Reve Shannon, actor, writer, and performer who you may remember was very involved locally in the theater and was also director of the County Fair for a while,  will be leading/directing a Playback Theater event on Saturday. Keith Busha will  provide the musical landscape for the performances. Playback Theater is an improvisational theater form that  Continue Reading

A new exhibit, Stuff: We Become Our Things: A Retrospective opens Saturday, September 15 at the San Juan Island Museum of Art. The exhibit is part of The Female Gaze, Part 3, The Woman as a Visionary and Creator and will be showing until November 26. Award-winning artist Nicola Wheston unveils a new installation that takes us from  Continue Reading

Friday: The Archipelago Collective presents a program of chamber music curated by its members in the beautiful Brickworks space.  Mozart Duo KV 292 for Bassoon and Cello Brahms Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major. Alex Shapiro Introspect for String Quartet Tchaikovsky String Quartet No. 1 in D Major Friday, Sept 7, 7:30 PM – 09:30 PM  $20  Continue Reading

There will be a free harp recital today, Sept 7 at noon at the library featuring harpist Sophie Baird-Daniel joined by friends from the Archipelago Collective. The musicians will teach a bit about the music and their instruments saving time at the end for a Q&A. On Saturday Sept 8 the whole family is invited to join  Continue Reading

There will be a reception Friday September, 7th  4-7 pm for artists Cathy Schoenberg, with floral oil paintings and Jo Moniz, with geometric encaustic paintings. Both artists share a richly hued color palate. Cathy’s journey to her present work in oils takes very circuitous route. Patterning of dancing figures, female forms, and felines lead to brilliantly colored floral shapes  Continue Reading

Salish Sea Ballet announces open auditions for the 2018 Friday Harbor Nutcracker. Auditions will be held at the Salish Sea Ballet studio (689 Airport Center, Friday Harbor) on Sunday, September 9th. Auditions are open to everyone age 3 and up. No dance experience is necessary! Audition Schedule: 1:00pm-1:30pm: Ages 3-6, no experience necessary 1:45pm-2:15pm: Ages  Continue Reading

Griffin Bay Bookstore & The San Juan Island Library Present The Great Cactus War by Terry Domico If you’ve read any of Terry Domico’s books or magazine articles, you know that he has a great knack for writing about natural history—describing landscapes, ecosystems, the flora and fauna that inhabit them. His book, Natural Areas of  Continue Reading

Fellow Film Buffs, Well, here we are in September and it is time for the Grand Finale of this year’s Film Series.  I hope you have enjoyed them and plan to join us again next summer.  Attendance this year was up 50%, but we can do even better.  Please invite your friends to send me  Continue Reading

San Juan Community Theatre’s 2018 Playwrights Festival What is the Playwrights Festival? It is an opportunity for new and veteran playwrights alike to develop and present their work onstage. Festival performances of new works, created by islanders, will take place September 6th through September 9th in the Gubelman and Whittier Theatres. Eight plays will be  Continue Reading

Americana Darlings! Birds of Chicago Saturday, September 1st at 7:30 pm at San Juan Community Theatre Recorded against a backdrop of political division and dread, Love in Wartime, the 2018 release from Americana darlings Birds of Chicago, is a rock’n’soul suite under the influence of the epic music generated by artists of the ’60’s and  Continue Reading

The San Juan Community Theatre will host three San Juan Island Artists, Dona Reed, BB McIntyre and Jan Murphy, for a month-long show, entitled, “Incongruent Muse” from September 1-30. All three artists are known for their work in Assemblage art, and the show will highlight several pieces of each artist’s work in this medium. The art  Continue Reading

  San Juan Island writer Ian Boyden receives NEA Fellowship to support translation of celebrated Tibetan-Chinese writer Tsering Woeser’s poetry On Wednesday, August 29th, the National Endowment for the Arts announced that Ian Boyden of Friday Harbor, WA, will receive an NEA Literature Translation Fellowship. The fellowship is being awarded to support the translation from  Continue Reading

It’s moved up a month this year – the Friday Harbor Film Festival will be held over the weekend of October 26, 27 & 28 instead of in November like previous years. Check out their website, www.fhff.org for all things FHFF! From volunteer opportunities, film descriptions and trailers, to film venues and schedules. And buy  Continue Reading

Island Stage Left shares this announcement with you… Ren was our Stage Manager for Doubt, some years ago and is now living in Australia.  This show has won awards at several fringe festivals in Australia and Canada and is coming to the Fairgrounds in Friday Harbor while we are away in England. (Please note it  Continue Reading

Fellow Film Buffs, here is a description of our next movie: Agnès Varda and JR have things in common: a passion for and the exploration of images in general, and more precisely, for places and for ways of showing, sharing, and exhibiting them. Agnès chose cinema. JR chose to create open air photography galleries. When  Continue Reading

In anticipation of the Conversation With Gee Bend exhibition at the San Juan Islands Museum of Art (SJIMA) in Friday Harbor, WA two inventive women proposed two projects. Julie Weaver and Judy Okulitch brought their ideas to the Rainshadow Quilting Arts Guild (RQAG) for a trial run. They introduced making Gee’s Bend-inspired potholders for SJIMA  Continue Reading

This year Friday Harbor High School students Ana Anderson and Mariah Daniher (class of 2018) were awarded first and second place, respectively, in the 37th annual Congressional Art Competition, sponsored by the Congressional Institute. It was the first time FHHS students have entered the competition. Ana’s piece Close Your Eyes and Fly Away was chosen  Continue Reading

Local photographer John Miller shares this photo… Hello SJ Update – I caught this fellow flying around the winery, in the gray! Fan powered motion! Nikon d500, f2, 200mm at f4 and 1/3000 sec. John

The San Juan Islands Museum of Art (SJIMA) is offering a workshop to transform your art-and it is fun! This special workshop is for any one who wants to take advantage of the one of the hottest ways to show art today- no matter the medium, two-dimensional or three-dimensional art. Join Ray Pfortner on Sunday,  Continue Reading

Fellow Film Buffs, Here is a description of our next movie… Dark Money Tuesday August 21 7:30 pm Documentary 99 minutes Dark Money examines one of the greatest present threats to American democracy: the influence of untraceable corporate money on our elections and elected officials. The film takes viewers to Montana – a front line  Continue Reading

Mayor Farhad Ghatan is seeking one youth representative for appointment to the Friday Harbor Arts Commission (FHAC). This appointee willl join seven other commissioners in representing the interests of the Town, community, and local artists as they advise the Town Council on the cultivation, selection, acquisition, and placement of public art. “This is an excellent  Continue Reading

Island Senior is a regular column on the SJ Update written by Peggy Sue McRae… You don’t have to spend much time here to realize that we have a wealth of local talent on our small Island. Our artists, musicians, and thespians are often on display but it is unusual to see a room full  Continue Reading