Historical society to host grand reopening ceremony
Published 1:30 am Friday, April 3, 2026
A grand reopening for a museum plus opening day for the Port Townsend Farmers Market and monthly art walks all will take place this weekend on the North Olympic Peninsula.
• The Jefferson County Historical Society will host a ribbon cutting for the grand reopening celebration of its Museum of Art + History at noon Saturday in the historic city hall building, 540 Water St., Port Townsend.
The renovations include accessibility upgrades throughout the building, a new children’s play space designed for hands-on exploration and dynamic display spaces designed to evolve with future exhibits.
The museum will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday for visitors to explore the reimagined space and join pop-up meet-and-greets with experts.
On Sunday, the museum will host Family Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Attendees can explore the new children’s area, join a scavenger hunt and enjoy children’s play activities.
Throughout the weekend, guests can view “More Love,” an exhibit by Martha Worley which will remain on display in the museum’s Ferguson Gallery through April 23.
Also on exhibit will be “Cutting Room Floor,” which explores the behind-the-scenes decision-making processes involved in curating an exhibit.
Attendees also will be able to vote on a final object to be included an exhibit.
For more information, visit www.jchsmuseum.org.
• The Port Townsend Farmers Market will open for its 34th season from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tyler Street in Uptown Port Townsend.
Opening day festivities will include a community photo and ribbon cutting followed by the annual goat parade.
Participants should begin gathering at Tyler and Lawrence streets at 8:45 a.m. for the community photo. The goat parade will kick off at 9:05 a.m.
In addition to more than 70 returning vendors, the market has added 11 new businesses offering a variety of locally grown produce, artisan foods and handmade goods.
For more information, including a complete vendor list, visit www.jcfmarkets.org/vendor-list-jcfm.
• The First Friday Art Walk will celebrate with a pink-themed event from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at various venues in downtown Sequim.
Maps for the self-guided tour are available at www.sequimartwalk.com.
Special features this month include:
— Blue Whole Gallery, 129 W. Washington St., will host a reception for “April Showers Bring May Flowers” from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The exhibit will feature the works of Jean Glaser and Mike Middlestead in the gallery’s front windows.
Glaser, a painter, has added new mediums to her work in the form of pan pastels and soft chalk pastels.
“Parts of my work will never change: my interest in animals and my color palette,” Glaser said.
Middlestead, too, is working with changes.
The ceramicist just returned from a month-long trip to India, where he studied new concepts and techniques in pottery and is putting his knowledge to work, creating a window of vases for spring flowers.
He has included thrown, handmade and slab vases featuring various glazing techniques as well as raku.
Blue Whole Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays.
For more information, visit www.bluewholegallery.com.
— The A. Milligan Art Studio and Gallery, 520 N. Sequim Ave., will host a reception for “The Pacific Northwest Impressions” from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The exhibit will feature the watercolors of Lyn Conlan and oil paintings by Anne Pfeiffer.
While both are representational painters, the exhibit showcases the differences in their approach to the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest.
Visitors also can take a peek into Anne Milligan’s pastel studio to see what works she has in progress.
— Sequim Museum & Arts, 544 N. Sequim Ave., will display a fiber arts exhibit featuring works by Peninsula Fiber Artists.
Many of the 17 contributors will be on hand in the museum’s Judith McInnes Tozzer Art Gallery to discuss their work.
The exhibit, which will include quilts, fabric collages, silk paintings, sculptures and 3-D pieces, will remain on display during April and May.
Participating artists include Linda Carlson, ZeeLinda Dissinger, Celeste Kardonsky Dybeck, Liisa Fagerlund, Lynn Gilles, Marla Varner, Evette Allerdings, Merrie Jo Schroeder, Larkin Jean Van Horn, Angela Dideum, Leslie Dickinson, Caryl Fallert-Gentry, Sue Gale, Debra E Olson, Susan Sawatzky, Ellen Thomas and Donna Lee Dowdney.
