Ever since Seattle was announced as a host city for the World Cup, reactions have ranged from great expectations to high anxiety. Now, a couple weeks out from the first local kickoff, the real impact of the tournament is still up for speculation. But one thing is certain: New outdoor art is on deck to welcome the promised (feared?) crowds to Emerald City.
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Some 25 new installations come courtesy of SeattleFWC26, the local organizing committee for the World Cup. This nonprofit — neither part of FIFA nor city government — is tasked with creating ways Seattle can benefit from the games long after the last goal. One of those ways was working with other local groups to commission public artworks.
The first piece showed up downtown late last summer: a giant abstract swoosh in Northwest greens and blues by Seattle artist Leo Shallat. Painted on a parking garage at Spring Street and 5th Avenue, across from the Central Library, the work is intended to reflect life’s winding path as well as Seattle’s history of embracing counter culture.
“Sports and art actually have a lot in common… they are these things that people sort of feel and understand almost on a more base level,” said SeattleFWC26’s Leo Flor, when I toured the artworks with him recently. “They have the ability to bring emotion out of people and to connect people.”
Flor also noted that his organization’s emphasis is “showing people what’s special about Seattle,” which is why many of the new artworks are by local artists. That includes our host city poster design by Shogo Ota, and a significant new sculpture by local legend Gerard Tsutakawa.
Unveiled in late April just outside Lumen Field, “Vital Spirit” is a nine-foot-tall humanoid bronze figure. “One side has gentle curves and the other is angular, which allude to the yin and yang of human nature,” Tsutakawa said at the press preview. “The two sides rise up and are brought together by the circle [in the “head” position], which symbolizes the unity of the world we all share.”
At RailSpur Alley in Pioneer Square, you can find 14 World Cup-inspired works inside of one block. Here, SeattleFWC26 worked with local art collective Forest for the Trees to bring new paintings to the preexisting outdoor “Art Frames” series. These large, square works serve as a mini art walk — in this case, one with a scavenger hunt element.
“Every piece of art that we've commissioned, if you look hard enough, you’ll find a cedar branch detail,” Flor told me. “The cedar branch, on advice from some of our partners at the Puyallup Tribe, was a nice way to pay homage to the first peoples of our region without appropriating their art styles.” In some works the branch is obvious, in others, pretty hard to find, but this enticing element ensures a closer look at the art.
And while several works in this series contain soccer ball imagery, they look vastly different, including: Belgian-Hong Kong artist Caratoes’ alien creature in “Red Devils;” Seattle artist Dana Blume’s soft pink elephants on the pitch; the striking eye contact in Moroccan-American Portland artist Sa’rah Melinda Sabino’s “Mother of the World;” and Northwest artist Paul Nunn’s clever portrait of the co-captain of the USA Blind Soccer men’s team.
The SeattleFWC26 artworks are mapped along a four-mile walkable route called the Unity Loop. The route also denotes independent and locally owned small businesses — each of which will display a lit neon whale tail beacon in the style of Shogo Ota’s poster design. The plan is for the artworks and whale tails to stick around for months after visiting soccer fans disperse.
Soccer is basically dance, right? The intense physical training and coordination required, the leaps and kicks, the theatrical simulation of heartache and physical pain? So let’s carry that theme across current and upcoming dance events, of which there are plenty!
Pacific Northwest Ballet is presenting All Lang (May 29 - June 7), featuring three works by contemporary choreographer Jessica Lang. Included on the bill is “Her Door to the Sky” (2016) a gorgeous, color-stained piece inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s “patio door” series.
In Lang’s work, as in O’Keeffe’s paintings, a plain door in a plain wall becomes the source of shifting light and shimmery movement. Also on the roster is “Ghost Variations” (2020), which Lang created with PNB during the pandemic — when a video audience was all that was allowed — and her newest, “ZigZag” (2026), a playful work set to Tony Bennett tunes.
Alert to ballet fans: Outside PNB’s Season Encore show (June 7), this performance will be your last chance to see retiring principal dancers Lucien Postlewaite and Elizabeth Murphy on the PNB stage.
Also this weekend is 3…2…1! at Seattle Open Arts Place (May 29-30), in which beloved local dancers present works that are 3-, 2- and 1-minute long. Performers include Wade Madson, The Bonnies and Four on the Floor. And terrifically twisted local troupe Acrobatic Conundrum is bringing its trapezes, hoops and aerial ropes to 12th Avenue Arts for The Circus of Second Chances (May 29 - June 14).
Early June is all about dance festivals. Northwest New Works returns to On the Boards (June 4-6) with a rich array of fresh performances and movement experiments, this year including artists Nia-Amina Minor, Swim Pony and Tariq Mitri. See also the 21st edition of the Seattle International Dance Festival (June 6-14 at Broadway Performance Hall), with performers and traditions hailing from Africa, Asia and North America.
Can’t get enough fests? You are in luck.
Honk!fest West returns to its roving ways, bringing an infectious cacophony of brass and drum bands (including Filthy FemCorps, Blue Thunder and Chaotic Noise Marching Corps) to Georgetown (5/29), Columbia City (5/30) and Pratt Park (5/31).
Then there’s the brand new Black Graduation event (May 30-31 at the Northwest African American Museum), a showcase for Black visual artists created and curated by Central District arts space Wa Na Wari. Or the 14th annual Seattle Asian Film Festival (May 29-31 at the Wing Luke Museum and the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute). Or the Pagdiriwang Philippine Festival (June 6-7 at Seattle Center), which includes the Diwa Filipino Film Festival.
And one more festival for your consideration: Next weekend brings the annual Cascade PBS Ideas Festival (June 6), a daylong event featuring talks with guests from Laverne Cox to Nancy Pelosi. I’ll be there too, hosting a session called Native Sounds, New Voices (4:50 - 5:20 p.m.), tracing trends and issues in contemporary Indigenous music. Joining me in conversation are KEXP DJ Kevin Sur (co-host of the “Sounds of Survivance” radio show), Northwest storyteller Gene Tagaban (part of the Native funk band Khu'eex) and Hozoji Matheson-Margullis (member of the Puyallup tribe as well as the bands Helms Alee, Lozen, Tacos! And Uukwuuk). Hope to see you there!
Check out Season 2 of our tv show Art by Northwest, featuring in-depth interviews with the printmakers, painters, sculptors, wood carvers and photographers who are creating captivating work across Washington state. Nominated for two Northwest Regional Emmy Awards.
