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Tag: Schack Art Center

  • Clark Park: Everett’s Oldest Park Heads Into Its 132nd Summer with a New Dog Park, a Gazebo Memory, and a Twist on Where That 1921 Bandstand Is Going

    Tennis courts open until 9 p.m. A dog park where the bandstand used to be. And a 1921 gazebo that’s about to live a second life on the other side of town. Here’s where Everett’s oldest park stands as it heads into its 132nd summer.

    Where is Clark Park and what makes it special?

    Clark Park sits at 2400 Lombard Avenue in Everett’s Bayside neighborhood and is the city’s oldest public park. The City of Everett bought the land in 1894 and renamed it Clark Park in 1931 in honor of pioneer resident John J. Clark. Today the 2.4‑acre park is open 6 a.m. to dusk, has a playground with rubber surfacing, tennis courts available until 9 p.m., a new off‑leash dog area where the historic 1921 gazebo once stood, and benches scattered under mature shade trees.

    The Oldest Park in Everett, Quietly Heading Into Its 132nd Summer

    If you’ve spent any time in Bayside, you’ve probably crossed Clark Park without realizing what you were walking through. It’s small — 2.4 acres — tucked between Lombard Avenue, Wetmore, and 24th and 25th Streets, just east of the Cathedral District and a short walk from Hewitt and downtown. The kids’ play structure is colorful. The tennis nets get re‑strung every spring. A handful of dog owners are usually leaning on the new fence on a warm afternoon.

    What’s easy to miss is the date stamped into the park’s identity on the City of Everett’s own facility page: established 1894. That makes Clark Park older than the public library, older than the high school’s current building, older than the Hartley Mansion up on Rucker Avenue. It opened as “City Park” just three years after Everett was platted. The 1931 rename honored John J. Clark, one of the city’s pioneer residents.

    For 130‑plus years, this two‑and‑a‑half acres has been the neighborhood’s living room. Summer band concerts in the gazebo. Easter egg hunts. Protests and prayer gatherings. Pickup basketball before basketball was the dominant pickup sport. There’s old HeraldNet reporting that lists a grandstand, a cannon, and a little house made from a giant stump among the structures that have come and gone here. If you’ve lived in north Everett longer than a decade, you almost certainly have a Clark Park memory.

    The 1921 Gazebo — and Where It’s Going Next

    The most photographed feature in Clark Park for a century was the gazebo. The City of Everett spent roughly $20,000 in 1921 to build it — about $360,000 in today’s dollars, per HeraldNet’s archival accounting. Architect Benjamin Turnbull designed it. For decades it anchored everything: summer band concerts, civic speeches, wedding photos, religious services, occasional impromptu poetry.

    In November 2024, the city carefully disassembled the gazebo to make room for a new off‑leash dog area — a use the surrounding Bayside neighborhood had been asking for over multiple budget cycles. The decision was emotional. A century of north Everett history doesn’t come down without a few residents standing on the sidewalk that day taking pictures.

    The news many longtime Clark Park visitors haven’t fully caught up with: the gazebo isn’t gone forever. In March 2026, the city announced plans to recreate the gazebo at Harborview Park, the bluff park along Mukilteo Boulevard on Everett’s west side. According to that HeraldNet report, the rebuild will be “faithful to local architect Benjamin Turnbull’s original design.” The structure will look like the one Bayside grew up with — just standing over the Puget Sound view instead of the Lombard Avenue trees.

    So if you go down to Clark Park this spring and squint at the spot where the gazebo used to stand, the right way to read it isn’t “something we lost.” It’s “something the city moved” — and a piece of Everett’s civic memory that’s about to overlook the water.

    What’s Actually at Clark Park Right Now

    Pulling from the City of Everett’s facility page, here’s the current 2026 layout:

    • Address: 2400 Lombard Avenue, Everett, WA 98201
    • Size: 2.4 acres
    • Hours: 6 a.m. to dusk (tennis courts stay open until 9 p.m.)
    • Playground with rubberized surfacing, suitable for kids from toddler to about ten
    • Tennis courts — lit for evening play through 9 p.m.
    • Off‑leash dog area — the newest addition, built in 2024–2025 on the former gazebo footprint
    • Shaded lawn and benches — a remarkably good place to read on a sunny weekday afternoon
    • Contact: 425‑257‑8300 ext. 2 or recreation@everettwa.gov

    Street parking on Lombard, 24th, and Wetmore is free and almost always available. There’s no off‑street lot — this is a true neighborhood park, the kind you walk to, not the kind you drive to as a destination.

    How Clark Park Fits Into a Bayside Walk

    One of the quiet pleasures of Bayside is how walkable the neighborhood’s anchors are. Start at Clark Park, head two blocks west, and you’re on Rucker. Six blocks north and you’re at the Carnegie’s historic shell on Wetmore. Drop south and you’re on Hewitt — restaurants, the Schack Art Center, and the Historic Everett Theatre’s 1901 marquee. A Saturday morning loop that starts at Clark Park, swings through downtown, and ends at Grand Avenue Park’s bluff viewpoint covers most of north Everett’s greatest hits in under two hours.

    Clark Park is also a useful landmark if you’re new to Everett. It’s right in the heart of Bayside — one of the city’s most walkable neighborhoods — and it’s the kind of place a long‑time neighbor will mention by name when they’re giving you directions. “Two blocks past Clark Park, on the left.” If you understand where Clark Park sits, you’ve oriented yourself to north Everett.

    The Dog Park: What Bayside Asked For, What Bayside Got

    The new off‑leash area is the practical news of Clark Park 2026. Off‑leash space is a chronic shortage in dense, older Everett neighborhoods — most of the existing dog parks are at Howarth or Walter E. Hall, both of which require driving for Bayside residents. The Clark Park off‑leash area is the first walking‑distance dog space for several thousand north Everett households.

    If you’re using the dog area for the first time: it’s small (this is a 2.4‑acre park, not Marymoor), it’s fenced, and Bayside dog owners have built a real informal community around morning and 5‑p.m. visits. New neighbors typically figure out the social rhythm within a week.

