Kaleidoscope is the official kick off party for Tacoma Arts Month. This free and family-friendly event is full of dance, art, activities, music, and much more!

Kaleidoscope Opening Party
October 3rd, 2018
6 PM – 9 PM
Normanna Hall, 1106 S 15th Street

The festivities begin with the AMOCAT Arts Award ceremony at 6pm sharp. Snack on some delicious appetizers and enjoy a beverage from the no-host bar provided by Jonz Catering, or enjoy an evening coffee provided by Anthem Coffee.

We’ll keep the party going until 9pm with performances and hands-on activities from artists and organizations such as: Asia Pacific Cultural Center, The BareFoot Collective, The Grand Cinema, Jordani Sarreal, Tacoma Poet Laureate Kellie Richardson, DJ Smokeywonder, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma Refugee Choir, Tacoma Urban Performing Arts Center, and TeenTix. Pop-up art exhibits will be installed by several Tacoma artists, including Jasmine Brown, Maria Jost, Nori Kimura, Spaceworks Tacoma Links to Opportunity Project, and prints provided by Wayzgoose.

---

AMOCAT Arts Awards

The 2018 AMOCAT Arts Awards will be presented at 6pm by Mayor Victoria Woodards, and City Council Members Lillian Hunter and Keith Blocker.
The award recipients are:
Jackie Casella – Community Outreach by an Individual
Tacoma Little Theatre – Community Outreach by an Organization
MultiCare Health System – Arts Patron

Check out TacomaArtsMonth.com for the event details and the full art events calendar for October 2018.

---

Kaleidoscope Sponsors

We could not provide this wonderful and free event without the support of our sponsors:

NW Stage, LLC
Spaceworks
Norden Lodge #2 – Sons of Norway
HOLDstudios
The Grand Cinema
Anthem Coffee Company

---

Tacoma Arts Month Sponsors

Premier Sponsor: Click! Cable TV
Media Sponsors: ARCADE, KNKX, Northwest Public Broadcasting, Macaroni Kid, ParentMap, Preview, Sounds Fun Mom, South Sound magazine, Tacoma Living Local, Tacoma Weekly, Weekly Volcano

2017 by the numbers

Arts, culture, and creativity are essential keys to Tacoma’s unique and distinctive identity. The Tacoma Arts Commission and the Office of Arts & Cultural Vitality are proud to nurture our city’s creative ecosystem, providing support to our artists and organizations as well as opportunities for all of our residents and visitors to access and participate in the arts.

The City’s investments in arts and culture have far-reaching impacts on our community; here’s an overview of what was accomplished in 2017:

 

You can read more about what was accomplished in 2017 here.

Find out more about how the Tacoma Arts Commission serves our community at cityoftacoma.org/arts.

Creative Space – you have needs, we are listening

Help support the growth of Tacoma’s creative community by taking an online survey!

Are you an artist or engaged in creative pursuits?
Do you lead an arts or cultural organization or creative business?
Do you need affordable space to live, work, create, rehearse, perform, or conduct business?

If so, we want to hear from you! Please take our comprehensive online artist market survey that will help the City and local developers understand the needs of the creative community in Tacoma. Our goal is to maintain and develop new affordable space for living, working and creating in Tacoma. Data from the survey will show the need, build support, help secure funding, and assist developers and creative space providers like Spaceworks Tacoma to help them make decisions that best benefit creative use within existing and future developments. Your input and a large response is critical to the project’s success – help us spread the word!

“Seal of Approval”, version 1, created by Jessica Spring.

Take the survey at creativespacetacoma.org by February 9, 2015. We’ll even send you a piece of original letterpress art created by Jessica Spring, while supplies last!

 

“Seal of Approval”, version 2, created by Jessica Spring.

This survey is a partnership between the City of Tacoma, The Greater Tacoma Community Foundation, and Artspace with generous support from JPMorgan Chase. The survey is being conducted by Artspace, the nations’ leading non-profit developer of affordable artists’ live/work spaces.  Artspace has been hailed by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation and others as an inspiration for the emergent creative placemaking movement. For more than 30 years, Artspace has brought its expertise to more than 200 cultural facility planning efforts from coast to coast.

 

Metal Artists and Local Venues Wanted for Tacoma’s Metal-Urge

Metal-Urge, organized by the Tacoma Arts Commission, is Tacoma’s city-wide celebration of the metal arts during which venues around Tacoma will program a wide variety of metal-based activities including exhibits, workshops, lectures, festivals and more. The event, which will run Oct. 1– Nov. 30, 2014, will showcase the vast range of talent and creativity present in metalworking to date.

In conjunction with Metal-Urge, Tacoma Arts Museum and Seattle Metals Guild will host two major metal arts events. The first is a metal arts exhibit, “Protective Ornament: Contemporary Amulets to Armor”, running Oct. 18, 2014 – early February 2015, at Tacoma Art Museum (1701 Pacific Ave.). The second is the Seattle Metals Guild’s 19^th Annual Northwest Jewelry and Metals Symposium at the Washington State History Museum (1911 Pacific Ave.) on Oct. 18, 2014.

Opportunity for Artists

Professional metal artists or artists whose work incorporates metal as an important component are invited to apply for exhibition opportunities at traditional and non-traditional venues around Tacoma in conjunction with Metal-Urge. Artists must reside in Washington or Oregon.

Application submissions will be juried by representatives from local galleries and venues participating in the event. Selected artists will be assigned to shows and contacted directly by the gallery or venue mounting the exhibit. Exhibition details will be worked out with each venue directly.

The deadline for artist applications is midnight on April 25, 2014.

Opportunity for Tacoma Venues

Galleries, museums, organizations, businesses and alternative spaces in Tacoma are invited to participate in Metal-Urge, a free joint programming opportunity to build excitement and attraction for Tacoma’s residents and tourists alike around metal arts. Possible avenues of involvement include but are not limited to: exhibiting metal-related artwork, offering metal-related classes or workshops, and hosting metal-related events.

The City of Tacoma’s Arts Program will pull together the metal-arts activities and exhibits happening around Tacoma and provide extensive print and electronic publicity materials.

More information about Metal-Urge and applications for both artists and venues are available for download at cityoftacoma.org/artsopps. For additional information, please contact Vyra Saran at vsaran@cityoftacoma.org or (253) 591-5191.