Email Newsletter - October 2008
OCTOBER 2008 NEWSLETTER
OCTOBER NEWSLETTER PRINT VERSION (PDF)
10TH ANNUAL ART PORT TOWNSEND
A Festival of the Arts
MARK YOUR CALENDARS & SAVE THE DATES FOR THE 10TH ANNUAL ART PORT TOWNSEND 2008.
Art Port Townsend Poster
From October 3 - 26, the Northwind Arts Alliance and the Port Townsend Arts Commission will present the 10th Annual Art Port Townsend, a festival celebrating the visual arts. The event includes two art shows, the Art Studio Tour, poetry readings and more…
2008 EXPRESSIONS NORTHWEST/ART PORT TOWNSEND JURIED SHOW
From October 3 – 26, “Expressions Northwest”, the Art Port Townsend juried show will be on display. Barbara Shaiman, the Artistic and Managing Director of the Seattle Art Museum’s SAM Gallery Art Sales and Rental for the past 18 years, is the juror for this year’s art show. She has considered over 500 entries submitted by 208 artists from Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Washington and British Columbia. From the 500 entries, 80 pieces were chosen to be in the show representing 47 artists. The juried show, “Expressions Northwest”, will be on display at the Northwind Arts Center, 2409 Jefferson St. from October 3 – 26. In the first seven days of the show, the Gallery will be open every day of the week from 12 - 5 PM. For the balance of the show, the Gallery at Northwind Arts Center will be open for the normal hours of 12 - 5 PM and closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
On Saturday, October 4, at 1 PM, the show’s juror, Barbara Shaiman, will speak on “Current Northwest Perspectives”. Besides her work with SAM, she is also the curator for the Alexis Hotel. Barbara devotes her time to jurying community art exhibits, participating in public art panels, advising local arts organizations and doing independent art consultation. She comments on being this year’s juror: “For me the visual is primary, and then comes attention to concept and execution. I look for work that some way pushes boundaries, reflects a personal vision, or pushes the medium in different areas. It was particularly difficult to choose among the large number of strong photography submissions, as they represented a surprisingly large percentage of applications.” The lecture, at Northwind Arts Center, is free of charge.
ART PORT TOWNSEND STUDIO TOUR PREVIEW ART SHOW
Port Townsend Foundry
New for the 10th Annual Art Port Townsend is a Studio Tour Preview Art Show. It will open on Saturday, October 4 at 5 PM at the Courtyard Gallery during Art Walk. Refreshments will be served, and artists will be present to meet and greet.
Martha Pfanschmidt
The show will be held at 940 Washington Street (uphill from the Haller Fountain). The Preview Show will remain open each day from 11 AM to 5 PM through Sunday, October 12. There will be a sample of each Art Studio Tour artist’s work, plus their biography, to enable the public to preview the tour.
George Chechopoulos
THE ART PORT TOWNSEND STUDIO TOUR
The 10th Annual Art Port Townsend Studio Tour will be held on Saturday and Sunday, October 11 and 12, from 10 AM - 4 PM. There is no charge for the Art Studio Tour which will provide an opportunity to visit local artists in their studios, observe demonstrations, and discuss the creative process.
E Merrill
This year, 41 artists in the Port Townsend vicinity are participating. Artists working in oil, watercolor, acrylic, pastels, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, woodworking, fabric, glass and a variety of mixed media will be included in the tour. Maps and information are available at Northwind Arts Center or www.artporttownsend.org and www.northwindarts.org.
EKPHRASTIC WRITE-IN AND READING 2008
Calling All Writers - Ekphrastic* Write-In & Reading 2008 Again, this year’s festival also celebrates the written word and how it relates to art. Writers are invited to Northwind Arts Center, 2409 Jefferson Street, Port Townsend, on October 7 and 23. These evenings are part of the Tenth Annual Art Port Townsend arts festival and its month-long calendar of activities.
Ekphrastic* Write-In The first event is an evening for writers on Tuesday, October 7 from 7 to 9 PM at the Northwind Arts Center. Surrounded by the juried Art Port Townsend exhibit, “Expressions Northwest”, writers are invited to respond to individual works in the show or to the show as a whole.
Ekphrastic* Reading On Thursday, October 23 at 7 PM, writers who wish to share their responses are invited to return to the Northwind Arts Center for a public reading of works generated at the Write-In. Listeners are also welcome and there is no charge for the event.
Sponsor This opportunity to celebrate and interact with the visual arts in the company of our writing community is sponsored by Northwind Arts Alliance. Questions may be referred to Bill Mawhinney at (360)437-9081 or mawhinneyw_w@msn.com.
*ekphrastic: from ekphrasis, in this context means “the literary representation of or response to visual art.” Examples of well-known ekphrastic works are W. H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts,” Frank O’Hara’s “Why I Am Not a Painter,” Anne Sexton’s “The Starry Night,” and W. C. Williams’ “Pictures from Brueghel.”
POETRY NEWS
Northwind Reading Series – October
On October 9, Northwind Reading Series will feature Bill Siverly and Michael McDowell, co-editors of Windfall: A Journal of Poetry of Place. The readings will start at 7 pm in the Northwind Arts Center, 2409 Jefferson Street.
Bill Siverly was born and grew up in Lewiston, Idaho, and he has lived in Portland since 1972. He has published three books of poems: Parzival (1981), Phoenix Fire (1987), and The Turn (2000). His book Clearwater Way is forthcoming from Traprock Books in 2009. Bill taught literature, composition, and creative writing at Portland Community College for twenty-five years. Since 2002 he has been co-editor with Michael McDowell of Windfall: A Journal of Poetry of Place.
