Photo: Rick Mickelson
March 1, 2019 | by Seaside Visitors Bureau/ City of Seaside
As one of the best known beach destinations in the Pacific Northwest, Seaside has a reputation for stunning sunsets, inviting sand, and proximity to incredible hiking trails that wander along both the sandy shores and rugged bluffs. In addition to its scenic beauty, though, Seaside is also full of rich history and embraces artists from all walks of life. From art walks to museums to festivals, this Oregon Coast gem has an ocean’s worth of art and culture to explore during your next visit.
Seaside First Saturday Art Walk
For a decade and a half, Seaside has organized an Art Walk to celebrating the work of residents and visiting artists. On the first Saturday of every month, the art galleries and boutiques located between Holladay and Broadway in the downtown Historic Gilbert District host the Art Walk from 5 to 7 pm. The Art Walk is free and open to the public and gives everyone a chance to see the incredible art of the region. You’ll also have the opportunity to meet artists, watch demonstrations, and even listen to live musical performances.
Visiting Seaside when there is not an Art Walk?
Don’t fret. Seaside’s art community is well represented all year-long. Must-stop art galleries include the Oregon Gallery, the SunRose Gallery, the Fairweather House and Gallery, and the numerous murals spread all throughout town.
One-of-a-Kind
Along Broadway Street just east of the Necanicum River, Seaside’s Historic Gilbert District is home to several distinctive galleries and shops known for both locally and regionally produced artwork and gifts. Fairweather House and Gallery (612 Broadway) is one of the preeminent fine-art destinations on the North Coast, with works in a variety of media by both local and regional talents, from larger-than-life abstract paintings to woodwork, bronzes, pottery and even handmade furniture.
Map featuring four major historic building blocks in the Historic Gilbert District of downtown Seaside.
The Seaside murals are an attraction in themselves and capture the spirit and culture of this idyllic coastal town. Colorful, iconic, and full of the coastal spirit you’d expect to see, the murals, which are perfect for selfies in the salty air, adorn buildings all around town.
Mural located in the Menzel Buidling block of the Historic Gilbert District of downtown Seaside.
To view the latest and greatest murals, pay a visit to the Seaside Visitors Bureau, where you can get directions and personalized recommendations for other things to explore in the area.
Seaside, Oregon, is known for its downtown murals and active arts scene.
Promoting Seaside
by Jon Rahl/ City of Seaside
How do you describe Seaside to your friends, neighbors and relatives? Better yet, how would you, if asked? You may have an answer on the tip of your tongue. Perhaps you have a different description depending on who you are talking to? There’s no right or wrong answer. However, in the world of destination marketing, the task is to make sure that description resonates with prospective visitors. We want to inspire them to visit and we want to be authentic in our portrayal of this great place.
For the past two months we’ve been working side-by-side with Portland-based Lookout Consulting, and a team of three branding experts, to reimagine Seaside’s identity and determine how it is that we should and will talk about Seaside.
This decision to rebrand our communications did not come overnight. As I look back on it, it was an evolving decision that gained steam in mid-April during my attendance at the 2015 Oregon Governor’s Conference on Tourism. I was asked if Seaside would serve as a case study during a session on developing an integrated marketing plan. Never one to shy away from constructive feedback – and free I might add – I had no hesitation in agreeing to the exercise.
While the session offered a holistic look at our content development, the team of panelists also recommended a simple yet impactful new approach to Seaside’s advertising creative; this new thinking really encouraged me to take the next step towards rebranding. After consulting with my Tourism Advisory Committee, the decision was made to hatch this project.
Beginning in early January, the descriptions, colors and identity of Seaside marketing will change dramatically and I could not be more excited about the new direction and opportunity it will give us. A new primary logo (pictured) features various icons that celebrate the unique identity of our town, echoing the love and nostalgia visitors have felt for Seaside for generations, while introducing a visual abundance of what to see and do here in vibrant coastal colors. With this new logo, we will also roll out a new tagline.
It’s easy to Seaside will become our new consumer facing tagline. It speaks to our audiences leading hectic lives in nearby urban areas about how easy it is to have a fantastic time in Seaside. The tagline will anchor our new brand campaign, which tells visitors how to experience all the amazing things to do and see in and around town through fun, informative “how to” instructions.
It will not entirely replace More Than Just a Day at the Beach – which has been our tagline since the late 1990s. We look at it instead as an evolution. There are times where the More Than… can and will be used. But as we develop new advertising creative, we will want to use It’s easy to Seaside to play off of the new “how to” executions we’ll be introducing.
This “how to” campaign will not only give us a way to have fun (by telling people how to eat taffy), but also allow us a way to describe to new visitors how to do something that maybe didn’t seem so obvious (like finding the perfect hike or learning how to dig for razor clams).
It’s difficult to summarize a 48-page style guide down to a 600-word column, but whether you are a life-long resident, a casual part-timer with a second home or a prospective new visitor, the ceiling is truly high in the number of ways we can tell everyone that It’s easy to Seaside!
For more information, go to http://www.seasideor.com
Take a note.
Q: Who visited Fairweather House and Gallery recently (on a Thursday in March), you ask?
A: A group of ladies from Taiwan, a group of college students who were working on an assignment of visiting galleries and writing about the pottery artists (on mid-winter break from Seattle) and a couple from Vermont… all on a day when there was snow just six miles out of Seaside on Highway 26 (indeed, it is the bridge season between winter and spring).
Spring Break 2019
Oregon Schools
Portland, Beaverton and Seaside area high schools March 25-29
Willamette University, Lewis and Clark College, Oregon State University, Pacific University and University of Oregon March 25-29
Washington Schools
Seattle April 8-12
Tacoma, Olympia/ Thurston County, Mt. Vernon and Clark County/ Vancouver April 1-5
University of Washington March 23-31
Idaho Schools
Boise schools March 18-22
Coeur D’ Alene March 25-29