Great Places Committee debriefs after ‘Ignite the Arts’

WASHINGTON — Members of the Washington Great Places Committee are still processing the feedback they got from their “Ignite the Arts” event last month.

Committee Member and Washington Mayor Millie Youngquist said the January gathering at Art Domestique was productive, as members asked guests about everything from favorite public art fixtures to most memorable events to how they got their news. They got responses both in writing and conversation.

The committee now has a handful of suggestions to work toward on several fronts. Public art projects, for instance, were one recurring suggestion heard from many at last month’s event.

“One of the things that came up on top was developing more murals, and more things like sculptures, things like artwork that’s three-dimensional,” Youngquist said. “There were some locations suggested in the downtown, around the outskirts of town, that could be done. One was a suggestion to redo the mural at the underpass.”

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Also productive was the brainstorm on community events.

Youngquist said there was widespread interest in more events as well, including central park performances, supplemental events to annual town festivals, and more arts-adjacent events.

While plans to bring those things about may soon be in motion, Youngquist said committee members were still in the discussion phase for now, though they hope to get the ball rolling soon.

“We are still really early in the process, and we are trying to draw in artists and other people in the community to help with this,” Youngquist said. “We don’t really have a plan of attack for how we want to do this, but we just want to let people know about our designation, and to increase the arts in Washington. We have a lot of things going for us and we want to kind of build on things.”

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