On an institutional level, the Northwest arts and culture scene is booming like Amazon. Tacoma Art Museum is opening a new wing in November devoted to the art of the American West. The Egyptian reopens next month under SIFF’s auspices. Cafe Nordo will begin dinner-theater productions in the vacant former Elliott Bay Book Company space in November. And January will see the opening of two theater stages in the new 12th Avenue Arts building, serving Washington Ensemble Theatre, New Century Theatre Company, and Strawberry Theatre Workshop.

Filling those new venues, as well as Seattle’s established arts havens, will be the artists who continue to serve this city’s cultural ascension. In the stories for this year’s Guide to the Fall Arts, we meet a few of them, including fusion choreographer Amy O’Neal, marathon pianist Jonathan Powell, theatrical impresario Linda Hartzell, memoirists Elissa Washuta and Domingo Martinez, artist Nikki McClure, and filmmaker Shaun Scott. All have notable new works during the new season, which is also packed full of highlights that can be found in our calendar of fall events. For all the talk of books, film, and music moving to the cloud for private at-home consumption, there are promising signs for the city’s arts and culture scene—being written in bricks and mortar, where people actually gather and discuss what they’ve seen.

Click here to flip through an interactive e-edition of our 2014 Guide to Fall Arts.