| Location & Hours | About the Arts Center |
| Support Us | Volunteer |
| Board Members | History of NAA |
Painting by Don Tiller
Northwind Arts Alliance is a nonprofit 501(c)3volunteer organization dedicated to promoting the arts in our region by sponsoring educational programs, lectures, readings and workshops, and by providing juried and invitational venues for displaying the work of regional artists, both visual and literary.
Mission
Northwind Arts Alliance connects the arts and community. Our mission is to cultivate, promote and encourage the arts; to showcase and serve artists; and to foster arts education and appreciation for the greater community. Northwind sponsors arts activities for young and old.
Subscribe to our email newsletter Arts Connections to get monthly updates and occasional special event notices.
Northwind Arts Alliance operates Northwind Arts Center as two art galleries, with the space available for art activities rental when the galleries are closed.
Location: Northwind Arts Center is located at 2409 W. Jefferson St., Port Townsend WA
Directions: Come down the hill into town on Sims Way, pass Safeway on your left. Continue past the boatyard on your right to the blue building with the sign “Northwind Arts Center” on your right just past Henery’s Garden Center. Welcome!
We provide more detailed directions here.
Northwind is open Thursday through Monday, noon – 5 PM.
We are generally closed for the first two weeks of January each year for maintenance.
We are also closed the Monday and Thursday between a shows, in order to pull down the exhibit and hang the new show. So be sure to check the gallery schedule for shows and dates!
Northwind Arts Center
2409 Jefferson Street
Port Townsend, WA 98368 (360) 379 1086
Volunteer: Volunteers are the heart of Northwind! With the exception of our gallery manager, our bookkeeper and the director of Arts for Elders, all three part time, Northwind is an all-volunteer organization.
Join the more than 90 enthusiastic volunteers who work here for fun, fellowship and the future of Northwind. We have many jobs available, from gallery docents to committee chairs. You’ll also have a chance to hear artist’s and juror’s previews of our new shows, and take field trips to other art venues. For more information, call Karen Putterman at (360) 379 2620.
Support Us: contribute
Northwind Arts Alliance relies on your donations for most programming. Show entry fees, sales, work admission and space use fees cover only some of the costs of maintaining the Northwind Arts Center, which include rent, utilities, maintenance, publicity, juror and speaker honorariums, “best of show” awards, and basic administrative costs. Northwind Arts Alliance asks for your annual support in January & February of each year, but welcomes your contribution at any time. You are also welcome to direct part or all of your contribution to “Arts to Elders”. A convenient way to donate online is through GuideStar.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS for 2011
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| NAME | TITLE |
| Jeanette Best | President/Art PT Chair |
| Karen Putterman | Vice President/Director of Volunteers |
| Bill Mawhinney | Vice President/Director Literary Events |
| Mare Tietjen | Treasurer |
| Colleen McCaffrey | Secretary/Publicity Chair |
| Judy Drechsler | Community Outreach Chair |
| Anita Edwards | Compliance & Annual Campaign Chair |
| Harold Nelson | Member at Large/Gallery Committee |
| Sandra Stowell | Webmaster & Newsletter Chair |
| Don Tiller | Member at Large/Showcase Committee |
| Carl Youngmann | Database Chair |
| Margie McDonald | Youth Outreach Chair |
| STAFF | |
| Jay Haskins | Gallery Manager |
| Charlie Petersen | Bookkeeper |
| Jim Yount | Art Port Townsend Webmaster |
| Harvey Putterman | Director Arts to Elders |
History
Northwind Arts Alliance was founded in 2001 by a small group of Port Townsend artists who sought to improve representation and support for the arts in the region, with the goal of connecting a wider diversity of art and artists with the community. We were awarded 501(c)3 status in 2002.
The Northwind Arts Center building at 2409 Jefferson Street, Port Townsend, was previously a gallery, and Northwind Arts Alliance had the opportunity to utilize this space when Port Townsend Gallery moved downtown. A grant from Port Townsend Friends of the Arts was seminal in launching the exhibit space. An early Northwind Arts Center exhibit, “Art from the City of Dreams,” embodied the new organization’s goal. The show, which had been curated and exhibited in Seattle by Lamar Harrington, former director of both the Henry Gallery and the Bellevue Art Museum, superbly represented the broad spectrum and high quality of the work of artists in our region.
Soon after, Northwind Arts Alliance assumed sponsorship of the annual Art Port Townsend festival (created in 1999 by the Port Townsend Arts Commission), and rapidly added a variety of educational programs, including an annual series of art workshops, Arts for Elders, the Northwind Reading Series, Kaleidoscope and Children’s Festival of Art.
Today, Northwind’s shows, literary events and workshops attract artists and writers from throughout the Northwest and beyond. In 2009, Northwind Arts Alliance acquired additional space in the Arts Center building, launching the Artists Showcase, a place where select regional artists rent wall space to exhibit their work. The newer space provides a bigger space for Art Talks, seminars, literary gatherings and on-site workshops.
