PORT ANGELES — After several years of discussion, the city’s art community has organized an arts council.
The Port Angeles Arts Council, which has met regularly since May, includes roughly 40 members, who are artists, festival organizers and members of other community organizations, said Eric Neurath, president of the council and a local photographer, Friday.
“It would be great for Port Angeles if it could be widely known as an arts town,” he said.
The first fundraiser for the council will be “Barrels of Art,” which is on display in a vacant storefront at 123 E. First St. beginning this week.
The 10 wine barrels have been turned into works of art by local artists and will be sold in the fall to raise money for the newly formed organization.
The council, which has an interim board of directors but no bylaws yet, meets every two weeks. Its next meeting will be at 6 p.m. July 15 in the Port Angeles Senior Services & Community Center, 328 E. Seventh St.
Seeks nonprofit status
It decided to file for nonprofit status Wednesday, Neurath said, adding that the council would be able to accept tax-deductible donations if it is approved as a nonprofit.
Those donations would be used to promote and support the art community in Port Angeles — which Neurath said is the whole purpose of the organization.
The council’s mission statement says, “The Port Angeles Arts Council is dedicated to nurturing the vitality of the arts as an essential ingredient of the quality of life for area residents and visitors.
The council is a forum for artists and arts organizations, advocates for arts education at all levels, and serves to facilitate and advise the development of art projects in the public sphere.”
“We don’t just want to be a group of artists,” Neurath said.
“We want to represent the entire arts community.”
He added that the purpose of the council is to support the art community, not tell it what to do.
“We’re not trying to be a group that says you can do this or you can’t do that and you have to subscribe to our taste, whatever that might be,” Neurath said.
“We are here saying, we are here to promote the arts.”
Establish Web site
Neurath said one of the council’s first goals is to establish a Web site that will include a schedule of upcoming events.
“It’s going to be quite an undertaking to get that together,” he said.
The schedule, Neurath said, will of course, promote the events, but also help to ensure that similar events are not scheduled on the same day.
“That way, when somebody is thinking of scheduling something, they can look at the calendar and see what’s already scheduled,” he said.
“Right now there is a lot of [duplication]. There’s quite a lot of art in Port Angeles.”
Neurath said the council also will make recommendations to local government about issues facing the art community.
Previous attempts to form an arts council lost steam.
“Part of it was numbers,” Neurath said.
“We’ve got enough people committed to do the work to actually make it happen.”
The council’s board members are Bob Stokes, City Council candidate Max Mania, Sandy Long, Sandra Elmelund, Bob Harbick, Cathy Haight, Paul Wesley and Neurath.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
