Creative district conference coming to Moses Lake
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 month AGO
Last year’s ArtsWA Creative District Conference in Tenino brought together creative district administrators from all over the state. Moses Lake will host this year’s conference June 11-12.
COURTESY PHOTO/JENNI SHELTON
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | June 5, 2026 3:30 AM
MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake will host the ArtsWA Creative District Conference June 11-12, bringing in administrators from creative districts all over Washington.
“A lot of creative districts are in small towns,” said Moses Lake Museum & Art Center Superintendent Dollie Boyd. “So (ArtsWA) wants to spread it around the state. Last year, or maybe even before that, we started saying, ‘Moses Lake would be a great place for convening, and they believed us.”
Most of the two-day conference will be held at the Moses Lake Civic Center and will consist of classes and sessions to improve creative districts statewide, Boyd said. Topics will include managing projects from concept to ribbon-cutting, fundamentals of economic development, and growing a creative district, among others.
“It’s a pretty jam-packed (program),” Boyd said.
Attendance at the annual conference is mandatory for a creative district to maintain its state certification, Boyd said, so at least one person from each of Washington’s creative districts will be there.
The sessions are just for registered attendees, but the public will have a chance to meet conferencegoers at Sip & Chat, an informal gathering at Moore Brewing Co. where local people can ask questions and interact with administrators of other communities’ creative districts, according to Downtown Moses Lake Association Executive Director Mallory Miller The Q&A will go from 6:30 to 7 p.m., followed by live music until 8:30. A no-host dinner will be available.
A creative district is an area of a town or city where arts, culture, and creative businesses are concentrated as part of a community’s cultural and economic life, according to the website of the Washington State Arts Commission, also called ArtsWA. There are 24 creative districts in Washington, from Seattle down to Twisp, which has a population of about 1,200. Part of downtown Moses Lake was designated as a creative district in 2022.
About 100 people are expected to attend the conference, Miller said. Besides the sessions, the attendees will take a tour of downtown Moses Lake, splitting into small groups and visiting Sinkiuse Square, the Japanese Peace Garden, Neppel Landing and the Moses Lake Library, Boyd said. They’ll also get to explore Moses Lake’s eateries for lunch, Miller said, and have a chance to do some shopping while they’re here.
“All the attendees will have a tote bag (from the DMLA) with a map of places downtown they can shop and explore,” Miller said. She’s working with some of the downtown businesses to offer discounts to people wearing conference badges, to welcome them to the downtown core.
“If you happen to see somebody with their conference badge on, make them feel welcome,” Boyd said. “We want everybody to have an awesome time here, leave the community singing our praises and hopefully come back and bring their families for recreation. We’re looking forward to the chance to show off our town, because we love it.”
Sip & Chat
6:30-8:30 p.m. June 11
Moore Brewing Co.
302 W. Broadway Ave.
Moses Lake
www.moorebrewingco.com
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