The Central District Gets an Art Walk

by Jas Keimig

On a recent Friday afternoon, galleries and businesses within the Central District swung open their doors and welcomed in pedestrians hungry to look at paintings, sculpture, and photography — it was art walkin’ time. Sept. 6 marked the very first Central District Art Walk — happening every first Friday of the month — bringing together eight spaces to show art from local artists after work hours.

Led by Stephanie Morales of Made Space on Union, the CD Art Walk joins the likes of Pioneer Square, Ballard, Belltown, Capitol Hill, and West Seattle, which all claim one day a month for a few hours of art viewing, talking, and walking. Morales had been marinating on this idea for years, but began work on making it a reality earlier this summer.

“My first time ever showing as an artist was at Fremont Art Walk many years ago. That was a pivotal moment for me, like, ‘Oh, I can actually sell my art!’ I had no idea how to approach galleries or any of that kind of stuff,” said Morales in a recent interview. “So that sparked something in me — art walk is a great way to respond to all of that.”

Collaborating with Seattle Arts Commissioner and painter Rodney H. King and Belltown Art Walk organizer Amy Tipton, Morales reached out to fellow business owners around the Central District to participate in the art walk, including art spaces like Wa Na Wari and Arte Noir as well as cafés, restaurants, and shops. The event runs from 6 to 9 p.m., starting in Midtown Square with musical performances (and, eventually, a seasonal market). While all are welcome, the focus of the art walk is to center Black artists and Black businesses within the historically Black neighborhood.

For the inaugural September edition, there were interesting shows sprinkled throughout the Central District. At Made Space, AMAI and Edimbo Lekea’s collaborative exhibition DIVINE featured vibrant paintings, plants, mirrors, and flowery collages on small light boxes (Morales notes that by night’s end, almost the entire show sold out). While an exhibition was still under construction at Arte Noir (but had FREE banana pudding courtesy of The Sugah Shack), Wa Na Wari opened its doors for people to check out its excellent suite of artists currently up. And over at Central Cafe, painter Jayda had a show of intuitive abstract paintings and drawings that explored trauma, healing, sexuality, and rebirth. 

If you plan on coming, be sure to put on comfortable, supportive walking shoes. The art walk map spans nearly 1.5 miles north–south along the entirety of the Central District — from Kaio Wilker Salon up on Madison Avenue all the way down to 23rd Ave Brewery, QueenCare, and Simply Soulful on South Jackson Street. Compared with other art walks around the city, that’s a lot of ground to cover. When I attended that evening, my friend and I only made it from Union Avenue to Cherry Street (though the 48 bus runs from Madison to Jackson pretty regularly). Morales acknowledged the big distance, but has hopes to mitigate the distance in the future.

“Eventually, sometime in May — once it really gets booming — I would love to have [something] like Walk the Block’s team of bike carriers to take people in between spots. It would be cool to have something running up and down 23rd so that you could really hit everything from Madison down to Jackson to help connect that corridor,” Morales said. 

The CD Art Walk is looking to expand its footprint over the next few months, adding more businesses to participate in the once-a-month event. For Morales, that means doing outreach and bringing more visitors and host spaces into the fold.

“One of Made Space’s values is cooperative economics, so [the CD Art Walk] is completely in alignment with that,” she said. “Anybody that has that same mindset, just being in the Central District is being part of the cooperative economics of [the neighborhood]. You’re bringing your energy, you’re bringing your money, you’re bringing your support, you’re sharing, you’re taking pictures. That’s the bigger picture.”

Jas Keimig is a writer and critic based in Seattle. They previously worked on staff at The Stranger, covering visual art, film, music, and stickers. Their work has also appeared in Crosscut, South Seattle Emerald, i-D, Netflix, and The Ticket. They also co-write Unstreamable for Scarecrow Video, a column and screening series highlighting films you can’t find on streaming services. They won a game show once.