City officials talk Armory creative campus plan

OLYMPIA –– City officials discussed a proposal from the Olympia Parks, Arts and Recreation Department to create an arts center in the city out of the current National Guard Armory. 

The building is up for sale now that the local National Guard is relocating. The facility totals around 50,000 square feet and is located at 515 Eastside St. SE, currently sitting about one block outside the Creative District.

“As a community we deeply value arts, culture and creativity. Guiding values that have informed this idea are rooted in our community values,” said Angel Nava, the city’s arts program specialist. “The arts are integral to our community’s way of life. Our most powerful tools for growth are creativity and innovation. The arts connect people, ideas and place, and the access to the arts is a fundamental human right.”

According to Nava, the Olympia community saw a need for an arts center for quite some time.

“For 31 years Olympia’s citizens have asked for a dedicated arts facility in Olympia, a space where the whole community can get together to use arts as a tool for collective growth,” said Nava. “The recommendation is to explore the armory creative campus as a strategic community asset in response to Olympia’s 31-year call-to-action and the need for economic and community recovery initiatives in the wake of COVID-19. We’re looking to move the recommendation to council to secure an option on the property.”

The armory was chosen in large part because of its size, and its recent listing rendered it an interesting option to explore. According to Nava, the campus could accommodate a wide range of different spaces and implementations, and when an interdepartmental team began researching arts centers in 2019 through regional site visits, the vision for a creative campus in Olympia began to grow.

“The facility draft concept allows for some really great components –– a 5,000 square foot space, classrooms, offices, administration spaces, studio spaces, [and] a retail space,” said Nava. “It also allows for a multi-use event space. The roughly 10,000 square foot drill floor could be converted to an event space.”

If the city decides to move forward with this proposal, it would become important to secure an option on the property, which includes looking for a first right of refusal, according to Nava.

“[We should also] identify key community partners, redraw the creative district boundary, and list the building on the National Register of Historic Places,” Nava said. “We want to know if this is the right direction we should be heading in.”

Discussion was held over different options for funding, such as whether a cultural access tax would best serve the community, and many council members emphasized that they wanted to ensure that managing the facility should take equity of access into account.