The Port Townsend School of the Arts is offering comfort and interconnectedness to the local community by asking area residents to send postcards that “express your love for this town, for this community, this amazing place we are all so lucky to call home,” in the words of a public statement released by the PtSA.
The school has outlined a process online, which can be found at ptschoolofthearts.org/postcards, which includes the following:
1. Create your postcard from home, “with creative intent,” in any medium or style.
“Write this town a love letter,” PtSA stated. “Have fun!”
The school is making “clean, safe” postcard blanks available for pickup in a sanitized box outside its Grover Gallery, or on the landing in front of Building 306 in Fort Worden.
“Bring protective gloves or sanitize your hands before and after choosing three blanks per artist from the box,” the PtSA instructed. “You can also make your own postcard surface at home. Requirements are that it measures 4 by 6 inches and be as thick as index or cover weight paper, but no thicker or heavier than mat-board. Make your artwork on one side only.”
2. You can drop your completed postcards into the mail slot at the Grover Gallery or mail them to PtSA Grover Gallery, 236 Taylor St., Port Townsend, WA 98368.
“Many local grocery stores have U.S. mailboxes near their front door,” the PtSA suggested. “Drop off your postcards when you go grocery shopping.”
Grover Gallery manager Toby Warren has promised to handle the incoming cards “safely and with care.”
As they arrive, they’ll be hung in the front windows for a community art exhibit “to inspire us all.”
The school also plans to share images of the postcards on Facebook and Instagram, under the hashtag #postcardsfromhome_PT.
You may also email images of your submissions to gallery@ptarts.org, and the school will share and save them. If you like, you can provide your name and email, so the school can maintain a list of those who participated.
“The cards are starting to come in, and it is lovely to see the encouraging notes artists of all ages are creating to inspire and uplift our community,” said Meg Kaczyk, communications manager for the Port Townsend School of the Arts.
The entry period is open-ended, so the school encourages artists of all ages and all levels to continue sending in their work.
If enough “Postcards From Home” are submitted, the school will look into hanging them in not just the windows of the Grover Gallery, but other windows in town through the month of April.
At the same time, the Grover Gallery’s March’s interior exhibit, “Encaustic,” will remain through the end of April, and is available to view and purchase online at ptarts.org/grover-gallery.
TAKING IT ONLINE
Like many local arts organizations, the Port Townsend School of the Arts is quickly re-imagining its programs to continue delivering arts education to its students.
To that end, the school is offering a small number of workshops, starting March 30, via video conferencing technology, including:
• “Mindfulness Practices for Art Making” and “Make it Abstract” with Meg Kaczyk.
• “Telling Stories Through a Time of Crisis: Writing Micro-Fiction” with Julie Christine Johnson.
• And the popular PtSA “Print Night” with Rick York.
As a pilot project, the workshops will be available on a low-cost (plus optional donation) basis.
“PtSA believes the tactile quality of art-making is essential to well-being during this stressful time, and is working hard to bring as many classes online as possible,” the school said in a public statement.
Prospective students can visit ptarts.org to learn more about online offerings as they’re rolled out.
