NEPO House 5k Don't Run Happens Today!

The weather forecast for today predicts another particularly beautiful late summer day in Seattle, so why spend it inside? And if you're going to be outside anyway, why not take in some local artwork strategically placed through various downtown neighborhoods along a course that's five kilometers in length?

The day for the NEPO House 5k Don't Run is officially here, and if you have some free time this afternoon, we can't think of a better way to spend it. Starting at 2:00p.m. in Pioneer Square, participants will be given a map with the features to be found on the path and are then set loose upon the town, free to find the various pieces, installations and galleries at their own leisure. Along the way there are team building exercises devised by Sean McElroy and Max Kraushaar; noted graphic novelist David Lasky will present a graphic novel that doesn't use pictures; Manifold Motion's Keely Isaak Meehan will perform, as will Helsinki Syndrome's Mike Pham; bits of a poem will be interspersed all through the route and could only be read via smart code.

This is the sort of approach being taken by over 80 Seattle artists along a route that winds through the International District, up the 12th Street Bridge, into Beacon Hill where the path ends at the eponymous NEPO House, the tiny gallery nestled within that neighborhood's homes. Once there, more arts related tomfoolery will occur -- we are looking forward to witnessing the Stranger's Jen Graves conducting interviews with local artists from inside a bathtub, along with a band and a DJ.

The planned schedule lasts into the wee hours of the night, so it is doubly convenient that the beginning and end of the route is well within walking distance to the Pioneer Square and Beacon Hill light rail stations. Throw in the fact that this entire event is being held for free, and there is not a single legitimate reason why you shouldn't be making your way to Occidental Park.

See you there.