The Department of Bioregion is excited to share our application for the City of Seattle 2023 Arts in the Park grant through our program the Cascadia Northwest Arts and Music Festival. Cascadia Northwest Solstice in Seattle will be an all ages event taking place in Beer Sheva Park on Saturday, June 24th. The gathering will celebrate the summer solstice and bring communities together for a day of artmaking, installation art, workshops, music and fun.
Rainier beach deserves quality, protected, outdoor spaces and events.
That was the message of the first mural completed in Be’er Sheva in July of 2021 by the Rainier Beach Action Coalition, Link2Lake, the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods and the Franklin High School arts activism club, Art of Resistance and Resilience. The piece, created by students Kema Jones and senior Willie Makk was co-facilitated by Mari Shibua and symbolizes “the way it feels to be a part of the South Seattle community” according to the South Seattle Emerald. CascadiaNW is proud to step into this environment, and excited to partner with these groups, as well as Tilth, Parks and Recreation, and Friends of the Rainier Beach Urban Farm & Wetlands, who have been working so hard to restore and daylight Mapes Creek as a sensitive Chinook salmon spawning habitat.
The event will begin setting up at 8am on Saturday the 24th, with programming from 12pm to 10pm. It will be free of charge, family friendly and open to the public. We are excited to partner with Seattle artist Ryan “Henry” Ward who just hosted his unofficial Arts in the Park on Sep 10th, 2022, bringing more than a hundred people together for an afternoon of creative community building.
The day will start with a tour of the park, community projects and installation pieces, with artists and groups talking about their work.
It will also include:
Place- based installation pieces that invite people into the park, and Friends of Rainier Urban Farm and Wetlands, Seattle Tilth and Seattle Parks and Recreation to be a part of the creation process. This will include the Mapes Creek restoration work.
Workshops led by community artists and groups.
Painting and artmaking on site, both by professional artists, and supplies for everybody to come make art.
Live music and performances.
The Cascadia community is incredibly passionate, committed and diverse, and since COVID, has looked for new opportunities to gather, learn, share and celebrate. Rainier Beach deserves amazing artwork and events. Beer Sheva park was chosen because of the amazing intersection of art, community, and watershed restoration we think this site has to offer, not only for our event, but also for Rainier Beach and the City of Seattle.
