🌱Future Arts Way:OTHER EARTH 2026 🌱 | Opening Ceremony @ Pacific Science Center Arches
Join us in celebration of launching Seattle's largest augmented reality showcase - Future Arts Way: Other Earth 2026! Featuring 18+ artists, 30+ stops, and many years in the making, we are coming together in community to celebrate the artists, technologists, and visionaries who worked on the project.
The Opening Ceremony will take place under the arches in the newly free to the public courtyard at Pacific Science Center🌱
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OPENING CEREMONY AGENDA
6pm Arrival, mingling, snacks
6:30-7:30 Program (Full Lineup TBD)
City of Seattle Remarks
Artist Remarks
Songs
Special Appearances
7:30 Music and Mingling
8-9pm AR Tours down Future Arts Way
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ABOUT FUTURE ARTS WAY
Debuting during FIFA World Cup 2026, Future Arts Way: Other Earth 2026 is a nonprofit-led, city-scale augmented reality (AR) public art experience spanning 2.5 miles, 30+ stops, and over 18 augmented reality artworks by local, national, and international artists.
A work in progress over 3+ years, these beautiful interactive artworks connect visitors and locals to Seattle’s histories and futures through Coast Salish, Afrocentric, and various community storytelling from historically “othered” perspectives, with immersive, place-based mobile experiences through a custom, no-downloads Future Arts Way-finder.
Participating Artists and Creatives include:
Alex Kosnett (Türkiye / USA)
Alexis Eggertsen (USA)
Alina Nazmeeva (Tatarstan / USA)
Ash Frantz (Enrolled Makah, Lower Elwha S’Klallam, Duwamish)*
Azure Bleu Boure (Suquamish)*
Chenoa Egawa (Lummi and S'Klallam Nations)*
Divine Ndemeye (Burundo-Canadian)
Daniel R. Smith (Swinomish)*
Gabriel-Bello Diaz, GÄBO (Taino)
Jenée Redecker (Chehalis)*
Jose Gabriel Contreras (Venezuelan)
Lu AfterBuffalo (Jamestown S'klallam)*
Mazzy Ungaro (Muckleshoot)*
Mike Peredo (Canadian)
Nychelle Schneider (Snoqualmie)*
TJ WhiteAntelope (Lummi)*
Valerie Segrest (Muckleshoot)*
* -Coast Salish Artist
HOW DOES IT ALL WORK?
1) The AR Walking Path “Arches to Clock Tower”
> A 2.5-mile trail from Seattle Center’s Pacific Science Center (North Trailhead) ending at King Street Station (South Trailhead) near the stadiums
>Featuring 18+ augmented reality (AR) artworks opening from vinyl ground “AR drops” guiding viewers through stories and histories around flora and fauna.
>Placed near curated emerging arts centers, location partners, and cultural small businesses.
The experience will live on a custom wayfinder platform powered by Houdini Interactive and will remain active through September 2026, with hopes for future installations.
2) The Downtown Midway Landmark (3rd & Pine):
A large-scale mixed-reality installation transforming 3rd Avenue & Pine Street corner with vinyl interactive murals, activating the skybridge at the former Macy’s building. Geospatial augmented reality technologies download a more advanced, interactive Parasitic Healing Waterfall by Divine Ndemeye, ricocheting off the skybridge into the street, a project started in 2023.
3) Currents Cohort: Coast Salish Storytelling in AR
The Currents Cohort is a group of Coast Salish artists, knowledge holders, storytellers, policymakers, herbalists, and traditional foods specialists who answered an open call to explore Indigenous storytelling through augmented reality, with the expectation that no prior digital experience was needed. Brought together by multimedia artist Alina Nazmeeva, ecologist Alex Kosnett, and the Future Arts Way team — with grant support from the University of Illinois — the cohort gathered over a series of sessions to share stories and co-create visions of a resilient, Native-led futures.
What emerged from those gatherings is a collection of individual and collaborative works that are being brought to life with support from Future Arts’ Creative Technologists and the project’s initiators, Alina Nazmeeva and Alex Kosnett. Each piece will be showcased along the Downtown Seattle corridor as part of Future Arts Way's augmented reality trail.
WHY NOW:
The 2026 World Cup is expected to bring 750,000+ visitors and global attention to downtown Seattle, coined as the “second World’s Fair moment”. Future Arts Way turns that moment into a grounded cultural and civic narrative: more movement, more discovery, more local spending and a post-event cultural asset that remains for the community through 2026. That’s a win and a big ROI for our Creative Economy, bridging Seattle’s arts and technology communities.
Seattle is a thriving world technology hub that has the highest wage gap between computer and arts occupations. Nonprofit Future Arts creates large scale programs such as this one to bridge the gap and connect community, commerce, artists, and technologists.
SEE PRESS KIT HERE
More information on our website: https://www.futurearts.co/futureartsway