Category Archives: Arts

Arts, Neighborhood Pride

Beaconettes three-peat!

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The Beaconettes made it a three-peat at the the Great Figgy Pudding Street-Corner Caroling Competition on Friday night, winning the People’s Choice award (by applause-o-meter!) for the third year in a row. They also raised the most money during the competition of any of the groups. Funds raised will go to the Pike Place Market Senior Center and Food Bank.

This photo of the Beaconettes performing on Friday was submitted by Allison Delong. Thanks, Allison! The group was also featured on SeattlePI.com and the Seattle Times.

The Beaconettes in the 2011 Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Contest. Photo by Allison Delong.
Arts, Neighborhood Pride

Beaconettes compete in caroling competition tonight

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Our very own Beaconettes are competing tonight in the Great Figgy Pudding Street-Corner Caroling Competition, at Sixth and Pine downtown from 6:15-7:15 p.m. Forty-plus neighborhood choirs will compete and raise funds for the Pike Market Senior Center and Food Bank.

Last year, the Beaconettes won the People’s Choice award for the second year in a row. