MANHATTAN SHORT Film Festival
BIMA’s PRISM programming is where art comes alive, off the walls and onto the stage. From films and concerts to artist talks and community celebrations, PRISM expands what it means to be an art museum through regular, engaging live events on BIMA’s stage, in its galleries, and outside the museum.
2026 MANHATTAN SHORT PREVIEW
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Migration of the Seebound Heart: Film Screening & Panel Discussion
BIMA’s PRISM programming is where art comes alive, off the walls and onto the stage. From films and concerts to artist talks and community celebrations, PRISM expands what it means to be an art museum through regular, engaging live events on BIMA’s stage, in its galleries, and outside the museum.
Artist Statement for Migration of the Seebound Heart by Carletta Carrington Wilson
I think about, have thought over, the multiplicities of migrations within and without, wherein one anticipates the unknown distance a body must travel into order to transform, be transformed by time. Hence, the migratory impulse of a moment in which movement begins even before this body willingly, unwillingly steps upon that road we define as art. In the making, one eye is bound to variations of hue, multitudinous sounds and textures that teach each finger how to see gradations of life among the living. While the other binds me to what I dare not wish to see, but like the inebriated stumbling across a sidewalk in a city rife with unseemly scenes, hopefully, to be unremembered but nevertheless caught between pupil and lid, the eye may close but the seen is kept, kept in mind for some future purpose yet to be defined. Time lines the distances a mind must travel dragging the surly flesh step-by-step over hill and vale. Time unwinds, with the urgent urgency of the blind to see, the deaf to hear and the dead, once more, to rise. In every disguise, time pushes forward while looking back/keeps goin’ round/round/up/down following glowing orbs that light night, blaze day, open/close the way/the way forward/back to that beginning/for at the end a future’s tense awaits. Thus, this journey across waves of days rushes forward surges back Into depths of lightless nights. In that there, the longing of centuries, come and gone, glistens in the hour glass of the past. Here on the see-side, on the sure shore of breaking day they arrive once more alive among the living to tell, do tell, from whence and, once where, they came.
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Object Lessons: An Artist Talk with Carletta Carrington Wilson
BIMA’s PRISM programming is where art comes alive, off the walls and onto the stage. From films and concerts to artist talks and community celebrations, PRISM expands what it means to be an art museum through regular, engaging live events on BIMA’s stage, in its galleries, and outside the museum.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
The narrative threads of Carletta Carrington Wilson’s literary and visual works merge mirroring the melding of language and form. Encountering cloth as a constellation, as a geographical expanse and translator of time, Wilson explores the potential and possibility of engaging with fabric and its fabrication in unexpected ways.
The Pacific Northwest’s moody skies, mountain ranges, and bodies of water are integral to her artistic practice. It is here that her work has rooted itself, has ascended and descended, has formed structures upon which eye + hand, mouth/tongue/mind conjoin to create text & images reaching across realms of time. Her work is sited in and linked to the act of imagining and re-imagining a history in which multitudes of individuals found themselves without the means to transmit the meaning of their journey through the beauty and brutality of life. She uses history as canvas, an eye, camera lens, brush stroke, sculpting tool, pen, and thread.
Wilson’s poems, artist’s books, and artworks and can be found in local, regional, and national collections. She is the author of Poem of Stone and Bone: The Iconography of James W. Washington Jr. in Fourteen Stanzas and Thirty-One Days.
Learn more: https://carlettacarringtonwilson.com
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Gretchen Yanover in Concert
BIMA’s PRISM programming is where art comes alive, off the walls and onto the stage. From films and concerts to artist talks and community celebrations, PRISM expands what it means to be an art museum through regular, engaging live events on BIMA’s stage, in its galleries, and outside the museum.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Gretchen Yanover
Cellist Gretchen Yanover wears two musical hats: one as a composer of spacious string atmospheres, which she performs on electric cello with looping pedal, and one as a classical acoustic cellist.
