Our 8th Annual ArtWalk: review
Despite impending rain (which didn’t develop) and a skeleton crew of planners, we did put on the ArtWalk again this year. thanks to all those who came out to help Saturday morning: Dr. Bilikas, our dentist, came early, Cara Ross, Ann Conroy was back from years past and Jason Snell helped Yousef Shulman to number the booths and settle the artists into their respective spaces. Lines had been drawn earlier but a few last-minute issues caused a small shuffle. Mostly, returning artists got what they wanted. So, the day seemed to go without a hitch and without the dreaded rain.
The Opepo Band was fun with a range of songs, including a Beatles’ number. Eli Meissner and friend played jazz guitar and we ended up with the favorite from years past, The Rio Thing and their repertoire of Brazilian Jazz.
The Washington Diamond Drill team was a showstopper as they seemed to materialize from nowhere and were strutting their precision moves down the street. Cars slowed and drivers filmed with their cell phones! Two performers did the splits at the end of their performance to boisterous applause.
We thank the 37th District Democrats for staffing the voter registration table again this year. They registered 17 people, many of them new voters.
Board members at the Leschi Community Council (helped out by Diane Morris and Dianne Ramsey) showed off the Suzzallo Library photos from 1899 which depicted a very different Leschi Park from today with the large dance and casino pavilion, the zoo and dramatic photos of the cable car structure that brought the cable car from downtown Seattle up and down hills to the final plummet to the ferry dock. We also kept energy levels up by supplying M&M’s.
We hope there is a 9th ArtWalk next year but that will depend on volunteers coming forward. We can use folks on the planning committee (one meeting per month from April through early September), with ideas and contacts. Your task would be as simple as contacting available artists or musicians. We need someone to help Yousef outline the booth for assigning (a one-hour task) a few days before the event and we especially need volunteers the morning of the event for about 2 hours. The monthly meetings are fun and tasty as BluWater sends some of their wonderful appetizers to our meeting table.
~Diane Snell