ARTS at King Street Station
ARTS at King Street Station is a dynamic space for arts and culture in the heart of the city dedicated to increasing opportunities for people of color to generate and present their work. Housed above Seattle’s historic King Street Station, this 7,500-square-foot gallery and cultural space includes a studio for artists-in-residence and offices for the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS).
In 2018, we published a community feedback report drawn from focus groups hosted citywide. It outlines the public's hope that ARTS at King Street Station might serve as an accessible arts space and hub for community-building through the arts with a race and social justice lens as its guiding principle.
NOCHES DE ANÁHUAC
Nov. 7, 2024 - Jan. 4, 2025 - The spirit of Mexican art and culture thrives within NOCHES DE ANÁHUAC. This exhibition embraces the rich tapestry of Mexican identity. Adorned with carpentry, sculpture, textiles, paintings, and film—the artists invoke a sense of collective memory and pride in their Mexican Indigenous identity.
Please Touch: Together, Breaking Barriers
Rabbit Rhinocerous by Debra Broz
Oct. 3, 2024 - Jan. 4, 2025 - Please Touch: Together, Breaking Barriers challenges the traditional boundaries of art appreciation by inviting visitors to engage with artwork through touch.
Please Touch has called various Seattle venues home for the past 10 years. Now, this exhibition comes to ARTS King Street Station to raise awareness about accessibility for blind and low-vision individuals in the arts while bridging the gap between visual and tactile art experiences.
Visit ARTS at King Street Station
Hours
ARTS at King Street Station is FREE and open Wednesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m, and until 8 p.m. on First Thursdays.
COVID Safety
In accordance with King County Public Health guidelines, ARTS at King Street Station will no longer require visitors to show proof of vaccination or wear face masks when visiting. We ask that you stay home if you feel sick and remain mindful of our community’s varying levels of comfort.
ARTS Administrative Office Hours
Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Getting Here
Plan your trip and don't forget to check the traffic conditions at Seattle Traffic
King Street Station is located at 303 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA 98104. The station is conveniently located where the Downtown Central Business District, Pioneer Square, and the Chinatown / International District all meet (on Jackson Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues South).
There are multiple options for reaching the station using public transit:
- The Sounder regional commuter train stops at the station, as do all of Amtrak's national and international lines.
- The Link Light Rail stops at the International District Station, one block east of the station.
- Many King County Metro Bus lines pass within a block of the station, including 1, 7, 36, 14.
Where do I park? There are multiple paid garages and parking lots in the neighborhood, as well as street parking. You can view the Seattle Parking Map here.
Accessibility
King Street Station has an ADA-compliant elevator that services every level of the station. Access it via the Amtrak level (1st Floor), which is on King Street. The plaze entrance is on Jackson Street and is the 2nd Floor.
ARTS at King Street Station also has ADA-compliant, all-gender restrooms. We have two wheelchairs available in the gallery, and folding stools you can use if you'd like to sit in front of an artwork.
ARTS at King Street Station Advisors
About The Advisors
The ARTS at King Street Station Advisors are a group of community leaders and arts/culture enthusiasts who work with ARTS staff to ensure that the programming at ARTS at King Street Station centers racial equity, represents and welcomes diverse communities, and showcases many creative disciplines. Advisors serve a two-year term.
Em Chan
Em Chan is an emerging interdisciplinary arts facilitator whose current interests explore contemporary art and artmaking against and beyond institutional boundaries. A recent graduate of the University of Washington in Art History and English Literature, Em has worked in and across a variety of different arts settings, including classrooms, special collections, theaters, film festivals, art fairs, and museums. He is currently a curatorial assistant at the Henry Art Gallery.
Ashanti Davis
Ashanti Davis is an Artist, Thinker, Social Justice Advocate, and Arts and Culture Entrepreneur who believes in the power of Art and Creativity to create meaningful change in the world. She has led interdisciplinary teams in the development of unique STE(A)M experiences and exhibitions and has co-instigated and chaired internal groups for Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Accessibility. Ms. Davis is currently the Program Director for Coyote Central in Seattle, WA, and Community Experiences Designer for Pueblo LLC. Ashanti is an Alumni Fellow of the ASTC Leadership and Diversity Fellowship program, a Board Member for Regenerative Nexus, received a BA in Creative Arts and Communications from Richmond American International University in London, and an MA in Museum Studies and Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Johns Hopkins University in 2021. Catalyzing meaningful change through lenses of science, justice, curiosity, and creativity for all communities is her guiding star.
