A celebration of art and poetry coming to Port Townsend
Published 1:30 am Thursday, April 23, 2026
PORT TOWNSEND — Everyone interested in art, poetry and conversation is invited to a party on Saturday at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery.
The Ars Poetica exhibit, a pairing of poems and visual art works, will be in the spotlight during the free event from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The show, on view at the gallery at 701 Water St., will present the art made in the “Paint from Poems” class offered this past February at Northwind Art School. In the workshop, 11 students selected poems from the Ars Poetica Washington collection of works by writers from around the region. Using a variety of art media and guided by teaching artist Meg Kaczyk, they created works sparked by their chosen poems.
Saturday afternoon at the gallery, participating poets will read their work while the artists will be on hand to talk about their creations.
“The artwork is varied and colorful, and it has an added power when it’s displayed beside the poetry that inspired it,” Northwind spokesperson Diane Urbani said.
The artists, who worked in collage, acrylic paint and mixed media, include Cezanne Alexander, Susan Berry, Diana Dauble, Jaime Duyck, Angela Howard, Amy King, Andrea Mercado, Merilee Nyland, Meghan Peterson, Terri Tyler and Debra Yoshimura.
The poems they selected are “Black Horse” by Matt Butler, “Star Blizzard” by Judith Duncan, “For Fish and Beak to Meet” by Amba Gale, “The Glistening” by Zac Garripoli, “Changes” by Cat Halvorson, “Fish” by Brenda Hodges-Howell, “Anchor” by Meg Kaczyk, “Haute Couture” by Tia Hudson, “Red” by Merilee Nyland, “The Void” by Dawn Hanson Smart and “Haiku I” by Stephen Ullom.
“Come and explore the dialogue between art forms,” said Urbani, who noted that the “Ars Poetica” exhibit will be on view through May 4.
Jeanette Best Gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. For more information about exhibits and classes, visit NorthwindArt.org.
