Making art alive the year round

Wasn’t Art’s Alive! great? We are fortunate, and I am grateful, that Karen Gosetti, Rebecca Strong, Amy Carson, John Leaver and other committee members live in our midst and dedicate their efforts to realize their vision of art alive in our community.

That is arts, plural. At Friday’s reception folks were entertained with music and delighted with culinary treats. And the visual arts extended from paper cutouts though ceramics, glass, photography and various painting media.

Art in the community, of course, is good for business. People went out to dinner and folks from out of town stayed overnight. Think what more art more of the time would do. With dedication following vision, La Conner could become the Art Mecca of the Pacific Northwest. All art all the time! Or, at least through the shoulder seasons of the year.

Poetry lovers, and teachers dedicated to children, bring poetry into schools every year and support a biennial poetry festival that is almost without peer. Tod Marshall, Washington’s poet laureate, says we have an amazing art energy, unparalleled throughout the State.

Do we want to channel that energy into festivals and events bringing more art – and people – to town more of the time? The possibilities are endless, limited only by our imagination, vision and drive – and facilities. An organ festival will be a stretch.

But a culinary arts festival? Or choral? Bands, marching or otherwise? Only the high school prevents us from being theater-less. Maybe Shakespeare, or Shaw, as Niagara on the Lake has, is in order.

Friday Harbor hosted its fifth annual documentary film festival last weekend. Bellingham’s documentary film festival ran more than the month of October. They do it; do we want to?

And if folks take the lead championing craft, so will I. Sedro Woolley has its annual log rodeo. I am not a marine guy, but what about carving crab pot or other buoys? What insights might a wood merchant offer? What are the marine crafts and arts that are waiting to be embraced and turned into a festival?

La Conner’s amazing art energy is historic. There is something about the air, the water, the light. There are genuine, authentic ways to channel the best of what this town and region are that will help us prosper culturally, economically and in a fun and growth oriented way through the dark winter, ahead of the bloom of spring.

And, in the end, bringing more of the arts into the community is good for us and our future, tourists or no tourists.

It is good to have art in our lives.