Yanover began her musical life in Seattle public schools, falling in love with the cello’s deep sound. She pursued both performance and music education at University of Washington, embracing an interwoven path of teaching and performing. Yanover guided students in music for 17 years, while growing her own solo performing career.
She started playing with a loop sampler around 2001 and it changed her musical life, inspiring her to improvise and compose. Yanover performs throughout the Pacific Northwest as a soloist on her electric cello, while continuing her classical music life. She has played with Northwest Sinfonietta orchestra since 1998 and is a member of NW Sinfonietta’s DEI task force, working to make meaningful changes in the classical music culture, along with creating connections in the community. NW Sinfonietta has featured Yanover as a soloist on her electric cello on several occasions.
Yanover has been a Visiting Artist at Icicle Creek Center for the Arts, appeared as a soloist for the Earshot Jazz Festival, and presented at TEDx Seattle. She created music for and performed with LeVar Burton for LeVar Burton Reads live, and has had compositions commissioned by Seattle Symphony, Seattle Pacific University, and University of Oregon. Yanover’s artist residencies include Shunpike (2020), Town Hall Seattle (2021), and Seattle Public Library (2024). She was the recipient of a 2023 CityArtist grant from the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, which supported the release of her 5th album in 2024.
Follow Yanover:
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Anastasia Rÿser
Anastasia Rÿser (she/her) is a Seattle-based artist who has been creating art her entire life. Growing up surrounded by many art forms, she has explored a variety of mediums, with a main focus on traditional 2D visual art.
Follow Rÿser:
The Abundance of Salalberries pədt’aqa: Celebrating the Suquamish Tribe
BIMA’s PRISM programming is where art comes alive, off the walls and onto the stage. From films and concerts to artist talks and community celebrations, PRISM expands what it means to be an art museum through regular, engaging live events on BIMA’s stage, in its galleries, and outside the museum.
SCHEDULE
10:00 AM – Opening Blessing
- The day will begin with an Opening Blessing as the museum opens, welcoming visitors into the full day of events and activities. This will include dancers and singing.
10:30 AM & 11:30 AM – Meet the Curator Tours
- Robin Little Wing Sigo (Suquamish/Duwamish), co-curator of the Indigenous Craft exhibition, will lead two tours of the exhibition (approximately 30 minutes each), highlighting the Indigenous fashion on view and speaking to the history and evolution of Indigenous fashion, jewelry, and craft.
All Day Activities:
- Sovereign Style video screening on loop in the auditorium for drop-in viewing
- Art activity stations, including interactive weaving station in the Orientation Gallery with BIMA’s Learning & Engagement team
3:00-4:30 PM – Curated Conversation – Suquamish Style: Past, Present, & Futurism Panel Discussion (Ticket required, here)
- Robin Little Wing Sigo will facilitate a conversation with Suquamish Tribal Members about Coast Salish fashion, presenting historical and present day images and and what those tell us about the future. An audience Q&A will follow the discussion. Additional themes include craft vs. art, Coast Salish art vs. formline art, and the value of craft in relation to time, labor, and cultural knowledge
4:30-6:00 PM – Reception/Party
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THANKS TO OUR 2026 EXHIBITION SPONSORS
Suquamish Style: Past, Present, & Futurism
BIMA’s PRISM programming is where art comes alive, off the walls and onto the stage. From films and concerts to artist talks and community celebrations, PRISM expands what it means to be an art museum through regular, engaging live events on BIMA’s stage, in its galleries, and outside the museum.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
ROBIN LITTLE WING SIGO
Robin Little Wing Sigo is the Suquamish Foundation Director and co-creator of SaltFire, a nonprofit based in the strength of Indigenous joy, rest, and whimsy.
Robin Little Wing Sigo | Suquamish Woman | Indigenous Activist
Suquamish. Mother. Researcher of Love. Activist. Healer. Curator. Storyteller. Meme Dealer. Sovereign Styler. Fighter. Nonprofit Unicorn. Artist. Social Worker. Feminist. Duwamish. Hugger. Overthinker. Futurist. Connection Seeker.