    What’s Coming — Memorial Day Through Summer

    Memorial Day weekend kicks off the active summer use of Clark Park: playground steady all weekend, tennis courts booked, the shade trees genuinely useful for the first time since October. Bayside has historically had small neighborhood gatherings here through the summer, though the formal “Concerts in the Park” series has long since migrated to other Everett parks now that the gazebo is gone. (Watch this space when the gazebo’s replacement opens at Harborview Park.)

    The Bayside Neighborhood Association meets quarterly and has been the long‑running advocate for Clark Park improvements. Their Clark Park history page is a good lay‑reader summary of the park’s 130+ years — written by neighbors, not city staff.

    Why Clark Park Still Matters

    Cities don’t accidentally hold onto a 2.4‑acre block of land in their oldest neighborhood for 132 years. Clark Park exists because, in 1894, a brand‑new mill town decided some pieces of the map shouldn’t be for sale. Every generation since — the people who built the gazebo in 1921, the parents who lobbied for the playground rebuild in the 2000s, the dog owners who pushed for the off‑leash area in the 2020s — has updated the park rather than replaced it.

    That’s a good model for what Everett can be. The gazebo’s going to live again at Harborview Park overlooking the Sound. The dog park is humming through every dry afternoon. And the same shaded lawn that watched 1920s band concerts is watching toddlers learn to walk in 2026. Clark Park is doing what it’s always done. It’s just doing it with a slightly different cast.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the address of Clark Park in Everett?

    Clark Park is at 2400 Lombard Avenue, Everett, WA 98201, in the Bayside neighborhood. It is the City of Everett’s oldest public park.

    When was Clark Park established?

    The City of Everett established Clark Park in 1894 as “City Park.” It was renamed Clark Park in 1931 in honor of pioneer resident John J. Clark, per the city’s official facility records.

    What happened to the historic gazebo at Clark Park?

    The 1921 gazebo, designed by architect Benjamin Turnbull, was carefully disassembled in November 2024 to make room for a new off‑leash dog area. In March 2026 the City of Everett announced it will recreate the gazebo at Harborview Park along Mukilteo Boulevard, faithful to the original design.

    What are Clark Park’s hours?

    Clark Park is open 6 a.m. to dusk daily. The tennis courts are available until 9 p.m.

    Is there a dog park at Clark Park?

    Yes. A fenced off‑leash dog area opened on the former gazebo footprint in 2024–2025. It’s the first walking‑distance off‑leash space for many Bayside households, who previously had to drive to Howarth Park or Walter E. Hall Park.

    How big is Clark Park?

    Clark Park is 2.4 acres. It includes a playground with rubberized surfacing, tennis courts, the new off‑leash dog area, a shaded lawn, and benches.

    Who do I contact about Clark Park?

    Email recreation@everettwa.gov or call 425‑257‑8300 ext. 2 for the City of Everett Parks & Facilities team.

  • Fresh Paint 2026 Returns to Downtown Everett on August 15 and 16 — 120 Artists, Free Admission, and the Biggest Outdoor Art Festival on Hoyt Avenue

    Fresh Paint 2026 Returns to Downtown Everett on August 15 and 16 — 120 Artists, Free Admission, and the Biggest Outdoor Art Festival on Hoyt Avenue



    Two days. One block of Hoyt Avenue. A hundred and twenty artists, free to walk in, and the biggest outdoor art event downtown Everett puts on all year. Fresh Paint 2026 is on August 15 and 16, and if you haven’t been before, this is the year to change that.

    The Schack Art Center runs this every summer and has built something worth making plans for. The vendor list is already sold out — which tells you this is not a pop-up craft market. Artists apply. They get juried in. The work on Hoyt Avenue that weekend is curated, and you’ll feel it when you walk the block.

    What You’re Walking Into

    The festival takes over Hoyt Avenue between Pacific Avenue and Hewitt Avenue, two blocks from the Schack itself. The street closes. Booths go up. And from 10am to 5pm on Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday, that stretch of downtown becomes the most concentrated collection of original art in Snohomish County.

    120+ artists span painting, sculpture, glass, jewelry, fiber, ceramics, and photography. Because this is a juried show, there’s a floor to the quality. You’re not wading through mass-produced prints to find the one interesting thing — the interesting things are the whole point.

    Admission is free. You pay for art, food, and activities. That’s the model and it works — 10,000+ attendees walk through over the two days, and the Schack has been doing this long enough to know how to move that crowd through a single city block without it feeling like a fire drill.

    Glassblowing, Kids’ Activities, and Float Find

    The Schack is a working art center, not just a gallery. At Fresh Paint, they demonstrate that — literally. Glassblowing demonstrations run through the weekend, and watching someone pull molten glass into form at a live outdoor event is the kind of thing you stop for whether you planned to or not. It draws every age group.

    Kids’ activity areas are built into the layout, which means this is a functional family event and not just an adult art crawl. You can split up, let the kids engage with the activity stations, and walk the artist booths without herding the whole group through every booth.

    Float Find is the Schack tradition that turns the festival into a game. Small glass floats — hand-crafted — get hidden around the festival grounds. Find one, keep it. It’s the kind of detail that makes people come back year after year and arrive early.

    The Schack’s Track Record on This Street

    The Schack Art Center at 2921 Hoyt Ave has been the anchor of Everett’s arts infrastructure since long before the downtown revival picked up pace. Fresh Paint is their statement event — the one where they take the case for arts in this city outside the building and onto the street itself.

    If you’ve seen what they do inside the gallery — and the Artists’ Garage Sale gives you a sense of the community energy they generate — Fresh Paint is that but scaled up and opened to anyone walking by. The Contemporary NW + Summer Auction draws serious collectors; Fresh Paint draws everyone else. The two events together define what the Schack is doing for this city.

    The regular monthly Everett Art Walk keeps the momentum going through the year, but Fresh Paint is the anchor. It’s the day families mark on the calendar in January.

    The Practical Details

    What: Fresh Paint 2026 — Schack Art Center Outdoor Juried Art Festival
    Saturday August 15: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
    Sunday August 16: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
    Where: Hoyt Ave between Pacific Ave and Hewitt Ave, Downtown Everett WA 98201
    Admission: Free
    Artists: 120+ juried (vendors sold out — this is curated work)
    Highlights: Glassblowing demos, kids’ activities, Float Find, food vendors
    Parking: Street parking and downtown garages within a few blocks of Hoyt Ave

    Full details at schack.org/fresh-paint →

    FAQ

    When is Fresh Paint 2026?

