Public art to be featured at new Auburn Avenue Theater park

Published 1:30 am Friday, January 30, 2026

Flanked to the north by the Postmark Center for the Arts, the Auburn Avenue Theater-to-be is meant to act as a community hub of arts and culture, a magnet to draw people into the downtown to catch live performances and spend money.

But it would be shorting the $2.1 million project to think of it as a theater only, as it will also create a new downtown park east of the theater, incorporating public artwork, and making use of the rebuilt B Street Plaza across East Main.

To the Monday, Jan. 26 Auburn City Council study session, Parks, Arts and Recreation Director Julie Krueger brought the team that’s been putting it together, among them Arts Program Supervisor Allison Hyde, and, to explain his design, John Fleming, the Washington state artist who’ll create the art.

The park will provide an amenity that Auburn residents have never had: a centralized open green space in the heart of downtown, connecting the theater to the Postmark, East Main Street, and the recently completed B Street Plaza.

In July, a Selection Committee chose Fleming to create artwork for the site, and he got busy.

On Dec. 18, 2025, Fleming presented his final conceptual design to the Auburn Arts Commission; which approved and forwarded it to the city council with a recommendation of approval. It is expected to vote on the resolution on Feb. 2.

“He (Fleming) has a really incredible breadth of work with past work, with public artworks all across the region and the country,” Hyde said.

Construction on the site should start in February or March and wrap by early 2027.

The Gathering Tree

“I’m going to talk about this process as being we, because it really was a collaborative effort with everybody from the city,” said Fleming, who explained the team’s thinking during the process that led to the final design.

The initial question: what is Auburn, and what is the Muckleshoot Tribe about?

“I like this idea of past, present and future, and how maybe we could touch on this whole spectrum, from the future being this polished, maybe high-tech image and get back to a very organic thing,” said Fleming.

Maybe, he said, the artwork could be a draw that pulls one in.

By Aug. 21, 2025, the initial ideas had developed into what he calls “The Gathering Tree,” an overarching, metal sculpture of a tree more than 7 feet tall, with two curved benches leading up to the tree.

“What could be a better beacon than this tree that was held aloft but represented the connection of nature and the city?” Fleming said, recalling the team’s thinking. “So we held on to the idea, but we moved in the direction of natural forms, first one leaf, and then actually thinking about what leaf would represent Auburn, what leaf would represent the Tribe. And we were thinking of Vine Maple leaves, which were starting to develop more as a bolt-able collection of those leaves.”

In vibrant natural colors of red and orange and brown, he added that reach out over the edge of these mirrored surfaces on the underside, creating a gathering place at the entrance to the theater and a gathering place facing east at the entrance to the park.

The vision

Hyde said the city identified the plaza parcel and downtown park in 2024 as an “ideal and important location for public art, accommodating 1% for art and highlighting the site as a community hub of arts and culture in downtown Auburn.”

The plaza at the east entrance of the theater will serve as a public gathering space for general passive uses, community events, park programs, and more.

The city will use the western section of the park, which includes the remaining portion of the theater parcel, as a gathering plaza for the east entrance of the theater, with added hard surfacing and stormwater facilities.

The park will be included in the bid package with the theater.

Paying for it

The city tapped the initial $967,000 from a King County Conservation Futures grant, with $717,000 of it already spent to acquire the property and for demolition of the comic book store at the east end to open up room. The city has already been reimbursed for this money.

Among the remaining funding sources are a $250,000 direct appropriation from the state, park impact fees, and beyond those it has cobbled together some funds remaining from other downtown projects.