PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend Main Street program is celebrating the creativity of area children and raising money for local arts programs through its monthlong 16th annual Art Wave.
Starting today, art created by students — from kindergartners to high school seniors — will be displayed at Port Townsend businesses.
Twenty-eight businesses are expected to exhibit more than 400 pieces of student art.
‘Creative expression through art’
“The Art Wave exhibit celebrates children’s creative expression through art and is a collaboration with participating Port Townsend businesses,” said Mari Mullen, executive director of the Port Townsend Main Street Program, which organized the exhibit with the support of businesses, in a press release.
Port Townsend Main Street Program volunteers spent the weekend hanging the art in businesses, where they will remain for the month of May.
Donation jars will be available in participating stores. Funds will go to PT Artscape, which offers programs supporting the arts in schools, such as teaching artists in Grant Street Elementary, Blue Heron Middle School and Port Townsend High School.
PT Artscape also provides professional development for artists and teachers who want to help students express themselves creatively.
It helps fund Centrum’s Tales, Texts and Theater program for sixth-graders.
PT Artscape is partially funded with a grant from the Washington State Art Commission.
It is in its 14th year of providing programs and educational and artistic opportunities for local school districts and students.
“It’s an excellent cause,” Mullen said Friday.
“It is inspiring to see the talent of our community’s children on display so visibly in store windows,” she added.
“It adds a very special element to Gallery Walk on May 6.”
For a list of businesses displaying artwork and for more about Port Townsend Main Street, see http://ptmainstreet.org/.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Cydney McFarland can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 55052, or at cmcfarland@peninsuladailynews.com.
Art from local kids will be hung in a number of businesses in Port Townsend, including Elevated Ice Cream, which participated last year. (Port Townsend Main Street Program)