Dellyssa Edinboro
Dellyssa values community and civic engagement and has worked with collectives such as the Center for Afrofuturist Studies and the Iowa Youth Writing Project. She was also a cohort member of the City University of New York (CUNY) Service Corps and Rotaract Club of Georgetown Central. In 2023, she was awarded the Eastside Civic Leadership Award. She is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Cultural and Ethnic Studies department at Bellevue College and has served as Culturally Responsive Practices Lead for their Faculty Commons.
Duncan Gibbs
Duncan Gibbs (he/him) is an artist. He was a member of the inaugural 2018 KSS Advisors panel and is grateful and excited to return. He served as Art Coordinator for Seattle’s annual Gender Odyssey conference from 2011 to 2016, and has shown paintings and other works in local group exhibitions. Born and raised in Ohio in 1959, making him technically a “Boomer,” Duncan is a member of the Trans community. He moved to San Francisco in 1988, where he was active with Queer Nation, CUAV (Community United Against Violence) and GLAAD, before making Seattle his home since 2004. Duncan earned a B.A. in Communications & Media Arts from Antioch University in Yellow Springs, OH, and an M.A. in Educational Technology from San Francisco State University. He works on the Digital Experience Team at Puget Sound Energy.
Kerri Hill
ARTS at King Street Station Advisor
Marie Kidhe
Marie T. Kidhe is a dynamic community engagement leader and award-winning project manager. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in event development, strategic outreach, and fostering collaboration across diverse sectors. Her leadership has driven successful projects for organizations like Métier Brewing Company, RVC, Communion Restaurant & Bar, and the Seattle Black Panther 50th Anniversary. Marie's expertise in building meaningful partnerships has been instrumental during her time at the Northwest African American Museum and Friends of Waterfront Park. As a second-generation Ugandan-American and native Seattleite, she leverages her extensive network to create inclusive, impactful community initiatives, ensuring all voices are valued.
Matthew Offenbacher
I am a queer white Jewish Seattle artist. I grew-up near Portland, Oregon and have been living and working in Seattle for twenty years. My work has been called “freakishly egoless”, vulnerable and funny. I've worked both in front of and behind the scenes in Seattle to collectivize artists’ power and criticize institutional norms. I began as a painter, and most of my projects relate to painting, even as they take forms like installation, organizing, publishing, and dance. I like to seek out constructive, positive positions at often difficult intersections of individuals, communities and institutions. I believe everyone has incredible creative abilities that, given a chance, can lead us towards radical new possibilities for a more just world.
Alicia Mullikin
ALICIA MULLIKIN is an Indigenous Chicana dance artist and educator. She is the visionary behind El Sueño, an organization that propels powerful expressions of Mexican Indigenous Identity to the forefront. In 2023, Alicia's dedication to advocacy earned her recognition as one of only fifteen national artists honored as an Arts Advocacy Leadership Fellow by the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures. Through her artistry and activism, Alicia strives to empower and nurture future ancestors.
Scott Oshima
Scott Oshima (they/them) is a Seattle-based artist and activist whose work unearths the personal and political history in our city streets. Their photography, films, and performances have been exhibited at MOCA Los Angeles, the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, LA Contemporary Archive, Local Sightings Film Festival, and LA Asian Pacific Film Festival. Three books of their photography, art, and writing have been published by No Style Press. Scott works at 4Culture and is the former director of the Sustainable Little Tokyo creative placekeeping initiative. They can often be found singing Mariah Carey and laughing a lot and loudly. Say hello: www.o-shi-ma.com | IG: oshimadoesart.