    Saturday August 15 (10am–5pm) and Sunday August 16 (10am–4pm), 2026.

    Where is Fresh Paint in Everett?

    Hoyt Avenue between Pacific Avenue and Hewitt Avenue in downtown Everett. The street closes for the weekend and becomes the festival grounds.

    How much does Fresh Paint cost?

    Free admission. You pay for what you buy — art, food, and activities. Vendor spots are sold out but attendance is open to everyone.

    How many artists are at Fresh Paint 2026?

    120+ juried artists. Vendors are sold out for 2026, meaning artists applied and were curated — this is not a craft fair.

    What is Float Find at Fresh Paint?

    Float Find is a Schack tradition where hidden glass floats are scattered around the festival for attendees to discover and keep. It’s the detail that makes Fresh Paint a repeat-visit event for families.

    Is Fresh Paint good for kids?

    Yes. Dedicated kids’ activity areas, glassblowing demos, and Float Find. Bring them early — the floats go fast.

  • Water Ways at the Schack Art Center Closes Saturday May 16 — Six Days Left to See 90+ Pacific Northwest Artists Reckon With What’s Happening to Our Watersheds

    Water Ways at the Schack Art Center Closes Saturday May 16 — Six Days Left to See 90+ Pacific Northwest Artists Reckon With What’s Happening to Our Watersheds

    Q: When does Water Ways close at the Schack Art Center in Everett?
    A: Saturday, May 16, 2026 is the final day. The free exhibition of more than ninety Pacific Northwest artists has been on view in Schack’s Main Gallery and Mezzanine Gallery in downtown Everett (2921 Hoyt Avenue) since March 26. Hours through closing day are Tuesday–Saturday 10 AM–5 PM and Sunday 12–5 PM.

    You have six days left to walk into the Schack Art Center and stand in front of the most ambitious group exhibition the building has hung this year.

    Water Ways: Healing the Circle of Water and Life closes Saturday, May 16, 2026. It is the Schack’s 2026 Arts Education in Action exhibition, and it spans both the Main Gallery and the Mezzanine. Ninety-plus contemporary Pacific Northwest artists answered a single prompt — what does it mean to live next to water that is increasingly under stress — and the resulting wall is one of the more honest reckonings with Puget Sound, the Snohomish River, and the broader watersheds of the region that any local institution has put together in years.

    Curation verdict: GO. Free admission. Six days left. If you do one downtown Everett thing this week before lunch on Saturday, make it this.

    What you actually see when you walk in

    Water Ways is not a quiet exhibition. The Main Gallery wall hits you with Jared Rue’s Here’s the Catch, the lead image the Schack picked to represent the show, and from there the room moves between glass, ceramics, fiber, painting, photography, and sculpture without losing the thread. The list of participating artists reads like a regional Pacific Northwest who’s-who: Dan Friday, David Boxley, Pat McVay, Steve Jensen, Steve Klein, Rik Allen, Shelley Muzylowski-Allen, Georgia Gerber, Kait Rhoads, Lisa McShane, Cynthia Gaub, Christopher Mathie, Jan Hopkins, Chris Hopkins, Joy Hagen. Ninety-plus names, with field-trip-grade interpretive labels next to each.

    Standout works flagged on the Schack’s own page include Jeremy Kester’s The Last Drop, Julie C Baer’s Acorn Barnacle, Steve Jensen’s The Fish are Disappearing, Stephen Yates’s Streaming V, Trish Harding’s Sea Stars, and Deborah Singer’s Great Blue Heron Near Aberdeen. The Mezzanine carries additional work and field-trip activity stations.

    You can move through the show in twenty minutes. Most people stay an hour. The interpretive copy is excellent and the pieces talk to each other — salmon next to glass next to hand-built relief tile next to photograph — in a way that makes you think harder about what you’re looking at than a single-medium exhibition usually does.

    Practical details for the closing week

    • What: Water Ways: Healing the Circle of Water and Life
    • Where: Schack Art Center, 2921 Hoyt Avenue, Everett, WA 98201
    • Closes: Saturday, May 16, 2026
    • Hours through closing: Tuesday–Saturday 10 AM–5 PM; Sunday 12–5 PM (closed Mondays)
    • Admission: Free
    • Parking: Free street parking on Hoyt and California avenues; 2-hour metered on Hewitt
    • Phone: (425) 309-7723

    Why this exhibition matters more than most regional group shows

    Two things separate Water Ways from a typical Schack group hang.

    First, the prompt is real. Arts Education in Action is the Schack’s curriculum-anchored programming track. The exhibitions in this series are built to be taught from — school groups walk through, do hands-on response activities, and leave with a mental model that ties what they saw on the wall to a watershed they actually live next to. The Schack’s Education Coordinator, Breannah Gammon, runs the field-trip program out of the show.

    That changes what artists submit. When the audience includes seventh-graders who will walk a Snohomish County riverbank that afternoon, you cannot get away with abstract gesture as a substitute for a point of view. Marguerite Goff’s two-panel relief tile, Traveling Upstream: Beauty Returns to Our Rivers, lands harder when you understand it next to a class of kids who just learned what a watershed is. Tiami Hogberg’s Without them there’s no US works on art-school terms and on get-it-immediately terms at the same time. Jeanne Poling’s five photography prints push the show toward documentary and back.

    Second, the curatorial framing is honest about what’s happening to our water. The exhibition title — Healing the Circle of Water and Life — is not lukewarm. The Schack’s programming page describes work that “highlights the beauty and interconnectedness of Earth’s water systems, the science behind them, and the effects of environmental change on all forms of life—human, animal, and plant.” A May 2 panel discussion, How We Heal the Circle of Water and Life, brought in Adopt A Stream Foundation and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance to talk watershed restoration, orca pod health, and clean-water supply alongside the artists.

    Most regional group shows give you a theme and let the artists respond loosely. Water Ways picks a fight with how the region is letting down its water and asks the artists to put a stake in the ground. Most of them do.