Michael McDowell has published fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in such publications as Penny Dreadful, Pawn Review, South Carolina Review, and Confluences. He currently writes prose mostly about nature and landscape writing and poetry mostly about “a sense of place.” Some of the prose appears in the anthologies The Ecocriticism Reader (Univ. of Georgia Press, 1996), Reading the Earth (Univ. of Idaho Press, 1998), and Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment (Routlege 2001). Some of the poetry appears in Windfall: A Journal of Poetry of Place, which he co-founded and co-edits with Bill Siverly. He teaches composition, literature, and creative writing at Portland Community College.
To explain their editorial focus, Bill and Michael write: “Against the current tide of globalization, we posit its opposite, ‘localization.’ Our identity is tied to place: We don’t know who we are unless we know where we are. A poetry of place is a poetry which values locales, which sees and lets the reader experience what makes a place unique among places. In its fullest sense, the term “place” in poetry includes not only the geographical location and natural environment, but the history of human presence and before. We hope to encounter again a poetry that finds pure delight in being alive in the here and now.”
On October 16, Northwind Reading Series will offer a special evening of Writing on Writing: Works and thoughts from writer/teachers Brenda Miller, Suzanne Paola and Sheila Bender. Judith Kitchen, Assistant Director of the Rainier Writing Workshop, will be master of ceremonies. The readings will start at 7 pm in the Northwind Arts Center, 2409 Jefferson Street.
Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola, Professors in Western Washington University’s Creative Writing Program, Sheila Bender, Publisher of Writing It Real and Judith Kitchen, Assistant Program Director at PLU’s Rainier Writing Workshop, all work in the memoir and personal essay genres. Each will present from work they have published about writing, a piece intended to describe the process to those who study writing. Following the 25-30 minutes of reading, Judith will toss out questions to start a lively discussion among presenters and audience.
Brenda Miller is the author of Season of the Body (Sarabande Books, 2002) and co-author of Tell it Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction (McGraw-Hill, 2003). Her newest collection of essays, Blessing of the Animals, is forthcoming from Eastern Washington University Press in 2009. Her work has received five Pushcart Prizes and has been published in such journals as Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, The Sun, Utne Reader, Georgia Review, and Witness. She is an Associate Professor of English at Western Washington University and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Bellingham Review.
Suzanne Paola has written two books of nonfiction, A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World and Body Toxic, a New York Times notable book, as well as four books of poetry. She coauthored Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction with Brenda Miller. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Orion, and numerous journals and anthologies. She is currently working on a new book of nonfiction dealing with the subject of adoption, contracted with W.W. Norton.
Sheila Bender has written nine books on writing, including Writing Personal Poetry from Writer’s Digest Books, Writing and Publishing Personal Essays from Silver Threads and Perfect Phrases for College Application Essays from McGraw-Hill. She publishes Writing It Real, an online instructional magazine for those who write from personal experience and directs the yearly Writing It Real in Port Townsend Writers’ Conference. She continues to be a visiting adjunct faculty member at Pima College in Tucson.
Judith Kitchen has edited three anthologies of short nonfiction pieces (In Short, In Brief, and Short Takes) for W. W. Norton. In addition, she is the author of two books of essays, one novel, a book of poetry, and a book of criticism. She regularly reviews poetry (twice yearly) for The Georgia Review and her articles about writing have appeared in The Seneca Review, Fourth Genre, American Book Review, etc. With former U. S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, she has recently completed editing an anthology, The Poets Guide to the Birds, forthcoming from Anhinga Press in time for Christmas.
The readings are free and open to the public. Donations are gladly accepted to support Northwind, a nonprofit organization dedicated to connecting the arts to our community.
Bill Mawhinney, Coordinator
Northwind Reading Series schedule November through December, 2008:
November 13: Judith Kitchen & Jennifer Culkin
November 20: Michael Daly and Finn Wilcox
December 11: Readers’ Party
2008 WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Look on the website northwindarts.org for the announcement of the 2009 Workshop Schedule in the next few months.
CALL FOR ARTISTS
Collective Visions Gallery of Bremerton presents the 2009 CVG Show, February 1 through 27, 2009. The deadline for entries is November 20, 2008. For more information, contact Alan Newberg at (360) 692-3981 or email to cvgshow@collectivevisions.com.
OPPORTUNITIES
Wonderful opportunity to get involved! Northwind Arts Alliance needs your help (or volunteer a friend) in the areas of finance, publicity, public relations, and fund raising. We also need someone to serve as secretary of the board. For more information contact Jeanette Best at (360) 437-9579 or jbest@cablespeed.com.
Northwind Arts Alliance is also looking for a part time bookkeeper. This is a paid position. For more information contact Jeanette Best at (360) 437-9579 or jbest@cablespeed.com.
Janet Lynch, Newsletter Editor
Each month, Janet Lynch distributes an electronic newsletter to 600 members of the regional arts community. The newsletters will be posted here at the same time. You can read current copies using the links below, or contact the editor if you would prefer receiving a reminder by e mail. Starting with the March 2007 issue, the newsletters are offered in Adobe portable document format (.pdf). You will need the Acrobat Reader installed to read them; roughly 90% of computers come with the reader pre-installed. Should you need the reader, it is free and available here.