PORT ANGELES — Perfect strangers are walking in the door, and that’s a good thing.
At a yoga class in April and during the new “pARTicipation” exhibit that opened this month, many visitors had never been to the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center (PAFAC), said Jessica Elliott, its executive director.
“We’re a best-kept secret and we don’t want to be a secret anymore,” she said, adding that 90 percent of the PAFAC’s offerings are free of charge.
The nonprofit arts center, which includes the Webster’s Woods Sculpture Park at 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd., is changing its offerings this year.
Instead of the Paint the Peninsula festival in August, the PAFAC will host a Summer Solstice Art Festival in June, an expanded Shakespeare in the Woods production in July and August and a national juried art show, “The Power of Small Things,” in August and September.
All of this can happen only with the community’s support, Elliott said.
She’s sending out the PAFAC’s first-ever spring appeal letter to Port Angeles and Sequim residents on its mailing list. In it, she invites local residents to consider a list of sponsorship levels, which are laid out in a fund-a-need format.
Contributions ranging from $100 to $2,500 help pay for children’s art classes and a spring break art camp; new banners for the PAFAC entrance; a new mapping system for Webster’s Woods; Shakespeare festival costume, stage and set expenses and art supplies for free Saturday classes. Supporters can also become name sponsors of Shakespeare in the Woods, Summer Solstice Art Festival, a full gallery exhibition or of a student art show.
The center’s gallery, woods and meadow are available for parties, weddings and other events, Elliott noted.
The PAFAC was formerly supported by the city of Port Angeles. Today the city maintains the grounds, but the center is otherwise on its own financially. The Esther Webster trust provides a small, fixed amount for operation, but if the center is to keep growing its offerings, it must raise more money.
These days, the “pARTicipation” show is filling the gallery with participatory artwork involving benches, rocking chairs, mirrors, color cards and stretchy capes.
“I think my favorite thing has been watching families have a blast partaking in the art together,” said Sarah Jane, the PAFAC’s gallery and program director.
“Several of the pieces call for multiple participants. That leads to fun interactions between people, be they long-married couples, a mother and daughter or grandparents and -children. Strangers meet here too, connected by the odd things in the gallery.
“It’s been so much fun seeing people find out they can not only touch the art, but add to it,” Jane said.
The “pARTicipation” exhibit stays up through June 30, with the gallery open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. The Webster’s Woods Sculpture Park right outside is open from sunup to sundown 365 days a year.
At the same time, the PAFAC offers other ways to engage, indoors and out.
These include Webster’s Woods cleanup parties, artisans’ market days this summer, tours of the sculpture park, dinner talks and Saturday art classes.
“The more support we get, the more we can do throughout the year,” Elliott said.
She seeks businesses to sponsor the center’s shows. The “Mothers & Makers” photography exhibit in March and April was sponsored by Poser Yoga, which sent instructor Jenny Stewart Houston to teach two yoga classes in the center’s gallery. This was a new thing for the PAFAC, and it brought in people who not only hadn’t seen the place before but also hadn’t tried yoga before.
Other additions to this year’s programs include:
• New art installations in the Webster’s Woods Sculpture Park in time for the June 21-22 Summer Solstice Art Festival;
• Webster’s Woods tours, artist talks and demonstrations, a collaborative painting project, an open music jam and a makers’ market showcasing regional artisans also during that solstice fest;
• A new stage and an artisans’ market at the Shakespeare in the Woods performances of “The Taming of the Shrew,” opening July 19;
• Saturday free art classes through summer and fall;
• “Women in Shakespeare,” a talk with drinks and dessert at 5:30 p.m. July 12;
• A town-hall meeting and artists’ workshop about the arts’ contribution to the local economy, featuring Artist Trust program director Brian McGuigan on Nov. 7 and 8;
• A juried holiday makers’ market offering artisan goods for sale Dec. 5 through Dec. 22.
For the Summer Solstice Art Festival next month, more than a dozen applications have come in from artists — local and from across the country — interested in bringing their work into Webster’s Woods, Jane said. She still wants to hear from vendors who’d like to be part of the makers’ market during the fest.
There are also opportunities to volunteer in the PAFAC gallery, which is open every Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Through all of this activity at the center, misconceptions persist about it, Elliott said.
“Many people see ‘fine arts’ and they think we only cater to the urban and affluent,” she said.
“The arts center is for everyone — near and far. Our job here, our mission here, is to connect people with the arts and all they have to offer.”
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Diane Urbani de la Paz, a former features editor for the Peninsula Daily News, is a freelance writer living in Port Townsend.
