The Olympia Armory is set to be transformed from a military installation to a city-owned creative campus in 2022, the Olympia Historical Society, Bigelow House Museum, and Washington Military Department announced on Mon., Oct. 18.
The 41,160-square-foot Armory building and an adjacent 9,700-square foot outbuilding will be converted to a community creative campus by the City of Olympia once the buildings are vacated by the National Guard.
The city aims to “support the arts as integral to Olympia’s way of life; encourage community growth through creativity and innovation; use the arts to connect people, ideas, and place; and operate from an equity framework” through the creative campus.
According to the city’s online engagement platform, the buildings could house a community events space, rehearsal rooms, maker’s and tech labs, an exhibit space, studios, admin offices, a restaurant or café, an organization incubator, a component of affordable housing, a larger resident organization, or a city department.
Meanwhile, a storytelling project has been developed to memorialize the Armory’s history.
The collected materials will be made accessible to the public on the Olympia Historical Society’s website, www.olympiahistory.org, and may also be developed into longer video interviews.
Those who wish to submit stories to the project may visit the website of the Olympia Historical Society. The deadline for submission is March 31, 2022. All submissions will be preserved at the Washington State Archives.
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