— Spoonbar Sweets, 171 W. Washington St., will host Kristine Henshaw from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Henshaw will do quick portrait sketches for those who make a donation to the Olympic Peninsula Art Association’s scholarship fund.
The fund provides scholarships for art education to graduating students in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
For more information, including adding a venue or an artist to the list, call Renne Emiko Brock at 360-460-3023 or email renneemiko@gmail.com.
• The Sequim Irrigation Festival will host a Trashion Challenge from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Guy Cole Event Center, 144 N. Blake Ave., Sequim.
The free event will feature teams from local festivals and organizations competing to create the most Fashionable Trashion outfits using a collection of trash and tools.
Additional materials and tools will be available to the highest bidder.
After time expires, the teams will send their outfits down the runway for judging.
The challenge is a lead-in to the festival’s Trashion Show, set for May 2.
For more information, email info@irrigationfestival.com or visit www.irrigationfestival.com.
• Olympic Peninsula Steam will host the Green Fairy’s Masquerade Ball from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday at the American Legion’s Marvin G. Shields Memorial Post 26, 209 Monroe St., Port Townsend.
Tickets are $20 per person, $45 for a VIP pass, at https://masq26.eventbrite.com.
Proceeds from the fundraiser will support the annual Brass Screw Consortium Steampunk Festival, which is set for June 12-14 in Port Townsend.
The 21-and-older ball will feature signature cocktails as well as the Green Fairy Absinthe Den.
Olympic Express Big Band will perform live music for dancing.
• Music on the Strait will present a concert featuring August Baik, Richard O’Neill and James Garlick at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Donna M. Morris Auditorium at Field Arts & Events Hall, 201 W. Front St., Port Angeles.
Tickets are $5 to $55 at www.musiconthestrait.org.
Baik will play piano, O’Neill will play viola and Garlick will play violin.
The program will include “Road Movies” by John Adams, “Miroirs” by Maurice Ravel, Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola by Bohuslav Martinů and Sergei Rachmaninov’s Sonata for G minor, Op. 19.
• The First Saturday Art Walk will host a variety of artwork from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday in downtown Port Townsend.
Among the galleries that will stay open late are Gallery-9, the Port Townsend Gallery and the Jeanette Best Gallery.
— The Grover Gallery, 236 Taylor St., will host an opening for its new exhibit from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
The exhibit will feature prints by Monica Gutierrez-Quarto, mixed media by Karen Lene Rudd, photography by Rick York and acrylic paintings by Lisa Whitwell.
The artists will be in the gallery during the art walk to discuss their work and their artistic processes.
The exhibit will remain on display from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays until April 27.
— Gallery-9, 1012 Water St., will host a reception from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The event will celebrate the North Olympic Artist Cooperative and Gallery-9’s 22nd anniversary in Port Townsend.
The reception will feature live music by Solomon Kronberg of the Bete Grise Band, cake, champagne and a raffle to benefit PT Artscapes, a nonprofit that supports art for children in schools.
More than 22 artists have contributed items to the raffle. Tickets will be on sale during the reception.
Visitors also will be able to view the photography of Kevin Talbot and the felted hats and silk scarves of April Bederman.
The pair will be the gallery’s featured artists throughout April.
Talbot is a photographer with a focus on nature, landscape and wildlife photography. He likes capturing birds in flight, sunrises, sunsets and macro photography, and his exhibit will include the six-shot panorama, “Hurricane Ridge Sunset.”
Bederman is a fiber artist with an emphasis in wearable art. Her hats are made of extra fine merino wool with silk embellishments.
Bederman also creates eco-printed silk scarves that feature impressions of leaves from the forest floor, each with its own color, shape and texture.
For more information, visit www.gallery-9.com.
— The Port Townsend Gallery, 715 Water St., will host a reception for Andrea Guarino-Slemmons and Pat Herkal from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Guarino-Slemmons, a wildlife and landscape photographer, and Herkal, a fiber artist, are the gallery’s featured artists for April.
