Coast calendar: Calling all artists, and arts lovers

Lincoln City seeks public art; Sitka Center holds a fundraiser; Floyd Skloot reads from his new book.

October 16, 2019

Lori Tobias

Books, Coast, Family, Oregon / NW

If you’ve ever driven through Lincoln City on a summer day, it will come as no surprise that every year 8.8 million vehicles travel that stretch of U.S. 101. While that may be discouraging news if you’re sitting in traffic, it’s no doubt heartening to artists who’d like their roadside work to be seen. That the opportunity to do so comes with a commission of up to $120,000 only sweetens the prize.

Lincoln City’s roster of public art includes the Community Center’s swimming tile mural by Ted and Judith Schlicting. The city is seeking proposals from artists to craft a piece for the new Cultural Plaza. — *Lincoln City’s roster of public art includes the Community Center’s tile mural by Ted and Judith Schlicting. The city is seeking proposals from artists to craft a piece for the new Cultural Plaza.*

Lincoln City is offering one artist the chance to craft the first major piece of art to be installed in the new Lincoln City Cultural Plaza. But don’t spend too much time thinking about it. The deadline for proposals is Nov. 1. Get your request for qualifications (RFQ) here.

LOTS GOING ON at and around Sitka Center for Art and Ecology – and farther afield. The 26^th annual Sitka Art Invitational is set for Nov. 2 and 3. It takes place in the World Forestry Center’s Miller Hall in Portland, featuring 400 works of art by 130 Northwest artists. Artists will talk about their work at half-hour intervals both days. Admission is $7, free to Sitka members and people under 18.

Sales are split evenly to help support the Northwest art community and Sitka. Sitka provided the following numbers for last year’s event:

2,975 people attended – up 19 percent from 2017
148 artists exhibited – 5 more than in 2017
126 pieces sold, which was 30 percent of artwork exhibited
424 pieces of artwork were in the show – 22 more than 2017
$77,165 in art sales – up 11 percent from 2017
$37,941 paid to artists and galleries – up $2,860 from 2017

*Dyann Alkire of Portland is among artists participating in the Sitka Art Invitational. This is her “The Shape of Their Stories II” (acrylic and India ink on Claybord, 16 by 20 inches).*

Part of the Art Invitational is the Remarkable Raffle, the chance to win a residency or take a workshop at Sitka. For those who can’t make it to Portland for the show, a limited number of tickets are available via an online presale. One winner gains entry to the 2020 workshop of their choice, early registration, and lodging at a nearby Cascade Head home. Two winners will get residencies at Sitka May 8-14, 2020 (dates are firm), including lodging and private studio space.

By the way, the exhibit and sale take place over the weekend, but you can get a jump on things by buying a ticket to the Friday night Party With the Artists on Nov. 1. There’ll be wine, beer, snacks, and lots of artists.

Buy your tickets for the party or raffle here.

Sponsor

COMING UP NOV. 13, SITKA is hosting the Cruisin’ The Fossil Coastline talk and book signing at Salishan Resort. The book is a sequel to Cruisin’ The Fossil Freeway, a collaboration between artist Ray Troll and Kirk Johnson, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and was developed in part during a dual Sitka residency at Grass Mountain. According to the Sitka website: “Troll and Jackson’s books are beloved, and their words and illustrations bring their shared passion for fossils, geology, and science-inspired road tripping to life for readers of all ages.” Copies of the book will be available at the event for purchase. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with a no-host bar. The talk happens at 7 p.m., followed at 8 p.m. by book signing and mingling. The talk is free and open to the public.

THE STORMY WEATHER ARTS FESTIVAL happens in Cannon Beach Nov. 1-3. In its 32^nd year, it features concerts by The Portlanders; Marv and Rindy Ross and Jon Koonce; the Dancing in the Rain fashion show; and a lunch combining barbecue, local beer, and live blues.

*Floyd Skloot will read from his new book of poems on Nov. 7 in Manzanita.*

IN MANZANITA, AUTHOR AND POET Floyd Skloot will read from his latest poetry collection Far West at 4 p.m. Nov. 7 in the Hoffman Center. Admission is $7.

Skloot has won three Pushcart Prizes, a PEN USA Literary Award, two Pacific NW Book Awards, and two Oregon Book Awards.

According to the Hoffman Center website: “In poems that range from traditional forms and short lyrics to longer narratives and free verse, Skloot explores how emotional experiences – memory and forgetting, love and loss, reverie and urgent attention – all come together in our search for coherence and authentic self-expression.”

AND IN NEWPORT, THEY’RE CALLING on artists to exhibit handmade art or craft at the Nov. 16 Autumn Fest in the Newport Rec Center. For $35, an artist receives a 10-by-10-foot space with table. Deadline to enter is Nov. 3. For more info, email j.remillard@newportoregon.gov, or register online.

Lori Tobias

Lori Tobias is a journalist of many years, and was a staff writer for The Oregonian for more than a decade, and a columnist and features writer for the Rocky Mountain News. Her memoir “Storm Beat – A Journalist Reports from the Oregon Coast” was published in 2020 by Oregon State University press. She is also the author of the novel Wander, winner of the 2017 Nancy Pearl Book Award for literary fiction and a finalist for the 2017 International Book Awards for new fiction. She lives on the Oregon Coast with her husband Chan and rescue pup Gus.