Families can build their own Korean pellet drums for free this Saturday, roller skaters can claim 20,000 square feet of historic floor space, and young performers can spend a week learning audition skills.
It's all part of Tacoma Arts Live's summer lineup at the Tacoma Armory and The Remakery.
The nonprofit has scheduled 11 events running through Saturday, August 23, spread across the Armory at The Remakery, on the second floor of the Main Library, and one additional workshop at Crafty AF on South Tacoma Way.
This week: drums and wheels
The Korean Pellet Drum Youth and Family Workshop takes place Saturday, July 25, from 1 to 3 p.m. at The Remakery.
Admission is free. Attendees will craft and decorate their own pellet drum, a traditional Korean instrument used in cultural folk rituals. When twisted side to side, the pellets strike the drumhead and produce a rhythmic sound.
On Sunday, July 26, the Armory's parade floor opens for Skate the Armory from 1 to 6 p.m. Tacoma Arts Live bills the space as the Pacific Northwest's largest flat floor.
Tickets are $15. Additional open skate sessions are scheduled for Sunday, August 9, and Sunday, August 23.
A Let's Skate Summer Camp is running at the Armory through Friday, July 24, with roller derby camps following in August.
Camps for kids and teens
Performers' Pathway Summer Camp offers two weeklong sessions in the Armory's Eleanor Roosevelt Room: Monday, July 27, through Friday, July 31, and Monday, August 3, through Friday, August 7, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The theater camp is open to ages 8 through 18 and costs $125 to $250. Students practice scenes, monologues, dances, and songs, with a sharing performance for guests on the final day.
Two roller derby camps run simultaneously from Monday, August 3, through Friday, August 7, at the Armory: Intro to Roller Derby Summer Camp and Level Up! Roller Derby Camp. Kids Korner Summer Camp follows from Monday, August 10, through Friday, August 14, in the Roosevelt Room.
Pro wrestling returns August 1
Grit City Championship Wrestling takes over the Armory's parade floor on Friday, August 1.
The promotion is led by Hilltop business owner and pro wrestler Diafullah "Dave" Dobashi, who grew up working at his family's Dobashi Market, a Tacoma fixture since the 1960s.
"We'll be performing under the same rafters that once hosted legends like Luther Lindsay, Dean Ho, and King Curtis Iaukea," Dobashi told the Tacoma Weekly in November 2025, ahead of GCCW's first Armory event.
The August show continues the promotion's effort to honor the building's wrestling heyday, which ran from the 1950s through 1966.
How to get tickets
A Mesoamerican Symbols: Tin Art Workshop is on the calendar for Saturday, August 8, at Crafty AF, 5442 S. Tacoma Way. Pricing and time details for that event and several camps are available at tacomaartslive.org.
The box office phone line (253-346-1721) is open Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and tickets can also be requested at [email protected].
Fred Roberson, a local developer, and his family donated the historic Armory, built in 1908, to Tacoma Arts Live in 2022. The building has hosted wrestling matches, concerts, dances, and graduations for more than a century.