In their collaborative exhibit, Herkal has selected some of Guarino-Slemmons’ images and has transformed them into fabric prints adorned with beads and intricate embroidery.
Guarino-Slemmons also will unveil a new collection of photographs that showcase ravens, pygmy owls and landscapes from around the Peninsula.
The exhibit will remain on display at the Port Townsend Gallery from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily throughout April.
For more information, call 360-379-8110 or visit www.porttownsendgallery.com.
— The Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St., will have three exhibits on display during the art walk.
“New Work” by Randy Sturgis and Peter Koronakos, featuring large-scale paintings by Sturgis and assemblage creatures by Koronakos, will be on exhibit through May 4.
“Ars Poetica,” also on display through May 4, features art inspired by Northwest writers in a sort of reverse ekphrasis.
The exhibit features the works of Cezanne Alexander, Susan Berry, Diana Dauble, Jaime Duyck, Angela Howard, Amy King, Andrea Mercado, Merilee Nyland, Meghan Peterson, Terri Tyler and Debra Yoshimura.
Also on display is the first round of Showcase 2026, the gallery’s year-long juried exhibition.
Round One, which will be on exhibit through May 11, features 11 Northwest artists in mediums ranging from wood sculpture to landscapes and crystalline photography.
The second round of the exhibit will showcase 12 new artists from May 14 through Sept. 7.
The final round of the annual exhibit will run from Sept. 10 through Jan. 5.
The gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays.
• “Much Ado About Nothing” will continue its run with shows at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and a matinee at 1 p.m. Sunday.
The production will be staged by Saltfire Theatre at the JFK Building at Fort Worden Historical State Park, 200 Battery Way, Port Townsend.
Tickets are $25 per person at www.saltfiretheatre.org/tickets.
Genevieve Barlow will direct a cast of local performers in a fresh take on the Shakespearean comedy.
Barlow will lead the cast in a talkback following Sunday’s matinee performance.
• Laurovia Jazz and Soul will perform from 5 to 7 tonight at the Old Alcohol Plant, 310 Hadlock Bay Road, Port Hadlock-Irondale.
No cover charge.
• Abracadabra Trip will perform from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at Taps @ The Guardhouse, 300 Eisenhower Ave., Fort Worden Historical State Park, Port Townsend.
No cover charge.
• Mike Marshall and Alessandro Penezzi will perform at 7 p.m. tonight in the Donna M. Morris Auditorium at Field Arts & Events Hall, 201 W. Front St., Port Angeles.
Tickets are $25 to $45 per person at www.fieldhallevents.org.
Marshall, a mandolinist and three-time Grammy nominee, was a member the David Grisman Quartet.
Penezzi is a Brazilian composer and seven-string guitarist.
• Jennifer Pelikan will present “Learning to Weave” at 10 a.m. Saturday during a meeting of the North Olympic Shuttle and Spindle Guild at the Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1033 N. Barr Road, Port Angeles.
The public is welcome to attend the free meeting.
For more information, email n.o.shuttleandspindleguild@gmail.com or visit www.nossg.org.
• Dow Lambert and Ken Wiersema will present “Sounds of Spring” at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Dungeness River Nature Center, 1943 W. Hendrickson Road, Sequim.
The presentation is part of the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society’s Backyard Birding series.
The program will feature an array of audio and video recordings prepared by birder and photographer Dow Lambert with the assistance of Ken Wiersema.
Lambert and Wiersema also will review bird identification techniques that use the free Merlin Sound ID cellphone app from the Cornell Ornithology Lab.
Admission is by $5 donation; proceeds will support the society’s education and bird conservation programs.
• Laura Me Smith will call at a contra dance at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Black Diamond Community Hall, 1942 Black Diamond Road, Port Angeles.
Music will be provided by the Grange Busters featuring Andrew and Heather Norcross with Joe Fulton.
Smith will teach a free lesson at 7 p.m. to those who have paid admission.
Requested donation is $20 per person. Youths younger than 18 are half price.