    Who you should look for in the gallery

    If you have an hour and want to walk out remembering specific work, here are the names worth slowing down for:

    • Jared Rue — Here’s the Catch, the show’s lead image, in the Main Gallery
    • Dan Friday and David Boxley — Coast Salish work that sits naturally in a watershed-themed room
    • Steve Jensen — The Fish are Disappearing, a piece whose title does most of the work and whose execution earns the title
    • Pat McVay and Georgia Gerber — sculptural responses with Pacific Northwest provenance
    • Kait Rhoads, Rik Allen, and Shelley Muzylowski-Allen — glass work that uses the medium for what it was made for here
    • Chris Hopkins and Christopher Mathie — painters working in two very different traditions, both responding to the prompt seriously
    • Lisa McShane — landscape painting with a documentary eye
    • Marguerite Goff — Traveling Upstream: Beauty Returns to Our Rivers, a relief tile that anchors a corner of the room

    The full ninety-plus-artist roster is on the Schack’s exhibition page. The gallery store on the way out carries work by many of the same artists at meaningfully smaller scale and price.

    What to pair the visit with

    The Schack sits on Hoyt between California and Wetmore, two blocks from Hewitt Avenue. Make a half-day of it: park free on Hoyt, walk through Water Ways, then drop in at the Schack Gallery Store on the way out for Pacific Northwest work you can actually take home. Lunch options within five blocks include Narrative Coffee, Lombardi’s at the marina, the food trucks at Beverly Park, and the steady rotation at Tony V’s Garage if you’re staying for a happier hour.

    If you want to make it an arts day, the show closes May 16 at 5 PM, the same evening Geoff Tate is performing Operation: Mindcrime in full at the Historic Everett Theatre and Dana Gould is at HET that same week. Walk Water Ways at 11 AM, lunch on Hewitt, then make a real evening of it.

    What’s next at Schack after Water Ways

    The Schack’s biggest art week of the spring drops May 28 with the Contemporary Northwest Artists Exhibition and the Summer Auction. Two days later on May 30 the Artists’ Garage Sale spreads 140-plus artists across Wetmore Plaza for the best art-buying day of the year in Everett. The Garden Party, the Schack’s annual summer kickoff, lands Thursday, June 4 from 5–8 PM and opens Sorticulture weekend.

    That’s a packed three weeks. Water Ways is what closes the spring run, and after Saturday it’s gone. There is no extension. There is no traveling version. This installation lives at 2921 Hoyt Avenue until 5 PM on May 16 and then it comes down.

    Six days. Free admission. Ninety-plus artists. A real point of view about a river system most of us drive over without thinking about. Go.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    How much does it cost to see Water Ways at Schack Art Center?

    Admission to the Schack Art Center is free, including Water Ways. The Schack is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and accepts donations at the door if you would like to support free programming.

    What are the Schack’s hours through May 16?

    Tuesday through Saturday 10 AM to 5 PM, Sunday 12 to 5 PM. Closed Mondays. The final day of the exhibition is Saturday, May 16, 2026 — plan to be in the gallery before 5 PM.

    Is the exhibition kid-friendly?

    Yes. Water Ways is part of the Schack’s Arts Education in Action series and was designed to support school field trips with hands-on response activities. Strollers are welcome and the galleries are stroller-accessible.

    Where do I park near the Schack Art Center?

    Free street parking on Hoyt Avenue and California Street is usually available within a block. Two-hour metered parking on Hewitt is free after 6 PM. The Wall Street garage is the closest covered option for a longer visit.

    Can I buy work from the exhibition?

    Most pieces in Water Ways are not for sale through the show, but the Schack’s Gallery Store stocks work from many of the same artists at smaller scale. The annual Schack Summer Auction on May 28 and the Artists’ Garage Sale on May 30 are the next major Schack buying opportunities.

    Is the Schack Art Center accessible?

    Yes. The Main Gallery is fully ADA-accessible at street level. The Mezzanine has elevator access. Service animals are welcome.

    What is the Schack’s relationship to Sorticulture?

    The Schack runs Sorticulture, the city’s beloved garden festival, which returns to downtown Everett June 5–7, 2026. The Schack’s Garden Party on Thursday, June 4 from 5–8 PM kicks off the weekend and is the unofficial summer-arts opening night for the building.

  • Everett Art Walk Returns Thursday May 21 — A Free Three-Hour Tour of a Downtown That Quietly Built a Real Gallery Scene

    Everett Art Walk Returns Thursday May 21 — A Free Three-Hour Tour of a Downtown That Quietly Built a Real Gallery Scene

    Q: When and where is the May 2026 Everett Art Walk?
    A: Thursday, May 21, 2026, 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM, across more than a dozen galleries, lofts, coffee shops, bars, and ceramic studios in downtown Everett. It’s free, no ticket, no RSVP — start anywhere on the map and walk.

    Verdict: GO. Three reasons stacked: (1) downtown Everett’s art ecosystem is denser than people outside the 98201 ZIP code realize, and the Art Walk is the one night each month it all opens its doors at the same time; (2) the price is zero; (3) the third Thursday format means you can show up after work, eat hors d’oeuvres on someone else’s tab, and still be home by ten.

    The Everett Art Walk runs the third Thursday of every month, year-round, 5 to 8 PM officially — and several of the participating venues stay open past 8 because the walk has built that kind of scene. May 21 is the next one. If you have lived in Snohomish County for any amount of time and never walked it, this is the month to fix that.

    What the Art Walk actually is

    It is not a festival. It is not a one-off pop-up. It is the Everett gallery district behaving like a gallery district — coordinated hours, coordinated openings, coordinated artist receptions, every third Thursday of the month, organized through everettartwalk.org and a downtown community of working artists who decided years ago that downtown Everett was worth showing up for.

    More than a dozen venues participate. The roster shifts month to month, but the anchors stay constant. A typical Art Walk night you can hit Schack Art Center on Hoyt Avenue, walk one block to ArtSpace Everett Lofts (the live-work building right next door), cross over to Hewitt Avenue for Heath Heathen’s studio at 1806 B Hewitt upstairs, drop into Lucky Dime for Collage Night, swing by Obsidian Art Gallery, end at Port Gardner Bay Winery on Rucker Avenue with a glass of red and a stack of new artist statements in your hand. Every venue is within a five-block walk of every other venue. You do not move your car.