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View Full CalendarTHANKS TO OUR 2026 EXHIBITION SPONSORS!
2026 BIMA Block Party
BIMA’s PRISM programming is where art comes alive, off the walls and onto the stage. From films and concerts to artist talks and community celebrations, PRISM expands what it means to be an art museum through regular, engaging live events on BIMA’s stage, in its galleries, and outside the museum.
ART MARKET VENDORS
- Amati E La Candela | @amatielacandela
- Bows and Knots Co. | @bowsandknots_co
- DS Ceramics | @dessys_ceramics
- Fletcher Bay Creations | @fletcherbaycreations
- Heather Perera Studio | @heatherperera
- Holding Space Co. | @holdingspace.co
- Ida loves Dresses | @idalovesdresses_handmade
- Mariah Ordonez Fine Art | @m.l.o_art
- Snowboy Productions | @snowboyproductions
MUSIC LINE UP
12:00-12:45 | Craetorus | @craetorus | Rockin Ruby’s Inside Stage
12:00-12:45 | Deseo Carmin | @deseocarmin| Plaza Stage
12:30-1:15 | Eleanor Thoemke |@eleanorthoemke | Beacon Stage
1:30-2:15 | Rows Arc | @rowsarc | Spotify |BIMA Auditorium Stage
1:30-2:15 | Considering Mellow | @consideringmellowband | Rockin Ruby’s Outdoor Stage
2:30-3:15 | Lucha Luna| @laluchaluna | Plaza Stage
3-3:45 | The Video Rain | @thevideorain | Beacon Stage
4-4:45 | Lindstrom and the Limit | @lindstromandthelimit | Auditorium Stage
4-4:45 | Can of Clouds | @canofcloudsofficial | Rockin Ruby’s Outdoor Stage
5-5:45 | Tomo Nakayama | @tomonakayama | Plaza Stage
5-5:45 | Alli Durrant | Rockin Ruby’s Inside Stage
6-6:45 | Slow Clocks | @mutantgrammar | Beacon Stage
6:45-7:45 | Campana | @campana.fm | Plaza Stage
Stay tuned for more!
MEET THE ARTISTS
Campana
Campana, originally from Bremerton and raised in Seattle, first gained recognition as the lead vocalist of the genre-blending band COSMOS. After winning Seattle’s prestigious MoPop Sound Off! Battle of the Bands in 2016, the group went on to perform at major festivals including Capitol Hill Block Party, Bumbershoot, and Sasquatch! Festival. Their debut album MOONSHINE also earned them a spot among nine artists selected nationwide to perform at MUSICOLOGY at Paisley Park.
As a solo artist, Campana has continued to expand his creative reach through music and film. During the pandemic, he wrote and recorded his debut album Matter of Time while also executive producing an award-winning short film of the same name in collaboration with swimteam. The album was recognized as one of The Seattle Times’ top albums of 2021, while the film won the Audience Award at Black Film Fest ATL and received festival nominations nationwide. His music has since reached international audiences, with “Tangled” appearing in the FX series Atlanta, and “Soon” featuring in the Issa Rae-produced film One of Them Days starring Keke Palmer.
Music Style: Live soulful and jazzy music mixed with a blend of hip-hop focused on love, life and liberation.
Follow Campana: Website | @campana.fm
Eleanor Thoemke
Eleanor is a 16 year old singer, songwriter, and guitarist from Poulsbo, WA! She enjoys playing music for people in her community. Eleanor recently released her first album, “Seasons”, found now on all major streaming platforms. Her heartfelt originals and creative covers resonate with people of all ages. For more information about Eleanor, please visit her website.
Music style: Acoustic guitar, melodic, heartfelt and uplifting original music
Follow Eleanor Thoemke: Website | @eleanorthoemke
Lucha Luna
Lucha Luna is a Seattle duo mixing latin percussion, heavy bass, punk vocals and reggaeton flows into an energetic expression of joy and rage. Formed in 2025, Lucha Luna speaks to resistance, liberation, community and healing. Composed of Eva Vazquez (Toxic Tears, Savi) and Thomas Arndt (Day Soul Exquisite, Another Magic), the duo’s debut album BRILLA BRILLA is out now.
