PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Library will take the quarterly Art Blast in a new direction for the second Art Blastapalooza today.
The event at the library at 2210 S. Peabody St., will showcase live music by Neon Brass Party, a Seattle-based street band, and the ceremonial “grand illumination” of the giant Reading Person sculpture.
The doors will open at 7 p.m. with an artists’ reception. The street show — including music, auction, domino race, and ceremonial illumination of the Reading Person — will begin at about 7:30 p.m.
Hands-on book-art activities and prizes will be offered in the Books Roc Village.
The Best Sellers Book domino race will return along with DIY musical-instruments, the Happily Irreverent Book Toss, Whimsical/Wearable Art and the Colorful Characters photo booth.
A live auction conducted by the North Olympic Library Foundation will offer opportunities to take home children’s chairs artistically enhanced by local artists.
The newest Art in the Library exhibit, Summer Fun and Fantasy, will be available for viewing throughout the evening.
Limited library services will be available during this extra-special after-hours event.
The Blastapalooza is presented in partnership with the North Olympic Library Foundation and with the support of the Port Angeles Friends of the Library.
The Reading Person sculpture was inspired by the 2018 Summer Reading Program theme, Libraries Rock, and Burning Man’s spirit of fun, community and artistic imagination, according to a news release.
A group of local artists came together to create a giant Reading Person sculpture to display at the Blastapalooza.
Artists Diane Williams, Jan Dove, Pamela Hastings, Colleen Cunningham, April Watkins and Michelle Johnson began phased design and construction of the Reading Person off-site in early 2018.
Brian Phillips, facilities manager for the library system, designed a system of pulleys and hooks (dubbed skyhooks) that allow large items, such as the Reading Person and other art, to be suspended from the high ceilings in the middle of the Port Angeles Library.
Thanks to a donation, the library was able to purchase and install the system earlier this spring, according to the release.
The Reading Person was brought to the library in late June and hoisted from the rafters to its current position.
Final installation and finishing touches will continue during the month of July.
Art in the Library is a collaborative library-community art project celebrating local art through a series of rotating visual art exhibits.
Summer Fun and Fantasy is the theme of the summer/fall Art in the Library exhibit, which will be on view from today through Oct. 23.
Exhibiting artists include Hastings, Miranda Laidig, Kathie Karst, Gayle Brauner, Mark Smoot, Lucas Van Blair, Rene Westbrook, Linda Collins Chapman, Jack Galloway, John Teighert, Linda Carlson, Roger McGinnis, Ellie Polk, Leilani Thomason, Chizuru Takeda and others.
Also on-view during the reception will be artistically enhanced library chairs decorated by Hastings, Monica Gutierrez-Quarto, Jackie Miller and others.
The Art Chairs will be part of the live auction happening later on in the evening.
For more information about the Art Blastapalooza, contact Library Director Margaret Jakubcin at 360-417-8500, email director@nols.org or visit www.nols.org and select “Events.”