    The April 16 walk is the most recent one we have a verifiable line-up for, and the April line-up is the structural template. Schack hosted Water Ways: Healing the Circle of Water and Life — the spring exhibition that runs through May 16 — and the gallery stayed open past 8 PM for the walk. ArtSpace Everett Lofts opened from 5 to 8 PM with resident artists in their live-work studios. Heath Heathen took text-only studio appointments at 5 to 9 PM. Lucky Dime hosted Collage Night with Penny — a recurring third-Thursday hang where you cut, paste, layer, and build something unexpected with strangers. Salish Sea Ceramics ran a free community seed-planting workshop. Obsidian Art Gallery featured graffiti-and-stencil work by Dakota Dean. Artisans PNW (Books & Coffee) hosted Author TJ Poortinga and a live Noise Jam set with Esoteric Everett. Zamarama Gallery opened a tribute exhibition for Pacific Northwest artist R. Allen Jensen.

    The May 21 walk will do the same shape with a fresh roster. Watch everettartwalk.org the week of the walk for the venue-by-venue line-up — most of the participating spaces post their May features in the seven days before the third Thursday.

    Why this Art Walk matters more than you think

    Everett has been quietly building a real arts ecosystem. Schack Art Center anchors the visual arts side at 2921 Hoyt Avenue — the premier visual arts destination between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., per schack.org/about. The Historic Everett Theatre, built in 1901 as the Everett Opera House, books touring acts that should be playing rooms three times its size. APEX Everett opened on Everett Avenue with Kings Hall as its anchor concert room. Tony V’s Garage on Hewitt Avenue is the loudest small-venue rock-and-roll club north of Seattle.

    The Art Walk is the seam where the visual arts side meets all of it. Many of the artists showing on May 21 also design posters for HET shows, paint album art for bands playing Tony V’s the next weekend, and sell ceramic mugs to coffee shops three blocks away. You walk the Art Walk and you start to see the network. You stop seeing downtown Everett as a thing to drive past on the way to Seattle and start seeing it as a thing to drive to.

    The venues to hit on May 21

    Below is the standing roster pulled from everettartwalk.org and the city’s calendar. Specific featured artists for May will post within seven days of the walk; what is below is the list of participating spaces you can plan a route around.

    Schack Art Center — 2921 Hoyt Avenue. The big one. Open until 8 PM. The Water Ways exhibition closes May 16, so the May 21 walk falls between shows — Contemporary Northwest Artists opens May 28. You may catch artists hanging work or staffing previews. Free admission as always.

    ArtSpace Everett Lofts — 2917 Hoyt Avenue, right next door to Schack. A 41-unit live-work building for working artists. On Art Walk nights the loft gallery on the ground floor is open 5 to 8 PM and several resident artists open their individual studios upstairs. This is the closest you will get in Everett to the open-studio model used in bigger arts cities.

    Lucky Dime — Hewitt Avenue. A bar that doubles as an Art Walk venue. Collage Night with Penny is the recurring third-Thursday format: tables full of magazines, scissors, glue sticks, and strangers building something between sips. No skill required. Free to walk in, drinks at bar prices.

    Obsidian Art Gallery — Hewitt Avenue. Contemporary work, edgier than most of the roster. Spray paint, stencil work, graffiti-adjacent pieces.

    Port Gardner Bay Winery — 3006 Rucker Avenue. Wine tasting with rotating artist features on the walls. The end-of-walk move for a lot of regulars.

    Tabby’s Coffee — 2702 Hoyt Avenue. Coffee, tea, and a modest gallery wall that turns over for each walk.

    Salish Sea Ceramics — A working ceramics studio that opens for the walk and frequently runs free hands-on workshops on Art Walk nights (April was a seed-planting workshop; May’s activity will post on everettartwalk.org).

    Zamarama Gallery — Contemporary fine art, often with Pacific Northwest themes.

    Artisans PNW (Books & Coffee) — Independent bookstore plus coffee shop. Hosts author readings and live music sets on Art Walk nights. April was an author event with TJ Poortinga and a Noise Jam set with Esoteric Everett.

    Heath Heathen Studio — 1806 B Hewitt Avenue, Suite 1, upstairs. Working artist studio, open 5 to 9 PM by text appointment (206-353-4971). The studio model — text the artist, walk up the stairs, see the work in the place where it is made — is rare in this part of Snohomish County and worth the climb.

    Gold E Lofts — 1705 1/2 Hewitt Avenue. Loft studios with rotating artist features.

    A note: this list is not exhaustive and the participating-venue roster changes month to month. Check everettartwalk.org for the May 21 confirmed list seven days out.

    How to walk it well

    Three pieces of practical advice from people who walk it every month.

    Park once, walk everything. Free street parking is generally available on Hoyt, Hewitt, Wetmore, and Colby in the late-afternoon-into-evening window. The Everpark Garage on Wall Street is the backup if street parking is tight. Every Art Walk venue is inside a five-block radius. You do not need to move the car.

    Eat before, drink during. Most venues serve hors d’oeuvres or light snacks. Wine and beer are available at Port Gardner Bay Winery, Lucky Dime, and several of the bar-adjacent venues. For a real dinner before, downtown Everett has restaurants on Hewitt and Colby.

    Talk to the artists. Most first-time walkers underuse this part. The artists are in their studios. They want to talk about the work. Ask what the piece is, ask what it took to make, ask what they are working on next. The cost of entry is one good question.

    Cross-Desk Handoff

    If you are pairing the Art Walk with dinner, downtown Everett has dinner options within two blocks of every Art Walk venue. Tygart Media’s food desk is the place to go for current restaurant-by-restaurant recommendations within walking distance of the walk.

    What the Art Walk does for the city

    Free public arts programming that runs every month, year-round, with a coordinated roster and an active organizing committee, is the kind of cultural infrastructure most Snohomish County cities do not have. Everett does. Every third Thursday is a small, repeated argument that downtown Everett is worth being in after dark — and the argument has been getting more convincing since the walk first formed. May 21 is the next chance to add yourself to the argument.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Q: Is the Everett Art Walk free? A: Yes. There is no admission fee, no ticket, no RSVP. Walk in to any participating venue between 5 PM and 8 PM (some stay open later) on the third Thursday of every month.