Music Style: Live duo playing electro cumbia-punk
Follow Lucha Luna: Website | @laluchaluna
Slow Clocks
Slow Clocks is the musical expression of an ongoing collaboration between Jacob McMurray and Robert Rutherford. Their work finds form in music, printed matter, language, improvisation, and design — see also: the mutant grammar of refusal — not as separate disciplines, but as recurring attempts to return to questions that never seem to stay answered. They are restless, allergic to creative stasis, and keep mistaking one medium for another.
Music style: The songs of Slow Clocks move like weather—slowly gathering, shifting, and releasing through layers of guitar, synthesizers, and spoken word.
Follow Slow Clocks: @mutantgrammar, mutant grammar of refusal hotline: 206-649-8767
Tomo Nakayama
Seattle artist Tomo Nakayama’s fourth album “Ocean” will be released on November 7th on Porchlight Records/Den Tapes in the USA, and in Japan on Lemon House Inc. Following his breakthrough 2020 synthpop album “Melonday”, “Ocean” is Tomo’s return to a graceful, lush, organic full-band sound, backed by pianist Yuuki Matthews (The Shins), bassist Abbey Blackwell (Alvvays), and drummer Christopher Icasiano (Fleet Foxes) and featuring guest turns by Jesy Fortino (Tiny Vipers) and Debbie Miller. It is his most personal and complete musical statement to date, a self-produced ten song reflection on grief, healing, and the meaning of creating art and maintaining humanity in a tumultuous world. “Ocean” travels across sonic worlds of dream pop, orchestral acoustic folk, jazzy psychedelia and indie rock, all tied together by a wide open melodic and lyrical heart. “Ocean” is a deeply collaborative album awash in images of the sea, serving as metaphors for the vastness of love, human connection, and our capacity to clearly see and be one with the world.
Born in Japan and raised in Seattle, Tomo Nakayama has explored the lines between intimate indie folk, exuberant synth pop, and cinematic soundtracks for over two decades. Best known for placements in Netflix’s “House of Ninjas” and the Sundance Grand Jury nominated film “Touchy Feely”, Tomo’s music has been praised by NPR, KEXP, and the New York Times, and his hit single “Get to Know You” received over 2 million streams worldwide. He has toured across the world, sharing the stage with artists such as Cornelius, Ron Sexsmith, Fruit Bats, Thao, and Stella Donnelly. A versatile multi-instrumentalist and composer, Tomo has also accompanied and collaborated with Dave Matthews, Jeremy Enigk (of Sunny Day Real Estate), Sera Cahoone, Jherek Bischoff, Jesse Sykes, Uwade, Donnie Emerson (Dreamin’ Wild, Light in the Attic), and experimental dance company Malacarne.
Follow Tomo: Website | @tomonakayama
The Video Rain
The Video Rain is the solo project of Drew Holloway (Western Arrow, The Phantom Years, Recess Monkey).
Casiotone melodies, chorus-drenched guitars, and simple drum machines. It’s the sound of Drew’s four-tracking past, carried forward and given new life.
The Video Rain is also an outlet for visual expression. Every song comes with its own video, built with callbacks to the Atari age. It’s a project as much about what you see as what you hear.
Music style: Live, The Video Rain is primarily vocals and guitar. Drew is a dynamic singer and seasoned performer. Videos play behind him, so you’re getting the same push and pull of sound and image that built these songs in the first place.
Follow The Video Rain: @thevideorain
Password: Poetry
BIMA’s PRISM programming is where art comes alive, off the walls and onto the stage. From films and concerts to artist talks and community celebrations, PRISM expands what it means to be an art museum through regular, engaging live events on BIMA’s stage, in its galleries, and outside the museum.