2017 year in review | arts & entertainment

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There were festivals that crowded city and county streets, and a plethora of concerts outdoors and in. We experienced new ideas in film and on stage – we questioned, discovered, laughed and cried.

Galleries staged shows that celebrated the past and embraced the present. The following are highlights from the 2017 Port Townsend arts scene that The Leader reported on, from art shows to acrobatics. Look back on some of the stories that shaped our little corner of the Olympic Peninsula.

As you head into the new year, make a commitment to experience more art and support our artists. Attend more concerts; see more live theater. While you’re running an errand, pop into one of the galleries downtown and see what catches your eye. As Ann Welch, who curated the “Pat and Peter Simpson” exhibit at the Jefferson Museum of Art and History, said, “Even if you can’t buy any artwork, you can tell an artist that they’re doing well. Tell artists over and over – in whatever way you can – that their work is valuable.”

THEATER

‘The Disaster in Verse’

Port Townsend High School senior Ian Coates brought to life the terrible poetry of a 19th-century Scot named William McGonagall in the play “The Disaster in Verse” in 2017. Coates wrote, directed and produced the musical for his senior project in January.

“I wanted to do something that would combine my interests in theater, creative writing and music,” Coates said of why he did the project.

“I smiled throughout the whole process,” said one of Coates’ mentors, Patrick Jennings. “I just smiled and smiled and beamed at him.”

“Ian has a very, very, very dry sense of humor,” noted Linda Dowdell, another mentor.

“The Disaster in Verse” was one of three plays put on by Port Townsend High School students last year. Other shows included “The Heart of Robin Hood,” which opened in April, and “The Accidental Death of an Anarchist” in November.

A Shakespeare history

Key City Public Theatre presented its first Shakespeare history, “Henry IV, Part 1” for its annual summer Shakespeare in the Park last year. Directed by Duncan Frost, the play took place in a pre-apocalyptic world moving toward the brink of collapse.

“In our world, this would be the play that is coming on the heels of the current administration in the United States,” said Frost.

In 2017, Key City Public Theatre also presented the hit musical “Murder Ballad” (sizzling lights, cool costumes, and a good dose of love and revenge) and “The Book Club Play,” which brought many literary laughs.

Other shows included “An Enemy of the People” and a reprise of “Spirit of the Yule.

Nanda returns

Port Townsend’s four Nanda ninjas – Misha Fradin, Chen Pollina and brothers Tomoki and Kiyota Sage – presented a feature-length theater show last year, their first in Port Townsend since 2014.

The June show, “Omdighaben,” was named after their preshow power-up chant. In the show, the Nanda boys did backflips, juggled and performed a whole slew of comedy sketches, which garnered lots of laughter and applause from appreciative fans. Nanda members also performed as the Flying Karamazov Brothers in the popular December show “Club Sandwich.”

MUSIC

A new conductor

In 2017, the Port Townsend Community Orchestra welcomed Tigran Arakelyan as its new conductor and artistic director, to replace the late Dewey Ehling, who died in 2016. Arakelyan made his debut as the orchestra’s new conductor Oct. 29.

Arakelyan lives in North Seattle and also conducts two youth orchestras. “I want the future generation of young musicians to be supportive of the arts, because that’s the only way the arts survive,” Arakelyan said.

PT on the map

Cellar Door owner Dominic Svornich and Port Townsend musician Jarrod Bramson collaborated to bring Coffin Break, a Seattle-based ’90s punk rock band, to town in January last year.

“It’s a huge win for our town,” said Svornich, noting that Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain called the band one of his favorites.

Having Coffin Break play in Port Townsend represented a step toward placing Port Townsend “on the map” as a recognized music community, Svornich said.

In 2017, Svornich brought many other popular bands and singers to town, including Grace Love, who sang at Port Townsend Main Street’s Concerts on the Dock in July and also performed at Cellar Door.

Many Jefferson County bars and music venues collaborate to bring in bigger-name musical acts while also supporting local musicians.

Success for Centrum

Centrum director Robert Birman described the arts organization’s 2017 season as the best ever.

“The truth is, we say that every year,” Birman said, but he noted that a pinnacle was reached last year.

Birman reported an overall upward trend in terms of ticket sales and participation.

The biggest surprise, he said, were jazz ticket sales, which went way beyond the goal – by 19 percent. “That’s a giant step,” he said. “The jazz sales this year were just astronomically good.”

Last year was also the Olympic Music Festival’s second year at Fort Worden in partnership with Centrum after 32 years of association with the Concerts in the Barn series, set on a Quilcene farm.

The festival’s 2017 season opened with a sold-out concert featuring superstar violinist Sarah Chang.

“Our audience knew that the festival’s commitment to really quality, moving, memorable performances would not waver – regardless of where the music was being presented,” said Julio Elizalde, the festival’s artistic director.

Radio station airs new ideas

Following the success of the 2016 sold-out Joni Mitchell tribute concert and the popular May 2017 Beatles tribute, KPTZ-FM 91.9 has decided to organize more events that would bring the community together and support the local nonprofit radio station.

“I would like to produce a few concerts per year, so that we can have fun while we’re fundraising,” KPTZ concert producer Tim Quackenbush said.

In September, KPTZ held its first Party on the Pier, featuring Seattle-based Funk Force Attacks, along with local DJ Silace Amaro.

This year, the Jefferson County radio station is looking at the possibility of moving its recording studio and transmitter tower to Fort Worden State Park.

Bye-bye, Bach

Conductor Karl F. Bach retired in 2017 after nearly two decades of leading the Port Townsend Summer Band.

“In a way, I’m ready,” said Bach, who has been the band’s conductor since 2001. “I’ve worked hard to keep the band going since I took over.” Bach passed the baton to longtime member Miles Vokurka.

“The band will be in very good hands,” he said. “I’m grateful to the community for its support.”

VISUAL ARTS

‘I Have a Name’

In January and February of 2017, a show at Northwind Arts Center gave viewers a glimpse into everyday life at Port Townsend’s Boiler Room, the youth center that shares a wall with Northwind.

“I Have a Name: Identity and Belonging in Small-Town America” featured large-scale portraits and photographs by Raymond L. Ketcham.

Ketcham observed the youth at The Boiler Room and began to document their life in black-and-white. In his portraits, he captured the young men and women looking directly into the camera, vulnerable. The photos showed unedited human features: a stray eyelash on the cheek, dandruff in the hair, smudged makeup – a single moment in time on their journey to self-identity.

“When the photographs arrived, we were all just floored,” said Northwind director Michael D'Alessandro of the series. “There's such a sense of trust and identify and confidence in these images – it's just overwhelming.”

Ketcham said his show was evidence of finding a solution to the issues facing at-risk youth.

“The work that [The Boiler Room] is doing – and the way that they’re doing it – is very unique,” he said.

‘Collectors and Patrons’

The Jefferson Museum of Art and History hosted a six-month show titled “Pat and Peter Simpson: Collectors and Patrons” in 2017, which opened in March. The show featured works from the collection of the late Peter and Pat Simpson.

Pieces from the mid-1980s were shown alongside newer works by the artists whom the Simpsons supported. By displaying more contemporary art alongside older pieces, the exhibit demonstrated how the artists’ works progressed over the years, and how encouragement engenders more art, said curator Ann Welch.

“This exhibit reflects – once again, even after Peter’s passing – his encouragement of the arts and what he continues to add to the cultural landscape of art,” said Welch.

20 years of local art

Port Townsend Gallery turned 20 in 2017. “Generosity and support is what’s keeping us going,” said Barbara Ewing, one of the original members of the cooperative local gallery.

There’s an ongoing joke as to why Port Townsend Gallery is a popular place to attend during Art Walk. “It’s the food,” said a laughing Ewing.

Whether food has anything to do with it or not, the gallery has remained a prominent feature of the downtown Port Townsend arts scene for years. “Obviously we’re doing something right – we’ve been around for 20 years!” said another original member, Will Kalb, a black-and-white photographer.

Cafe art

In August of last year, Áine Sandford, 24, had her first art show in Port Townsend.

Sandford, who has been in and out of art and graphic design schools since high school, moved to Port Townsend from Boulder, Colorado, and started working at Better Living Through Coffee. When she wasn’t behind the counters of one of the busiest coffee shops around, she found herself on the other side, alongside coffee-drinking customers, painting watercolor cards.

“I really love painting in front of people,” Sandford said. “Hearing life happen around me is really inspiring.” Over a few months, she completed the chalkboard art that graces the hallway at Better Living Through Coffee.

“She’s a very gifted individual,” Better Living Through Coffee owner Ben Cook said. “She’s incredibly detail oriented; the longer you look at the [chalkboard] painting, the more you see.”

BOOKS & FILM

Community Read

The Port Townsend Public Library selected Olympia author Jim Lynch’s novel “Before the Wind” as its 11th annual Community Read title in 2017. Community Read is a monthlong program designed to promote closer ties among community members through the communal experience of reading, sharing and discussing ideas and topics generated by a book.

