When visitors to Cannon Beach want to buy locally made goods, it soon will be as simple as unfolding a map. There, information will lead them to more than 20 artisans who make everything from leather belts to luxury soaps. That’s thanks to a collaboration between one local businesswoman and the nonprofit whose mission was penned decades ago by two “counterculture bohemians” dedicated to keeping a “certain crunchiness” in this tony North Coast town.

Potter Michelle Valigura got the idea for the Cannon Beach Makers Map after a visit to a craft show in California.

OREGON CULTURAL HUBS: An occasional series

“We are celebrating people who work with their hands,” said Valigura, owner of Basalt Pottery in Cannon Beach. “Whether it’s coffee or taffy or beer or jewelry, it’s handmade.”

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While Valigura provided the inspiration for the guide, it was the Tolovana Arts Colony that stepped up to sponsor it.  

“We have to remember that part of the charm of Cannon Beach is that in the ‘60s it was as an artist outpost,” said Andrew Tonry, Arts Colony program director. “We’re doing everything we can to keep some vestiges of that alive. Cannon Beach is an arts destination” with a number of art galleries, he added, but other crafts people “deserve some shine, too. We should have more shop-local campaigns.”

The Tolovana Arts Colony was founded by musician Billy Hults and writer Michael Burgess, two artists “who made things happen in Cannon Beach,” said Tonry. Hults, a washboard player, had a hand in coming up with the Mayor’s Inaugural Ball in Portland in 1984 to help winning candidate Bud Clark pay off campaign debts. He was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2014 after his death in 2009 at age 65. He was also the founder of Upper Left Edge newspaper. Burgess wrote the “Ask Uncle Mike” column for Upper Left Edge and was the author of Uncle Mike’s Guide to the Real Oregon Coast. He died in 2010.

When Burgess and Hults were helping to nurture the art scene starting back in the 1990s, Cannon Beach was “still more of an arts colony,” said Watt Childress, who owns Jupiter’s Books, formerly owned by Hults. “There was more of a livability. The artists there could enjoy it. And I think that’s part of why Billy and Michael were really seeking to somehow reconnect the arts with community. They were community-oriented arts activists who loved culture, loved art, and really grassroots folks who believed in inclusivity and civic engagement.”

The Tolovana Arts Colony obtained 501(c)3 nonprofit status in 2005 and moved into the city-owned Tolovana Hall at about the same time. The list of programs the Arts Colony hosts is long and varied, many held at the hall, others at venues around town. They cover the arts in many forms and attract artists — big names and local — and their fans from around the country.

One of those names was the late Ursula K. Le Guin, who blessed an early Get Lit at the Beach – A Gathering for Readers, with the quote, “Get Lit at the beach is the best party I ever went to.” The annual April event was first held in 2012, inspired by the late Val Ryan, former owner of Cannon Beach Book Company, and other locals who wanted to promote the literary arts, said Tracy Abel, coordinator and Tolovana Arts Colony board member.

Unlike many literary festivals, Get Lit at the Beach offers no workshops on writing or getting published, but instead caters purely to the reader. 

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“One thing that makes us unique is we are small, an intimate group,” Abel said. “We want to make sure that people who are attending get time to spend with these authors. It’s different when you go to an event in a big city and shuffle through a line and don’t get to talk to the authors. We offer a lot of opportunities for the readers to meet these authors.”

Authors at this year’s event, April 11-13, include Terry Brooks, author of more than 40 bestselling novels, including The Sword of Shannara, Rene Denfeld, whose work has been described by Margaret Atwood as “astonishing”; Pauls Toutonghi, winner of a Pushcart Prize; and Joe Wilkins, author of the award-winning memoir The Mountain and the Fathers. Denfeld is the keynote speaker.

But before the literary artists take stages around town for Get Lit, performing artists will fill the Coaster Theatre Playhouse this weekend with The 5^th Annual Cannon Beach Comedy Festival.  The fun starts Thursday evening with an open mic at The Hemlocker, followed Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15, by headliners from Los Angeles and New York, as well as those from the Pacific Northwest.

