Fremont Arts Council
Encyclopedia
The Fremont Arts Council (FAC) is a community
-run organization that supports arts
and artist
s. The Council resides in the Fremont, Seattle, Washington
, but its members are from throughout the city.
The FAC believes that art establishes a bond between people. When people feel connected to their community, the community thrives. It serves the needs of local artists and community members by fostering a cooperative, collaborative environment for the creation and celebration of art.
There are three distinct areas of public programming: events
, art
and workshop
s. In turn, the community supports the FAC through partnerships with government, local businesses, and schools. It is an established and integral part of the neighborhood's business community and has healthy relationships with the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, Fremont Rotary Club, the local Seattle Public Schools
and the Fremont Sunday Market.
, in 1979 with the belief that art establishes a bond between people and their neighborhood.
, May Day
, Troll-a-ween, and the Winter Solstice Feast.
and Waiting for the Interurban
.
megalithic statue, located on N. 36th Street at Troll Avenue N., under the north end of the Aurora Bridge. (Troll Avenue was renamed in its honor in 2005.) It is clutching an actual original Volkswagen Beetle
, as if it had just swiped it from the roadway above. Somewhat amusingly, in light of Seattle P-I columnist Emmett Watson's
periodic promotion of the KBO
, the vehicle had a California license plate.
The piece was commissioned by the Fremont Arts Council in 1989, and built in 1990. The Troll was sculpted by four local artists: Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter and Ross Whitehead. The Troll is interactive—visitors are encouraged to clamber on him or try to poke out his one good eye (a hubcap
). The Troll is 18 feet (5.5 m) high, weighs two tons, and is made of steel
rebar
, wire and ferroconcrete
.
" is a 1979 cast aluminum sculpture
collection in the Fremont
neighborhood of Seattle. It is located on the south side of N. 34th Street, just east of the northern end of the Fremont Bridge. It consists of six people, to say nothing of the dog, standing under a shelter and waiting for public transportation--specifically, the Seattle-Everett
Interurban
. (In actuality, the six figures would have waited for a very long time, as the Interurban ran on Fremont Avenue and never turned east on 34th.)
The sculptor, local resident Richard Beyer
, included several subtleties in the sculpture which reward close viewing. There is also some gentle needling of a local Fremont political leader and pioneer in municipal recycling
, Armen Napoleon Stepanian. People living and working in the Fremont neighborhood often dress the characters with apparel appropriate to the season (termed "art attacks" by some) to the extent that, when those unfamiliar with the sculpture drive by, it is not always immediately obvious as they pass that the characters waiting are actually statues. The most imaginative displays are memorialized at History House.
The sculpture is a few blocks west of Troll Avenue N., the location of the Fremont Troll
.
s and teach workshops to the community. In the past five years, the FAC has hosted artists from England
, carnival
experts from Trinidad
, a performer and costume
maker from Liberia
and a sculptor from New York
. These artists have furthered the technical skills of the community and have significantly improved the quality of art the FAC produces. The FAC understands that involving local and international
artists is invaluable in inspiring and empowering the community.
Community
The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...
-run organization that supports arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
and artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
s. The Council resides in the Fremont, Seattle, Washington
Fremont, Seattle, Washington
Fremont is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. Originally a separate city, it was annexed to Seattle in 1891. Named after Fremont, Nebraska, the hometown of two of its founders, L. H. Griffith and E...
, but its members are from throughout the city.
The FAC believes that art establishes a bond between people. When people feel connected to their community, the community thrives. It serves the needs of local artists and community members by fostering a cooperative, collaborative environment for the creation and celebration of art.
There are three distinct areas of public programming: events
Festival
A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....
, art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
and workshop
Workshop
A workshop is a room or building which provides both the area and tools that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods...
s. In turn, the community supports the FAC through partnerships with government, local businesses, and schools. It is an established and integral part of the neighborhood's business community and has healthy relationships with the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, Fremont Rotary Club, the local Seattle Public Schools
Seattle Public Schools
Seattle Public Schools is the school district serving Seattle, Washington, USA. Its headquarters are in the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence.-List of schools:...
and the Fremont Sunday Market.
History
The Fremont Arts Council was founded in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, WashingtonSeattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, in 1979 with the belief that art establishes a bond between people and their neighborhood.
Events
The Fremont Arts Council sponsors several annual events including the Summer Solstice Parade and PageantSummer Solstice Parade and Pageant
The Fremont Solstice Parade is an annual event produced by the Fremont Arts Council , an organization that supports the arts and artists in and around the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Started in 1989 by Barbara Luecke and Peter Toms, the parade quickly grew to tens of thousands of...
, May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
, Troll-a-ween, and the Winter Solstice Feast.
Fremont Solstice Parade
The FAC's signature event is the annual Fremont Summer Solstice Parade & Pageant, which has grown over 18 years to become one of the premier outlets for public artistic expression in Seattle. The Solstice Parade is an outpouring of creativity and community during which hundreds of volunteers and tens of thousands of spectators transform the streets of Fremont into a roving theater.Autumnal Equinox Luminata
Luminata is a community-based event. Lanterns are made at the Arts Council Studio (The Powerhouse) through classes and open workshops. Held annually on the autumnal equinox, participants meet to walk around Greenlake with their lanterns at dusk, creating a long line of beautifully crafted light around the lake. Anyone in the community is invited to the classes, the workshops, and the event itself. Workshops and classes usually require a small fee.Public Art
FAC has been responsible for the installation and maintenance of several public artworks in the Fremont area. These include the Fremont TrollFremont Troll
The Fremont Troll is a piece of public art in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington in the United States.-Description:...
and Waiting for the Interurban
Waiting for the Interurban
Waiting for the Interurban is a 1979 cast aluminum sculpture collection in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. It is located on the southeast corner of N. 34th Street and Fremont Avenue N., just east of the northern end of the Fremont Bridge. It consists of six people and a dog standing under a...
.
Fremont Troll
One of Seattle's most popular public artworks, the Fremont Troll, is a mixed-mediaMixed media
Mixed media, in visual art, refers to an artwork in the making of which more than one medium has been employed.There is an important distinction between "mixed-media" artworks and "multimedia art". Mixed media tends to refer to a work of visual art that combines various traditionally distinct...
megalithic statue, located on N. 36th Street at Troll Avenue N., under the north end of the Aurora Bridge. (Troll Avenue was renamed in its honor in 2005.) It is clutching an actual original Volkswagen Beetle
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Type 1, widely known as the Volkswagen Beetle or Volkswagen Bug, is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen from 1938 until 2003...
, as if it had just swiped it from the roadway above. Somewhat amusingly, in light of Seattle P-I columnist Emmett Watson's
Emmett Watson
Emmett Watson was a newspaper columnist in Seattle, Washington whose columns ran in a number of Seattle newspapers over a span of more than fifty years...
periodic promotion of the KBO
Keep the Bastards Out
Keep the Bastards Out or KBO is a fictional organization invented bySeattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Emmett Watson. The KBO was a tongue-in-cheek group which never actually existed, but which expressed his frustration with the influx of newcomers to the Puget Sound area from out-of-state...
, the vehicle had a California license plate.
The piece was commissioned by the Fremont Arts Council in 1989, and built in 1990. The Troll was sculpted by four local artists: Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter and Ross Whitehead. The Troll is interactive—visitors are encouraged to clamber on him or try to poke out his one good eye (a hubcap
Hubcap
A hubcap, wheel cover or wheel trim is a decorative disk on an automobile wheel that covers at least a central portion of the wheel. Cars with stamped steel wheels often use a full wheel cover that conceals the entire wheel. Cars with alloy wheels or styled steel wheels generally use smaller...
). The Troll is 18 feet (5.5 m) high, weighs two tons, and is made of steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
rebar
Rebar
A rebar , also known as reinforcing steel, reinforcement steel, rerod, or a deformed bar, is a common steel bar, and is commonly used as a tensioning device in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures holding the concrete in compression...
, wire and ferroconcrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
.
Waiting for the Interurban
"Waiting for the InterurbanWaiting for the Interurban
Waiting for the Interurban is a 1979 cast aluminum sculpture collection in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. It is located on the southeast corner of N. 34th Street and Fremont Avenue N., just east of the northern end of the Fremont Bridge. It consists of six people and a dog standing under a...
" is a 1979 cast aluminum sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
collection in the Fremont
Fremont, Seattle, Washington
Fremont is a neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. Originally a separate city, it was annexed to Seattle in 1891. Named after Fremont, Nebraska, the hometown of two of its founders, L. H. Griffith and E...
neighborhood of Seattle. It is located on the south side of N. 34th Street, just east of the northern end of the Fremont Bridge. It consists of six people, to say nothing of the dog, standing under a shelter and waiting for public transportation--specifically, the Seattle-Everett
Everett, Washington
Everett is the county seat of and the largest city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. Named for Everett Colby, son of founder Charles L. Colby, it lies north of Seattle. The city had a total population of 103,019 at the 2010 census, making it the 6th largest in the state and...
Interurban
Interurban
An interurban, also called a radial railway in parts of Canada, is a type of electric passenger railroad; in short a hybrid between tram and train. Interurbans enjoyed widespread popularity in the first three decades of the twentieth century in North America. Until the early 1920s, most roads were...
. (In actuality, the six figures would have waited for a very long time, as the Interurban ran on Fremont Avenue and never turned east on 34th.)
The sculptor, local resident Richard Beyer
Richard Beyer
Richard Beyer is an American sculptor from Pateros, Washington. As of March 2000, Beyer had made 77 sculptures.Beyer is most well known for his sculpture Waiting for the Interurban located in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The sculpture, which is one of the most popular works of...
, included several subtleties in the sculpture which reward close viewing. There is also some gentle needling of a local Fremont political leader and pioneer in municipal recycling
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
, Armen Napoleon Stepanian. People living and working in the Fremont neighborhood often dress the characters with apparel appropriate to the season (termed "art attacks" by some) to the extent that, when those unfamiliar with the sculpture drive by, it is not always immediately obvious as they pass that the characters waiting are actually statues. The most imaginative displays are memorialized at History House.
The sculpture is a few blocks west of Troll Avenue N., the location of the Fremont Troll
Fremont Troll
The Fremont Troll is a piece of public art in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington in the United States.-Description:...
.
Community Outreach
The FAC regularly schedules events with local and international professional artists who give lectureLecture
thumb|A lecture on [[linear algebra]] at the [[Helsinki University of Technology]]A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history,...
s and teach workshops to the community. In the past five years, the FAC has hosted artists from England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
experts from Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, a performer and costume
Costume
The term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. Costume may also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances...
maker from Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
and a sculptor from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. These artists have furthered the technical skills of the community and have significantly improved the quality of art the FAC produces. The FAC understands that involving local and international
International
----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...
artists is invaluable in inspiring and empowering the community.
Press
- http://www.gocitykids.com/browse/attraction.jsp?id=30277
- http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=1249
- http://www.fremontseattle.com/myths/paradeedit.htm
- http://www.volunteermatch.org/orgs/org27912.html