The critically acclaimed family saga, set in Seattle, offers poignant characters, rich descriptions of sailing and boatbuilding, and is sprinkled with magic realism, said library director Melody Sky Eisler.

The monthlong Community Read program featured a full slate of events offered in collaboration with local organizations, including two chances for the community to meet the author, as well as many maritime-related events.

Finding her words

Julie Christine Johnson celebrated the release of her second full-length novel, “The Crows of Beara,” last September. Johnson first started writing in 2010.

“When the time came, when I had something I wanted to say, I just said it,” she said.

Her debut short story, titled “Water Child,” was published the following year. More stories followed. In 2012, she began working on her first novel, “In Another Life,” which she finished in 2013, when she moved to Port Townsend.

Johnson also attended culinary school and is a wine enthusiast. She said she writes the way she cooks. It’s part inspiration, and part improvisation. She doesn’t prescribe to a specific genre. Her first book was fantasy adult fiction; her second, “The Crows of Beara,” was published by a press in Oregon that specializes in “eco-lit” and “cli-fi.” She recently submitted her third novel for publication.

‘Breakfast Queen’

Chicago’s “Breakfast Queen” Ina Pinkney visited Port Townsend last April to attend Port Townsend Film Festival's Women & Film series. Pinkney is the subject of a documentary titled “Breakfast at Ina’s,” which chronicles the final month at a restaurant she established and ran for 22 years.

“This is kind of magical for this last chapter of my life,” said Pinkney. “It’s so exciting for me to come to new places.”

The Women & Film series, which takes place annually in April, focuses on, as the name suggests, women and their roles in the filmmaking industry – either as directors, producers or subjects. The event originated in 2015 as a way to show films that couldn't fit into the three-day festival in September; specifically, films that focus on women, as women are increasingly directing more films, said festival director Jeanette Force.

“The true magic for us is connecting this tiny village to the great big world with film,” said Force. “‘Ina’ is a fine example.”

Neville & Allen

Port Townsend Film Festival artistic director Janette Force said the 2017 festival’s special guest, Morgan Neville, represented what the festival is about: creativity, originality and pushing the boundaries of film.

Neville, the director of the Oscar-winning documentary “20 Feet from Stardom,” attended last year’s festival, which also welcomed back Karen Allen for a third year.

Force said building the three-day festival for September begins in January, when festival staff and volunteers embark on seeking out and watching films to curate a program that balances documentaries with narratives, and also features a diverse array of subjects.

Every year also brings myriad more details, from ensuring that a high-school-age guest can attend a late-night Saturday screening and make it back to New Orleans in time for school on Monday, to figuring out if it’s OK to deep-fry a tarantula downtown. (It turned out that what Force thought of as a “delightful and spooky” spectacle did not happen. However, intrepid insectivorous festivalgoers had the opportunity to try free fried crickets and a few other delicacies as part of an insect-cooking demonstration associated with “Bugs on the Menu,” a documentary featured in the festival.)

“No matter how much you think you know how a year is going to go, you really have no idea,” said Force.

At the 2017 festival, “No Man’s Land,” directed by David Byars, won Best Documentary Feature, and “Life Hack,” directed by Sloan Copeland, won Best Narrative Feature. The 2017 Spirit of Port Townsend Film Festival award went to Rocky Friedman and The Rose Theatre.

OF NOTE

Farewell, Best

The Port Townsend arts community lost Jeanette Best, who died Nov. 30, 2017 at the age of 79.

Best was the cofounder of Northwind Arts Center and an avid supporter of the arts.

“Her contribution to the arts in this area and this region is immense,” said Michael D’Alessandro, Northwind executive director.

Northwind is renaming its artists showcase the “Jeanette Best Gallery,” with a ceremony scheduled for some time in February.

Angel, patron

In 2017, Germaine Arthur and Steven Scharf were named the 2016 Angel of the Arts and Patron of the Arts, respectively.

“These are really wonderful winners, embodying what we look for,” said Stan Rubin, Port Townsend Arts Commission chair. He noted that Arthur and Scharf both represent the selflessness and dedication that enable the arts to thrive in the community.

Arthur has devoted herself to the growth of the Community Chorus of Port Townsend and East Jefferson County since its founding. Scharf is a dentist who has transformed his Uptown District office into a gallery.

“We are honored to recognize their sustained contribution to our community,” Rubin said.