It wasn’t until this year that Port Townsend Arts Guild chair Donna Harding realized her husband and guild member Michael Nordstrom was paying for the 2020 guild expenses with their shared credit card.

With events shut down around Port Townsend, the Art’s Guild, which began as the People’s Art Guild in 1972, made a total income of zero last year. Normally, booth fees for events like the Uptown Street Fair, the Holiday Craft Fair held annually at the community center, and Crafts on the Dock are what help pay the expenses and fill the coffers. 

Usually, Harding weaves her way through each event, the common thread that joins vendors and visitors alike, from helping with setup and breakdown, “7 a.m. coffee and doughnuts for the craftspeople,” to making meals for vendors so they can tend their booths. 

This year, she is all but confined to a walker or using two canes. 

Harding is currently facing up to three different surgeries; she fractured her hip last year, has a hiatal hernia, and a lung is under pressure from scoliosis. She isn’t sure how the set-up on Sept. 11 for Crafts on the Docks will go without being able to physically participate. The breakdown on Sept. 12 also has her concerned. 

For many of the participating vendors, about 35, or half-booked thus far, sale of their crafts is their main income. When the guild chose to cancel the Uptown Street Fair for the second May in a row due to COVID concerns, it affected a lot of vendors. 

While funds are finally coming in from Crafts on the Dock booth spaces, Harding turned to Facebook to ask for help for other expenses such as “insurance, security, permits, advertising, internet, post office box rental, phone, posters … musicians, and hiring help if we can’t find volunteers.” 

But it’s not just the guild that will struggle without financial security. 

Without any funds, Harding wrote: “We cannot fund any of our usual donations to arts scholarships, kids’ art programs, food banks, and other community organizations.” (In the two years before COVID hit, the guild donated $7,000 to the food bank alone.)

Normally, the guild brings in $20,000 annually. 

“That’s what we kind of need to get into everything,” Harding said.

Harding is asking the community to help with the upcoming fair Saturday, Sept. 11 and Sunday,
Sept. 12.  

“We really need help to setup Friday from 4 to
6 p.m.,” she said. That’s when the guild marks the booth lines with chalk on the pavement in front of Pope Marine Plaza.

She is also looking for a volunteer who can help setup a GoFundMe page for the guild. Any financial help is welcomed.   

“I don’t have any regrets about keeping the Art’s Guild alive,” Harding said.

Checks can be sent to Port Townsend Arts Guild, PO Box 246, Port Townsend, WA 98368. Volunteers can reach out via email to ptartsguild@yahoo.com.