Shawna Hawk has noticed a trend. Whenever any tragedy involving people of color attracts national attention, images and artwork will appear - for a time. But once the public focus has moved on, those representations disappear. Often, they are rooted in black trauma and pain rather than a celebration of excellence. 

Get to know Dave Sederberg, the artist behind Downtown Olympia’s Holiday Tree Art Installation.

Dave Sederberg is well known throughout the Puget Sound region as the owner and the lead AV designer of Pacific Stage. Pacific Stage has provided professional sound and lighting production for over 25 years. Outside of audio design, Dave has been working in the visual arts for over 30 years. He is an award-winning painter & sculptor. His work has been featured and sold in national and international exhibitions from New York to LA. His work has been featured in the Bellevue Art Museum, Palm Springs Desert Museum, Beverly Hills “Affair in the Gardens,” the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in NYC/Chelsea and the Florida State University Combined Talents International Exhibition.

On Wednesday, December 15, 2021, at the intersection of Franklin Avenue and 4th Avenue, in the Diamond Parking lot in front of the Mount Rainier mural, “Boomer” will join the downtown Olympia landscape as a temporary public art installation. 

On Sunday, November 28, 2021, at LoveOly Winter Fest, the Olympia Downtown Alliance unveiled an art installation called “CoHo Ho” created by local artist, Jill Carter.

The “CoHo Ho” are lightboxes made of plywood, corrugated plastic, lots of LEDs and Christmas lights and translucent paint. Each of the four salmon installed downtown are unique and measure roughly 6’x8’ and are mounted to the trees on welded steel brackets.