“I can’t believe the lineup we have,” Tonry said. “We have all different types of comedy represented here, from impressionists to storytellers, joke writers, all different perspectives. We have people from around the country, from varied ethnic backgrounds. Part of what I love about it is we get to bring some viewpoints that are not always found here.”

Performers include Jackie Kashian, a stand-up comedian who has appeared on HBO, Netflix, and Comedy Central; Aparna Nancherla, whom Rolling Stone magazine called “one of the funniest people right now”; and James Adomian, a voiceover artist who has appeared in hundreds or cartoons and podcasts.

Getting big names to a little town on the Oregon Coast isn’t as difficult as some might think. “What I am finding is that they talk amongst each other,” Tonry said. “This is no mom-and-pop thing; we’re doing it right and people are seeing that.”

One of the longer running events put on by the Arts Colony is not so much about art but about supporting the artists. The Cannon Beach Puttz mini golf tournament and silent auction in June is the biggest fundraiser hosted by the Arts Colony. Players, often dressed in costume or crazy, colorful clothes, visit local businesses throughout town, where they pay to tee off at creative miniature golf holes.   

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The Puttz is always held on a weekday. Board member Debra Carnes said it was Hults’ idea to hold the event on a Tuesday, when many restaurants are closed and workers have the day off. “it’s aways the beginning of June, before it gets really crazy around here.”

Kyle Genin, social media manager for Escape Lodging, has participated in the event for about seven years. “Last year, I participated in the tournament itself instead of being on the sponsors’ side. I went into businesses I don’t generally go into, so I got to talk to the proprietors and learn a little about that business while having fun and playing. At the same time, you’re raising money for the great cause, which is the arts and supporting local artists.”

Other Arts Colony events are more mellow, such as art and exercise classes, and The Gathering, a celebration of Native American Heritage Month, in November.

Childress, one of the co-founders of The Gathering, sees it as an opportunity to gather “the beautiful cross-cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples,” he said. “Community groups work with members of coastal tribes and year-round residents who have ancestral ties to many parts of the Americas. As local fellowship grows, we strengthen team care-giving for the whole hemisphere.”

The Arts Colony also hosts free concerts in the park on Sundays and pop-up art shows, in which artists keep 75 percent of the proceeds as opposed to the 40 percent to 50 percent galleries would charge, Tonry said.

“A part of our large goal is to help artists, craftsmen, and teachers, as well as earn a living,” Tonry said. “As a nonprofit, we’re able to pass more along to the artist, to the educators, crafters. It’s hard to work as an artist, to support yourself, especially in a town like ours.”

Unlike the days when Burgess and Hults helped drive the art scene, today Cannon Beach is arguably the best known and most popular beach community on the Oregon Coast. In 2023, Condé Nast Traveler named it one of the 28 Most Beautiful Towns in America. It is also among the priciest ZIP codes in the state, with the median price of a single-family house $1.8 million, according to Realtor.com. Of the city’s approximately 2,200 housing units, 677 are identified as a primary residence, with 192 holding short-term rental licenses, said Robert St. Clair, Cannon Beach city planner.

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The dwindling number of full-time residents combined with the escalating cost of living makes the need for community organizations greater than ever, Tonry said. He recalled a saying the founders were fond of: “‘Anything done well becomes art,’ and that is kind of our guiding principle at the Arts Colony. Many in Cannon Beach are not wealthy. Many live on fixed incomes. Many struggle just to pay their rent. The high price of housing exacerbates these issues and drives out community, as second homes sit vacant.

“Regardless of income status,” he continued, “public arts are vital to community well-being. If there is something that can bring the community together, we are going to do it: wellness class, barbecue, cooking class, art classes for kids. Where there is a hunger for something, we want to provide it to the community.”