Arts and Culture Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Ukrainian band brings ‘Odessa gangsta folk’ to the Northwest

By Susan Shain October 10, 2024

Seven members of a Ukrainian band look at the camera.

Kommuna Lux, a band from Ukraine, is playing shows throughout the Northwest. (Credit: Natalia Shevtsova / Kommuna Lux) Listen (Runtime :59) Read A band from Ukraine is taking the stage […]Read More

Funding for local poet laureate inspires international collaboration

By Lauren Gallup September 18, 2024

At food establishments across Redmond, diners this month will find a unique accompaniment to their orders; poems. Penned by local writers as well as poets from international Cities of Literature, the poems expound on community, harvest and lineage. Redmond’s poet laureate, Ching-In Chen, is leading the project, called Read Local Eat Local, It kicks off on Thursday Sept. Read More

‘Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience’ invites guests to engage in new ways

By Rachel Sun August 8, 2024

Two girls with virtual reality headsets are in a dark room. One of them is looking up towards the ceiling.

A new immersive art gallery in Spokane allows visitors to engage with Vincent Van Gogh’s art in new ways using digital technology. NWPB’s Rachel Sun reports.Read More

Tales of the forests through which we tromp

By Lauren Gallup August 30, 2023

Olympic National Park, summertime, sun cascading through trees. // CREDIT: Lauren Gallup NWPB

Moss drapes over trees in Olympic National Park like the table dressings of fairies and the blankets of sprites. This place inspires writers — from amateurs to poets to public radio reporters — and welcomes visitors each year into its majesty. Our national parks tend to do that; be places of awe-inspiring beauty, great adventures through bushwhacking and overnights Read More

Comedian Paula Poundstone talks the importance of librarians and how to ‘Get back to being human’

By Thom Kokenge July 26, 2023

We heard a rumor that Paula Poundstone was heading to our neck of the woods, so NWPB's Thom Kokenge caught up with her to find out what she's up to. Read More

PNW artists’ work evokes salmon to educate, inspire change

By Lauren Gallup May 19, 2023

Elise Richman, associate professor of art, left, and Britt Freda, of the Northwest Artists Against Extinction, at the group's exhibition Honor: People and Salmon at the Kittredge Gallery on the University of Puget Sound campus. The two stand in front of Richman's piece, Confluence, which was included in the exhibition. Photo by Lauren Gallup.

Northwest artists have drawn inspiration from salmon as long as people have walked along the running streams. But, the movement to close four dams on the lower Snake River has some artists, activists and naturalists hopeful that their pieces will not only tug at heartstrings, but also move forward the conversation of salmon conservation and restoration. Washington Gov. Read More

Pacific Northwest poet revisits social injustices

By Lauren Gallup April 27, 2023

Maps by Christina Vega is the third edition of Vega's poetry collection, first published in 2017. Photo courtesy of Blue Cactus Press.

Five years since it was first published, Maps, a collection of poems by Tacoma writer Christina Vega, is still relevant today as a response to social injustice, they said. “I'm asking readers to return to the work,” Vega said. “Let's look at it again, these issues are still here.” Read More

Arianne True named new Poet Laureate of Washington

By Lauren Gallup April 12, 2023

Arianne True will serve at the Washington State Poet Laureate beginning May 1. Photo courtesy of ArtsWA.

April is National Poetry Month and today/Wednesday, the Washington State Arts Commission announced that Arianne True will serve as the state’s new poet laureate beginning in May. Lauren Gallup spoke with the Tacoma-based writer and educator.Read More

Tacoma Method Opera tells history from a new perspective

By Lauren Gallup March 30, 2023

A photo of the marquee outside the Tacoma Opera's premiere of the Tacoma Method opera shows a green rimmed marquee with the word "Rialto" in large block letters. There are office buildings in the background and the signs hangs above a street. In the far background is a blue sky with bright, white clouds.

That history tends to repeat itself, especially when people don’t learn lessons from the past, is the guiding sentiment for Teresa Pan-Hosley in her work as the president of the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation. This organization is solely dedicated to reconciling the dark history of the Chinese expulsion from Tacoma in 1885. Read More

Tacoma Art Museum employees rally for union recognition

By Lauren Gallup March 24, 2023

Tacoma Art Museum employees spoke to supporter Thursday evening, calling for the museum's board to recognize their union. Photo by Lauren Gallup.

After months of rallying and demanding recognition for their union, the employees of the Tacoma Art Museum got some assurance that the museum’s Board of Trustees would discuss at the end of the month the most recent union proposal. Read More

Camille Patha trades bright, bold colors for dark, evocative journey into black

By Lauren Gallup March 13, 2023

A still from the documentary "Camille in Color," by David Wild. Photo courtesy of the Tacoma Art Museum.

Two days before Camille Patha’s exhibit, "Passion Pleasure Power," opened at the Tacoma Art Museum, the artist walked around the gallery, a space filled with some of her new works from the past three years. Read More

Honoring women’s history through poetry

By Lauren Gallup March 1, 2023

The newspaper clipping that mentions Rachel Page. Photo courtesy of Cory Eberhart.

A group of poets in Kittitas County will honor eight important Washington women in verse. March is Women’s History Month, and this Friday at Gallery One in Ellensburg, the poets will perform their crown of sonnets, a succession of seven, separate sonnets, at the Women’s History Month Poetry Extravaganza. Read More

A park from pollution: 30 years after the ASARCO smokestack demolition, Tacoma’s waterfront transforms

By Lauren Gallup January 20, 2023

An image of the ASARCO smelter in Tacoma, showing the smokestack rising above the waterfront. Photo credit Tacoma Public Library.

It was a clear day in Tacoma on January 17, 1993. Commencement Bay was crowded with boats. Families gathered on boat decks and across North Tacoma sidewalks to watch the demolition of what was once the tallest smokestack in the world, the ASARCO smokestack that loomed over Tacoma’s waterfront for nearly 100 years. With the press of a button, a child, supervised by Read More