Sadaf Sadri
Sadaf Sadri is an Iranian new media artist and curator based in Seattle. The focal point of their work revolves around the concept of interruption. Their interest in disruption lies in the void that emerges in the wake of the discontinuation of the established power systems. This void, they believe, offers a space to imagine alternative narratives that might otherwise remain unexplored. To translate their imaginations to a more palpable communicative form, they employ e-textile, Video and AI. Sadaf is currently a PhD student at the DXARTS department at the University of Washington.
Shaudi Vahdat
Shaudi Bianca Vahdat is a musician, composer and theatre artist specializing in story-driven songwriting. Her influences include musical theatre, jazz, classical, and both American and Iranian folk music. Shaudi holds a Masters in Music in Contemporary Performance from Berklee College of Music and a B.A. in Drama Performance from the University of Washington Seattle. Shaudi has performed and/or composed for organizations like Washington Ensemble Theatre, Book-It Repertory Theatre, The Bushwick Book Club, Seattle Arts & Lectures, and Opera House Arts in Stonington, Maine. In 2012, Shaudi produced and released her first EP, Some Songs, and in 2017 her follow up EP Left, a stylistically mixed studio album. She is a Fall 2024 Artist-in-Residence at Inscape Arts, and will present an original song cycle in Spring 2025 at Seattle Center as part of the Artists at the Center program. Find Shaudi’s work on Apple Music, Spotify, and at shaudibiancavahdat.com.
Joe Williams
Joe Williams, M.M. is a celebrated arts leader and active performing artist from Tacoma, WA. They have contributed policy recommendations to Tacoma Arts Commission and Music Teachers National Association among others. In 2019, Williams founded Music from Home at Lakewold Gardens, a live global music series centering women and BIPOC performing artists which has earned support from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2022, they received the Paul Charosh Independent Scholar Fellowship from the Society for American Music. Their inaugural album, Life's Sweet Shadows, featuring Seattle-based soprano Ellaina Lewis will be released by Navona Records this fall. An accomplished composer, Williams is currently collaborating with 2022/23 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate poet Sah Pham and Seattle-based spoken word artist Nakeya Isabel on works commissioned by the Tacoma Youth Symphony and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts respectively. To learn about Williams' international performance career, visit soundliberator.net.
How We Got Here
King Street Station Programming Plan
ARTS staff worked with the University of Washington Evans School Consulting Lab to produce a research report, "Reimagining King Street Station through a Racial Equity Lens" (May 2018), which is an aspirational document about best practices in cultural space programming.
About King Street Station
King Street Station is a public asset that is an important part of Seattle's history. For over one hundred years it has improved connections, serving as a gateway for millions of travelers coming into Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. The station has spurred economic growth and helped establish Seattle as a major metropolitan city.
King Street Station first opened to the public in May 1906. Reed and Stem, the architectural firm responsible for New York City's historic Grand Central Terminal, designed the station. The San Marco bell tower of Venice, Italy, served as the model for the building's familiar clock tower. The structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
King Street Station, located on Jackson Street between Third and Fourth Avenue S., is a brick and granite three-story building with a twelve-story clock tower. The ground floor, accessed from King Street, is clad in granite. The walls of the second and third floors, as well as the clock tower, are faced in pressed brick with decorative terra cotta elements such as cornices and window lintels.
While much of the exterior of King Street Station has remained intact since the building was constructed in 1906, parts of the interior have been substantially altered and others have suffered neglect. Similarly, while nearly half of the facility's original finishes remain intact, most of the significant finishes in the lower portion of the station have been removed. In March 2008 the City of Seattle purchased the landmark building from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway Company.
Under city ownership, King Street Station underwent a $50 million renovation that achieved the following goals:
- Restore the building's historic character and grandeur
- Upgrade facilities to meet present and future needs of rail and transit users
- Enhance passenger safety and security
- Promote sustainable design with a LEED building certification
- Support efforts to transform the station into a modern transit hub
- The station is served by Amtrak Cascades, Coast Starlight and Empire Builder long distance rail lines and Amtrak intercity buses. It includes convenient connections to Sound Transit commuter rail, local and regional buses, Sound Transit Link light rail, and the First Hill Seattle Streetcar.
- The restoration of King Street Station ensures it remains a critical transportation hub and gateway into Seattle for the next hundred years.