Olympia Armory Creative Campus

The City of Olympia and Framework Cultural Placemaking were awarded the APA/PAW 2023 Excellence in Planning Award for Community Involvement for the Olympia Armory Creative Campus Concept Plan.

For the 37th year, the Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA-WA) and the Planning Association of Washington (PAW) jointly honored outstanding contributions to the field of planning in Washington State. The award program goals are to recognize great planning efforts in Washington, promote excellent planning in government and the private sector, and increase public awareness of the roles of APA-WA and PAW in supporting outstanding planning in Washington State. Seven projects were presented with awards in the categories of Comprehensive Planning, Community Involvement, Implementation, Sustainability, and Transportation Planning

The City of Olympia has been selected to receive a $75,000 Our Town award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support the Armory Creative Campus - Arts Interventions and Facility Design. This is one of 51 grants nationwide in this category to support projects that integrate arts, culture, and design activities into efforts that strengthen communities by advancing local economic, physical, and/or social outcomes; ultimately laying the groundwork for systems change and centering equity.

Calling all artists, culture bearers and creatives! Apply by May 8 with your proposal for an Armory Arts Intervention.

Selected projects will receive $2,500-$15,000 and space use at the Armory during the month of July 2023.

The City of Olympia, The Bridge Music Project and PARC Foundation of Thurston County are collaborating to launch an Arts Interventions and Facility Design Phase in 2023, part of a multi-year plan to support the transformation of the Olympia Armory as a Creative Campus. The purpose of the project is to engage artists, culture bearers, and a youth action council to lead in reimagining possible uses of the space through temporary art installations and creative pop-up projects to inform facility design.

Apply here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/artsinterventions

Deadline: May 8, 2023

Need more information? Attend one of these online info sessions with Q&A:

• Tuesday, April 25, at 2-3pm (Register)
• Wednesday, May 3 at 12-1pm (Register)

Please welcome our new Armory Building Manager, Valerie Roberts! Valerie comes to the position with a unique skillset in community and partnership centered work, strategic planning, and project management in arts organizations, museums and parks.

Their work managing public spaces, including cultural and art museums has focused on creating access with a mind to give all a safe and positive experience, and collaboratively building places that are welcoming, people focused, and DEAI and Decolonization centered. As a project manager, Valerie brings experience managing building operations (including historic buildings), safety and access. Additional work with Washington State Parks involved working strategically with invested partners, community members and Park staff to develop effective and thoughtful contracts that best help them facilitate their work to create accessible and DEAI centered community opportunities.

Valerie arrives at just the right time for the Armory as we begin to formalize relationships with community partners and begin Phase 1 design and construction.

The City of Olympia has been recommended for a $1 million Heritage Capital Project Grant from the Washington State Historical Society for rehabilitation and preservation work on the 1939 Olympia Armory building. Grant recommendations must go to the State Legislature for final approval and inclusion in the 2023-25 Capital Budget. This is one of 29 grants statewide that support communities in providing public access to history by preserving and interpreting Washington's history and heritage.

In Olympia the grant funds will support an initial set of repairs and improvements needed to allow the City to open the doors of the old Armory as a new Creative Campus for Olympia. The Armory building is listed on the Olympia Heritage Register and is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

• Read the media release

The March 19 Housewarming celebrated the official transfer of the Armory building to the City. It was an event filled with performances and a chance for attendees to see emerging themes in the ongoing visioning process and share input on how to prioritize these ideas. Over 517 people attended.

The October 2 Open House was a chance so community members could walk through the Armory building, get some inspiration, and share hopes and dreams on what they’d like the space to become.

Watch video

At dusk following the October 2 community open house the Armory building was illuminated for the evening in a spectrum of colors.

The lighting event was an opportunity to celebrate and inspire new creative uses of the space. Big thanks to Pacific Stage and Dave Sederberg for support with the installation.

Watch video

The City selected Framework Cultural Placemaking to lead a multi-disciplinary consulting team to help us identify partnerships, develop a business plan, and create a concept design for the Armory as a Creative Campus.

Governor Inslee approved the 2021 Washington State Capital Budget, which directed the Military Department to transfer the Olympia Armory at no cost to the City of Olympia, "for use as a community asset dedicated to using the arts to support community development, arts education, and economic development initiatives.”