PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend Arts Guild will present its 30th annual Winter Arts & Crafts Fair on Friday and Saturday.
The fair, set from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days at the Port Townsend Community Center at Lawrence and Tyler streets, will fill all floors with a wide variety of handcrafted items from local artisans.
Among items for sale will be 4H catnip mice.
The mice are especially potent, according to Laurie Hampton, a main leader for the Paws & Claws Club, because the 4Hers grow the catnip themselves.
Celtic harpist David Michael will be performing and selling his music upstairs. Student musicians will entertain downstairs in the gym.
Five percent of the arts fair sales will go to the Jefferson County Food Bank, and monies raised by booth fees are used for college scholarships in the arts.
The guild awards $3,500 to $4,000 in scholarships annually to Jefferson County high school students who choose to major in the arts in college.
The guild also funds cultural activities and foundations, food banks, children’s art projects and arts emergency relief in Jefferson County.
The guild is a self-supporting, nonprofit arts organization founded on April 14, 1972, by a local group of artists and craftspeople interested in creating a way to earn a living from doing what they loved and to help others to do the same.
Every year, the guild presents four juried, arts and craft fairs featuring artists from around the Northwest and beyond. Visitors to these fairs can purchase pottery, glass beads, jewelry to suit all tastes and styles, toys, clothing, home furnishings, garden art, metal sculpture, photography and paintings from artists and craftspeople.
