Artwork installed for Pride around the Capitol Hill Station mixed-use development construction site was ripped down almost as quickly as it went up over the weekend. The city’s Office of Arts and Culture said it is working on getting the works replaced.

Work by artists including Gabriel Stromberg, Pete Rush, and Timothy White Eagle were ripped down in the vandalism. The installations are part of the project creating the AIDS Memorial Pathway, a walkway featuring artwork and tributes that will connect the mixed-use buildings to nearby Cal Anderson Park when it opens in 2020.

AMP – Cal Anderson Park – Timothy White Eagle Gabriel Stromberg’s work on display along the Broadway construction site before the weekend’s vandalism AMP Broadway AMP Broadway AMP – Broadway

CHS visited with the artists who contributed works to the temporary installations meant to bring attention to the project and LGBTQ causes during Pride. We’ve included images of the destroyed works in happier days from last week’s Queer Art Walk.

David Rue, another artist working on the AMP project, will begin a series of pop-up performances Friday, June 21st at 5:30 PM when students from Spectrum Dance are set to performa on Capitol Hill Light Station’s South Mezzanine. The Rue-curated performances will continue on third Fridays into November.

Jenny Durkan, the city’s first openly gay woman to serve as mayor, kicked off Seattle’s 2019 celebration of Pride with a Stonewall-themed flag raising ceremony at City Hall earlier this month.

Seattle has seen a steady rise in reported hate incidents including vandalism and graffiti that, like other bias crimes, is frequently reported “along busy thoroughfares and in highly racially diverse block-groups.” Unlike other bias incidents, the vandalism is reported more frequently in areas of Seattle “that are mostly White and White-Asian,” according to the city’s analysis.

The damage to the AMP art follows an incident over the weekend in which the Pride flag outside E Olive Way queer-friendly bar The Crescent was ripped down before being quickly replaced.

Trans Pride Seattle organizers at the Gender Justice League have also released a statement addressing concerns about right-wing protests as the league works to bring together the June 28th event in Cal Anderson.

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