February 22, 2019
Every six weeks, City Hall is refreshed with new artwork featuring various artists who live and work throughout the region.
This is part of our Art Galleries program run through our Parks, Arts and Recreation Department and includes three locations, City Hall, the Community & Event Center and the Cheryl Sallee Gallery at the Senior Center.
Beginning this week, and into early April, City Hall is hosting work by Filmon Kifle, an artist who is originally from East Africa and recently moved to our region.
As we celebrate the close of Black History Month, I wanted to share more about his work with you and his efforts to use his native culture and passion for expressive portrait art to encourage conversations that push us toward positive change.
Here's how Filmon describes his work:
Africa, and especially East Africa, is known to be rich in cultures that have not been explored well through art over the years. With this knowledge and passion in art, as well as having been born in Eritrea, East Africa, my interest in arts have been hyped a notch higher. I spent a significant part of my life in Eritrea and only moved to the area three years ago as an artist.
As an artist, I explore deep inside the feelings presented in portraits. Ever since I was introduced to portrait art, I have realized that it takes up a challenging, yet exciting, task in integrating the feelings in real life with my canvas, and this attracts me. It is the unexpected that gives a painting the quality of being special. As an artist, I believe that art is a method of communication and can create positive change in our way of life.
I want to be part of that change.
Filmon's work will be on display through April 9. I hope you will take the opportunity to come see it while it is here and to learn more about all of the artists on display this year at auburnwa.gov/arts.
This morning, Grace Church will be hosting their 11th annual Grace Loves Auburn event from 8 a.m. to noon at their location at 1320 Auburn Way S.
This event allows participants to shop for free through thousands of donated items including clothes, diapers, toys, household items, small furniture items, and more.
You can get all the details on Grace Church website.
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“One day our descendants will think it incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex human beings.”
- Franklin Thomas
 On Thursday, I had the opportunity to tour the Auburn location for Childhaven.
If you aren't familiar with this organization, they began in 1909 and have expanded over the years to their three current locations in King County. Their mission is to serve children and families who have been exposed to toxic stress or trauma from situations like domestic violence, housing instability, poverty and mental health issues.
It was an amazing opportunity to see first-hand the great work that this organization is doing in our community for our most vulnerable families. Their programs center around early intervention for young children with delayed development, early learning, and counseling services. In meeting with some of the staff, you could see how deep their dedication to these children and family goes and what a valuable resource they are providing to our community and region at large. I'm so incredibly grateful for this organization, and others like it in our city, who are providing these vital resources that are so critical to a healthy, vibrant community.
You can learn more about them and their work on their website.
 If you were around the city much during the day yesterday, you may have seen some strange sites as members of the Multimedia team and I made our way to key locations to shoot video for this year's State of the City.
City staff and leadership joined us at points throughout the day to to share information about their departments and have a little fun in the process.
This year's event will take place at the Auburn Avenue Theater on March 12 at 6 p.m. If you are able to attend, we'll have some fun surprises in store for you to enjoy from today's filming. I hope you will join us!
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