    Q: What time does the May 2026 Everett Art Walk start and end? A: The official window is 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Thursday, May 21, 2026. Several venues stay open past 8 PM — Heath Heathen Studio runs studio appointments until 9 PM, and the bar-adjacent venues (Lucky Dime, Port Gardner Bay Winery) typically remain open well into the evening.

    Q: Do I need to RSVP or buy tickets? A: No. The Art Walk is a free, walk-in event. Show up at any participating venue between 5 and 8 PM and start your route from there.

    Q: Where do I park for the Art Walk? A: Free street parking is generally available on Hoyt, Hewitt, Wetmore, and Colby in the late-afternoon-into-evening window. The Everpark Garage on Wall Street is the paid backup. All Art Walk venues are within a five-block radius — park once, walk the whole route.

    Q: How many venues participate in the Everett Art Walk? A: More than a dozen galleries, lofts, coffee shops, bars, and studios participate, with the exact roster shifting month to month. Anchors include Schack Art Center, ArtSpace Everett Lofts, Lucky Dime, Obsidian Art Gallery, Port Gardner Bay Winery, Tabby’s Coffee, Salish Sea Ceramics, Zamarama Gallery, Artisans PNW, Heath Heathen Studio, and Gold E Lofts.

    Q: Is the Everett Art Walk family-friendly? A: Most venues are family-friendly during the 5-to-8 PM window. Bar venues (Lucky Dime, Port Gardner Bay Winery) follow standard 21+ rules at the bar but typically welcome families in the gallery space. Schack Art Center, Tabby’s Coffee, Artisans PNW, and the loft galleries are family-friendly throughout.

    Q: How do I find out which artists are featured for a given Art Walk month? A: Check everettartwalk.org in the seven days before the third Thursday — most participating venues post their featured artist for that month’s walk a week out. The Everett Art Walk Facebook page (@everettsartwalk) and the city’s calendar at everettwa.gov also list featured highlights.

  • Polkadot Cadaver Is Coming to Tony V’s Garage on June 11 — Here’s Why This One Is Worth Your Thursday Night

    Polkadot Cadaver Is Coming to Tony V’s Garage on June 11 — Here’s Why This One Is Worth Your Thursday Night

    Polkadot Cadaver Is Coming to Tony V’s Garage on June 11 — Here’s Why This One Is Worth Your Thursday Night

    You’ve probably walked past Tony V’s Garage a hundred times without knowing what’s happening inside on any given Thursday. Here’s what’s happening on June 11, 2026: Polkadot Cadaver, one of the most genuinely weird and genuinely heavy bands working in American rock right now, is setting up at 1716 Hewitt Avenue and playing until nearly midnight. Tickets are $23.18 on Eventbrite. Doors open before 8 PM. Angry Toons open the night.

    That’s the short version. The longer version involves a 20-year creative obsession, a frontman who spent a decade rewriting what underground metal could sound like, and a venue that keeps pulling in acts Everett has no business booking — and yet somehow does.

    What Polkadot Cadaver Actually Sounds Like

    Polkadot Cadaver is the project of Todd Smith, who you might know better as the voice and primary creative force behind Dog Fashion Disco. If Dog Fashion Disco is the kind of band name that either stops you cold or makes you immediately pull up YouTube, you already have a sense of the territory. Smith has spent most of his adult life making music that doesn’t fit cleanly into any genre — avant-garde metal, experimental rock, dark circus, jazz-inflected hard rock — and Polkadot Cadaver is where that restlessness gets its most concentrated form.

    The band formed in the mid-2000s, initially as something of a side project while Dog Fashion Disco was on hiatus, and quickly developed its own distinct identity. Where Dog Fashion Disco can be theatrical and sprawling, Polkadot Cadaver tends to be heavier, faster, and more unsettling. The aesthetic runs toward horror and dark carnival imagery — not in a theatrical Halloween-costume way but in a genuinely off-kilter, dissonant-chord, what-key-is-this way. If you want a reference point: think late-period Primus meets Dillinger Escape Plan meets a Tom Waits album recorded in a basement at 2 AM. That still doesn’t quite capture it, but it’s closer than “metal band.”

    Albums like Megaton Shotblast (2009) and Sex Offender (2010) established the band’s reputation in the underground metal and experimental rock communities — not household names, but the kind of records that people who find them tend to keep for the rest of their lives. Smith’s vocal range is a significant part of what makes it work: he can go from a clean croon to a full thrash scream inside the same measure, and the band is tight enough to follow him wherever that goes.

    Why Tony V’s Is the Right Room for This

    Tony V’s Garage at 1716 Hewitt Avenue is a 400-capacity standing-room venue in the middle of downtown Everett. It books the kind of music that the Paramount doesn’t — touring acts who are too big for a bar but not quite at the theater level, with ticket prices that reflect that honestly. Twenty-three dollars gets you into a room where the stage is close enough that you can see the set list taped to the floor monitors.

    That intimacy matters for a band like Polkadot Cadaver. This is not music that benefits from distance. The odd time signatures and left-field genre pivots land differently when you’re close enough to feel the bass in your sternum. Tony V’s has hosted enough touring metal and hard rock acts over the years to know how to run a show at this volume level — the sound system is built for it, the staff know what they’re doing, and the crowd that shows up on a Thursday night for a bill like this tends to be there because they did the research, not because they stumbled in off the street.

    In a mid-size city with no dedicated all-ages metal venue and a concert market dominated by the Xfinity Center and the HET’s theater programming, Tony V’s fills a gap that matters. Polkadot Cadaver playing Everett at all is genuinely unusual — this is not a band that has historically saturated the Pacific Northwest touring circuit, and June 11 may be the only Washington date on this run.

    Angry Toons Opens

    Angry Toons is on the bill as the opening act. If you’ve been to enough shows at Tony V’s, you’ve probably encountered them — a local and regional punk-metal act that knows how to warm up a room without overstaying its welcome. Openers at this venue tend to take the set seriously, and getting the crowd moving before Polkadot Cadaver requires a band that can commit to the room’s energy. Showing up early is worth it. Doors and the opener are part of what makes a Thursday night at a 400-cap venue feel like an event rather than just a show.

