Events for January 2017

We will be closed the month of January to clean and prepare the museum for 2017!

Re-introduce yourself to Re-Hab Station and the other small businesses that call 503 Morris St. Home!

La Conner Retirement Inn presents the first of its monthly educational events open to all. Learn the many ways you can be scammed, and what you can do about it. Presented by Ron Kennedy, CFP for Edward Jones.

Paul Havas: A Life of Painting honors the forty-year career of an artist known for his large-scale landscapes and cityscapes. Born, raised, and educated on the East Coast, Paul Havas (1940-2012) came to the Northwest for graduate school at the University of Washington and ultimately became one of the major painters of the region. A studio in the Collins Building in Seattle in the 1970s introduced Havas to a community of artists and inspiration that stayed with him throughout his prolific career. For a decade, he had a studio and home on Fir Island in Skagit Valley, and his paintings reflected the wide expanses of farmland, river, and sky distinct to that area. After he moved back to Seattle in 1983, Havas created a series of paintings set in the city: night scenes of buildings and empty streets; daytime panoramas that incorporated the angles and geometry of the city plan; and tall, narrow paintings capturing glimpses of urban vistas. Nature was always an inspiration, and Havas made many trips into the mountains to fish, hike, and climb. Additionally, Havas and fellow artist Clayton James made numerous extended trips, searching out painting sites along the back roads of eastern Washington, Oregon, and the Pacific Coast. Beneath it all, Havas had a deep knowledge of European and American art, and his travels outside of the Northwest and early teaching positions informed his painting as much as his immediate surroundings. His final series of paintings, set in the coastal area near Willapa Bay, distill the essence of land and water and architecture, a culmination of decades-long devotion to painting, to capturing light, and to conveying a sense of place.
 
In conjunction with MoNA's exhibition, the book titled Paul Havas has been published by Lucia|Marquand and is being distributed by University of Washington Press. With an introduction by longtime former Seattle gallery owner Francine Seders and a comprehensive essay by art critic Matthew Kangas, the book informs our exhibition, with groupings of paintings by theme: farmland, city, geology, wetlands, islands, and coast. Early works, sketches, and notebooks augment the paintings on view, and provide a closer, deeper look at a painter whose work transcended the landscapes he portrayed.

In the second floor galleries this winter, Indigenous Influences is an exhibition curated by Regan Shrumm, through the Dana and Toni Ann Rust Curatorial Fellowship at MoNA. The exhibition looks at works from MoNA’s permanent collection that are influenced by Pacific Northwest Indigenous communities.
 
Known as the ‘Mystics,’ Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan, and Guy Anderson sought to create art that consciously responded to the world around them, including referencing the local regional landscape and cultures. These artists began to collect Native American art, visit local Indigenous ceremonies, and befriend anthropologists, all of which made a major impact on the artists’ styles, colors, and spiritual outlooks. However, the influence of style came at a cost to the local Indigenous nations. The exhibition examines the problematics and complexities of the artworks adopting Indigenous styles.

This winter in the Benaroya Glass Gallery, we feature selections of glass from the permanent collection with an emphasis on continuum – of the medium of glass, of the continuity of forms, and of tradition through to innovation. The exhibit, titled Continuum: Glass from the Permanent Collection, will feature a variety of techniques for working with the medium of glass, including lampworking and stained glass. Artists exhibited include Dale Chihuly, Doris Chase, James Minson, Rick Decker, and Lisa Zerkowitz. Visitors will be able to observe themes that have persisted in glass as well as the transformation of the medium through innovation and new techniques. 

A Deep Delicious Conversation with Yourself...
​Slow Down, relax and snuggle in for an intimate weekend with your soul and the lovely community of La Conner!

The Skagit Symphony Family Concert will feature the captivating story of “Peter and the Wolf” by Serge Prokofiev. This special event begins with a “Meet the Musicians” activity in the McIntyre Hall lobby at 1:30 pm on Sunday, January 29th. An opportunity for concertgoers to see and hear about the instruments up close. Jerome Chandler narrates the tale of Peter, who captures the hungry and menacing wolf with the help of his animal friends and hunters. You won’t want to miss this! Tickets are available through McIntyre Hall Box Office: 360-416-7727 -- $10 for adults/$1 for children and students with ID.