PORT TOWNSEND — Believe It or Knot!, an original Port Townsend game, will kick off Saturday, the same day as this month’s Port Townsend Gallery Walk.
The monthly Gallery Walk is from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month.
The Believe It or Knot! game has “unbelievable facts” about Port Townsend hidden at 37 participating businesses.
The game will run through June, when the Water Street Enhancement Project — a downtown upgrade that began Tuesday — is expected to be finished, according to Mari Mullen, Main Street executive director.
To play, find 10 facts at participating businesses, verify if they are true or false, and leave the completed game card at the last businesses visited. It will be entered into a monthly prize drawing for $100 in gift certificates — held each Gallery Walk beginning in February — and a chance to win a grand prize of $500 in June in downtown business gift certificates.
Completed game cards must be handed to a participating business by the last day of the month to be eligible for the next month’s drawing.
Lorna Mann, formerly the Port Townsend Visitor Information Center manager; Steve Goldenbogen, owner of Whistle Stop Toys, and Cris Busch-Lyons, co-owner of Summer House Design created the game, assembling more than 125 facts and fictions about the seaport town.
“Port Townsend has a colorful, fascinating history. This game highlights some of our town’s stories and gives customers reasons to spend time downtown, learn about the past and enter the game which gives a chance to win monthly prizes,” Mullen said.
Game cards that do not have 10 different stamps and do not contain a phone number and/or email address along with a contact name will not be entered into the drawings.
For more information about the game, contact Port Townsend Main Street at 360-385-7911.
For more about construction related events and activities, see http://ptmain street.org/.
On the Port Townsend Gallery Walk on Saturday are:
• Gallery 9, 1012 Water St., will have the show “Homage to the Tree” featuring paintings by Meg Kaczyk, and hand drums by Tom Stewart.
In their latest work, both featured artists celebrate the strength and beauty of trees.
The two artists will discuss their art from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Kaczyk unveils new large paintings in a series that pays homage to the Northwest’s native tree, the Pacific madrone.
“I love how the presence of madrone tells me I am home: The main route into Port Townsend itself is lined with beautiful specimens arching over the roadway,” Kaczyk said.
“There is beauty and magic in their color palette, their sensuous curves, the variety of smooth and rough barks, the vibrant peeling, layers revealing growth. Madrone trees are full of grace and quiet power.”
Kaczyk was trained as an illustrator and designer at Kendall School of Design in Grand Rapids, Mich. She headed west to Portland, Ore., in 1981, where she worked as a creative director at advertising agencies in the city in addition to exhibiting her paintings locally and globally.
Kaczyk has been part of Gallery 9 since moving to Port Townsend in 2016, and also teaches at Port Townsend School of the Arts, where she enjoys nurturing individual artistic expression in her students.
Stewart has been making Joyful Vibration hand drums, Zen gardens, yoga block props and yin yang hanging art at Gallery 9 since the gallery’s inception.
“I see my craft as functional artwork that is good for the soul,” he said.
Stewart has completed 195 drums and is still going strong. His most current creation is a drum that is crafted with a finish layer of American red gum — the first time Stewart has worked with this wood.
The drum stands 24 inches high with a 13-inch diameter goat hide head. The tone is a deep bass.
Drop in drummers are welcome and encouraged.
Gallery 9 is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays.
For more information, see http://gallery-9.com/or call 360-379- 8881.
• Jefferson Museum of Art & History, 540 Water St., will have “Wearable Art — The Best of Seven Years” on display Saturday.
The exhibit, which will come down Feb. 4, features pieces from Wearable Art Shows from 2011 to the present, displaying 21 pieces of sculpture worn on the human body from Port Townsend’s seven years of Wearable Art Shows.
The museum is free to the public on Gallery Walks, although donations are always appreciated.
During January and February, the museum is closed on weekdays.
It will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. only on weekends and holidays, Saturdays and Sundays as well as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Jan. 15 and Presidents’ Day on Feb. 19.