    The Ticket Math

    $23.18 is the Eventbrite all-in price as of this writing, and the listing shows tickets in stock. The show is Thursday, June 11 — it starts at 8:00 PM and runs until 11:30 PM per the Eventbrite listing. That’s a real show, not a 45-minute set and out.

    For context: a comparable touring underground metal act at a Seattle venue would run you $28–$35 plus the drive, parking, and the particular joy of standing in line on Capitol Hill in the rain. June in Everett is drier, the venue is walkable from the downtown core, and the ticket is cheaper. The math is not complicated.

    Tickets are available now at eventbrite.com. Tony V’s Garage is at 1716 Hewitt Avenue, Everett WA 98201.

    The Bigger Picture

    Everett’s live music scene has a specific reputation problem: people who don’t live here assume there isn’t one. Shows at Tony V’s, APEX, and the Historic Everett Theatre have been quietly building a counter-argument to that for years, but the argument only works if people show up. Polkadot Cadaver is the kind of booking that — if the room fills — demonstrates that Everett can sustain a touring circuit for underground and experimental acts, not just cover bands and casino headliners.

    That’s not why you should go. You should go because Todd Smith is a genuinely exceptional songwriter and performer and the show is $23 on a Thursday night twelve minutes from most of downtown Everett. But the side effect of going is that it tells the booking infrastructure something useful: that this city will show up for something strange and heavy if you give it the chance.

    June 11. Tony V’s Garage. 8 PM. Polkadot Cadaver and Angry Toons. $23.18 at the door or on Eventbrite now while tickets last.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is Polkadot Cadaver?

    Polkadot Cadaver is an avant-garde metal and experimental rock project fronted by Todd Smith, the vocalist and primary songwriter of Dog Fashion Disco. The band blends heavy guitar riffs with jazz influences, dark carnival imagery, and unconventional song structures.

    Where is Tony V’s Garage in Everett?

    Tony V’s Garage is at 1716 Hewitt Avenue in downtown Everett, Washington 98201 — a standing-room live music venue with a capacity of approximately 400.

    How much are tickets to Polkadot Cadaver at Tony V’s on June 11, 2026?

    Tickets are $23.18 all-in and available through Eventbrite. The show starts at 8:00 PM and runs until approximately 11:30 PM.

    Is Polkadot Cadaver related to Dog Fashion Disco?

    Yes. Polkadot Cadaver is the primary side project and creative outlet for Todd Smith, the frontman of Dog Fashion Disco. The two bands share members and a similar avant-garde, dark aesthetic, though Polkadot Cadaver is generally heavier and more experimental in execution.

  • Schack Art Center Opens Its Biggest Art Week of the Spring on May 28 — Contemporary Northwest Artists Exhibition and Summer Auction Drop the Same Day

    Schack Art Center Opens Its Biggest Art Week of the Spring on May 28 — Contemporary Northwest Artists Exhibition and Summer Auction Drop the Same Day

    May 28 is the day Schack Art Center stops being a casual drop-in and becomes the best weeknight art plan in Snohomish County. Two of the biggest things the gallery does all year — the Contemporary Northwest Artists Exhibition and the Summer Auction — open on the exact same Thursday. One runs through August 22. The other runs for eleven days. If you’ve been meaning to spend more time inside 2921 Hoyt Avenue, this is the week it earns your calendar.

    Here’s what’s going on, why it matters, and why downtown Everett’s best free art experience just got a lot more interesting.

    Quick answer: Schack Art Center’s Contemporary Northwest Artists Exhibition opens Thursday, May 28, 2026, and runs through August 22. The Summer Auction — a benefit supporting Schack’s free exhibitions and arts education programs — also opens May 28 and runs through June 7. Both are at Schack Art Center, 2921 Hoyt Avenue in downtown Everett. Gallery hours are Tuesday–Saturday 10 AM–5 PM and Sunday 12 PM–5 PM, and admission to the gallery is always free.

    Contemporary Northwest Artists: A Regional Snapshot That Actually Feels Current

    Schack is calling the headline show Contemporary Northwest Artists, and the framing is direct. In the gallery’s own words, the exhibition “showcases contemporary work by Northwest artists across all mediums” and “brings together artists working today to offer a wide-ranging view of current creative practices in the region, highlighting the voices, ideas, and approaches shaping the Northwest art scene now.”

    Translate that out of gallery speak: this isn’t a retrospective. It isn’t an invitational of the same five names you already know. It’s a living, present-tense look at what people in the Pacific Northwest are actually making right now — painting, sculpture, glass, fiber, ceramics, mixed media, the whole range of mediums Schack normally cycles through.

    That matters for two reasons.

    First, the Northwest has a genuinely distinct art identity, and the case can be made that Everett sits closer to the center of it than most people assume. The Schack building has quietly grown into, in its own words, “the premier visual arts destination between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.” When a venue at that level programs a broad Northwest-artists show, it becomes a reference point for what the region thinks of itself this year.

    Second, this show sets the tone for the whole summer at Schack. It opens May 28 and doesn’t close until August 22. That’s almost three months of anchor programming, which means every Art Walk, every weekend drop-in, every out-of-town guest you drag to Hoyt Avenue between Memorial Day and the start of school lands inside the same curated experience.

    If you can only make one trip to Schack this summer, make the trip after the show is fully installed — usually a week or two after opening — and plan to spend at least 45 minutes. This kind of multi-medium group show rewards slow viewing.

    The Summer Auction: 11 Days, Real Art, and Why the Benefit Side Actually Matters

    While the Contemporary Northwest Artists Exhibition is the long-running headline, the Summer Auction is the action. It runs Thursday, May 28 through Sunday, June 7 — so call it one long opening weekend, plus another weekend, plus the weekdays in between.

    Schack’s own description of the Summer Auction: guests are invited to “browse and bid on original artwork, unique experiences, and curated packages while supporting Schack’s free exhibitions and arts education programs.”

    A few things are worth pulling out of that sentence.

    “Original artwork” is doing heavy lifting. Schack sits inside a North American Reciprocal Museum network and has steadily built a reputation for actual working artists donating actual working pieces — not poster prints, not reproductions. If you’ve ever wanted to buy a piece of Northwest art from the kind of artist who normally only shows in gallery settings, auction week is the window where the price point drops into range for regular Everett households.

