Record Staff
The Whidbey Island Community Arts and Education Center invites the community to its open house Saturday, April 27.
“It’s our own launch show,” said Rich Parker, executive director of the education center.
Several local organizations joined to form an arts and education center at the old Bayview School.
To celebrate the opening of the newly renovated school, they are hosting an open house from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., followed by an artists’ reception from 6 to 8 p.m. the completely renovated historic school house.
People attending Saturday’s Bayview Farmers Market can simply walk across the road and see what the center has to offer. The rustic old school house is set among fir trees overlooking Bayview Corner. With its red walls and other changes, it no longer looks like the school attended by hundreds of South Whidbey residents over the past century.
The partners for this venture include: Whidbey Island Community Education; Northwest Institute of Literary Arts; New Stories and The Whidbey Geodome; and The Art Center @ WICEC.
The schedule of activities for the open house includes:
Whidbey Island Community Education Center: Teacher demonstration of future classes and workshops such as tai chi, Japanese folk art, poetry reading and 3D printing.
The Art Center @ WICEC: Art course and workshop demonstrations: Hot wax encaustic painting, abstract fluid acrylic painting and beginning oil painting.
New Stories/The Whidbey Geodome: Live presentations and a look at their production entitled, “Earth Portal: A Guided Tour of the Universe.”
Northwest Institute of Literary Arts: Readings by local authors throughout the event.
The evening artists’ reception is for the opening of the two gallery exhibitions: Blooming with Color features 12 by 12 inch blooming themed artworks created specifically for this show by 40 local artists. More than 100 such works will be on display, said one of the organizers, artist Lauryn Taylor. The second exhibition features selected works from WICEC art instructors Don Wodjenski (photography), Kathy Hewitt (fiber arts) Lauryn Taylor (acrylic and encaustic painting) Kim Tinuviel (photo encaustic), Cary Jurians (oil painting) and Joe Menth (photography).
New Stories and The Whidbey Geodome will also be present at the reception to show a film and demonstrate the technology behind the amazing navigation through space. Refreshments will be provided for the event.
An additional event is set for 6:30 p.m. Sunday, April 28. “Analog Days” shows how technology has changed culture. The sponsor is Humanities Washington and WICEC. Of particular interest to some will be a 3D printer that can turn out three-dimensional items created on a computer.
Internally-known author and speaker Alex Alben will lead a conversation about how those born before 1980 increasingly cannot recognize the world around them. Society’s rapid adoption of computers, the Internet and mobile devices transformed the way people communicate. This technical revolution had profound social effects, splitting society into analog and digital cultures.
Can old analog values survive in this new digital universe? The conversation explores how digital inventions are shaping communication, political discourse and today’s media landscape.