    “Unique experiences and curated packages” is the part that usually sneaks up on first-time bidders. Studio visits, classes at Schack, dinner packages with local partners, behind-the-scenes gallery experiences — the non-artwork lots tend to draw competitive bidding specifically because they can’t be bought anywhere else the rest of the year.

    “Supporting Schack’s free exhibitions and arts education programs” is the part that should make you care even if you’re not bidding. Schack runs a heavy education program — classes for kids, teens, and adults, plus partnerships with Everett schools — and the reason its gallery is free every day of the week is because events like the Summer Auction close the funding gap. Bidding isn’t just shopping; it’s the mechanism that keeps Everett’s biggest gallery an open-door space.

    Why This Week Is a Bigger Deal Than It Sounds

    A lot of towns the size of Everett don’t have a gallery like Schack. A lot of galleries Schack’s size don’t run free public exhibitions seven days a week. A lot of free galleries don’t simultaneously run a regional headline show and a funding-critical auction on the exact same opening week.

    The stacked calendar is the story. One building, two major events, both starting May 28, both running inside a walkable downtown district that is slowly but clearly becoming one of the best evening art experiences in Snohomish County.

    If you’ve been following the slow cultural momentum downtown — Artists’ Garage Sale waitlists hitting capacity earlier each year, APEX Everett filling Kings Hall on weekends, the Historic Everett Theatre booking touring acts, Tony V’s Garage drawing legitimate regional touring bands — this Schack week fits the same pattern. Everett’s cultural weight is moving from “cute for a small city” into “actual regional destination,” and May 28 is one of the weeks that makes the case.

    How to Plan Your Visit

    Address: Schack Art Center, 2921 Hoyt Avenue, Everett, WA 98201

    Gallery hours (free admission): Tuesday–Saturday 10 AM–5 PM, Sunday 12 PM–5 PM (closed Mondays)

    Phone: (425) 309-7723

    Contact: artsinfo@schack.org

    Parking: Everpark Garage a block away (hourly), plus street parking on Hoyt and Wetmore

    Best day to go: A Thursday or Friday evening when downtown Everett is already awake — you can pair the visit with dinner on Hewitt Avenue or a show at the Historic Everett Theatre

    Best way to approach the Summer Auction: Start at the gallery in person to see pieces in context before bidding — the lighting and scale on a wall tell you more about a piece than any catalog image

    Frequently Asked Questions

    When does the Contemporary Northwest Artists Exhibition open at Schack Art Center? Thursday, May 28, 2026. It runs through August 22, 2026 at Schack Art Center, 2921 Hoyt Avenue in downtown Everett.

    When is Schack Art Center’s 2026 Summer Auction? The Summer Auction runs from Thursday, May 28, 2026 through Sunday, June 7, 2026. Bidding supports Schack’s free exhibitions and arts education programs.

    How much does it cost to visit Schack Art Center? Gallery admission is free. The Summer Auction is an event you can browse without bidding; costs only apply if you place winning bids.

    What are Schack Art Center’s hours? Tuesday through Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM, and Sunday from 12 PM to 5 PM. Schack is closed on Mondays.

    Where is Schack Art Center? 2921 Hoyt Avenue, Everett, WA 98201, in downtown Everett between Pacific Avenue and Hewitt Avenue.

    Can I buy original artwork at Schack’s Summer Auction if I’m not an art collector? Yes. The Summer Auction is designed for a broad community of bidders, not just established collectors. Lots include original artwork as well as unique experiences and curated packages at a range of price points.

    What’s coming up after the Contemporary Northwest Artists show? Schack’s instructor exhibition, Years in the Making, opens June 18, 2026 and also runs through August 22. It features work by the artists who teach at Schack Art Center.

    Is Schack Art Center good for families? Yes. Schack is a family-friendly gallery and runs extensive arts education programming including classes for kids and teens. The Summer Auction itself is not specifically a family event, but visiting the gallery during auction week is a normal daytime drop-in.

  • What’s Happening at the Schack Art Center This Spring — And Why You Should Go

    What’s Happening at the Schack Art Center This Spring — And Why You Should Go

    The Schack Art Center is one of Everett’s best free cultural resources — a working ceramics studio, public gallery, community classroom, and anchor of the monthly Art Walk — and most people in the city have never walked through the door.

    Located at 2921 Hoyt Ave, the Schack is not a museum you observe passively. It’s a working arts center where kilns are firing, printmakers are at the press, and fiber arts looms are in use. The public gallery is free. The classes and studio memberships are affordable. And the Schack anchors Everett’s third-Thursday Art Walk, which runs through downtown galleries monthly on the third Thursday — the next one is April 16.

    The Gallery

    Rotating exhibitions in the main gallery space, free and open to the public. The Schack shows regional and local artists across mediums. Check schack.org for the current exhibition and opening events — the Schack publishes their calendar regularly and it’s the authoritative source.

    Classes and Workshops

    The Schack runs ceramics, printmaking, fiber arts, painting, drawing, and mixed-media classes year-round at multiple skill levels. Drop-in workshops require no prior experience. Multi-week sessions are available for deeper development. The ceramics program is the most serious in Snohomish County — if you’ve ever wanted to learn to throw on a wheel, this is your place. Register at schack.org.

    Sorticulture 2026

    The Schack’s signature annual event — Sorticulture, a garden arts festival at the Everett waterfront drawing thousands of visitors — is the summer highlight. 2026 dates not yet officially announced; watch schack.org. It’s worth planning around.

    April Art Walk — April 16

    Third Thursdays monthly. Next one: April 16. Free. Start at the Schack at 2921 Hoyt Ave and walk the downtown gallery circuit from there. Most galleries stay open until 8 or 9 PM on Art Walk nights.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Is the Schack Art Center free?

    The gallery is free and open to the public. Classes and studio memberships have fees. Check schack.org for current hours and registration.

    Where is the Schack?

    2921 Hoyt Ave, Everett WA 98201.

    When is the next Everett Art Walk?

    April 16, 2026 — the third Thursday of the month. Free, walkable through downtown galleries. Start at the Schack.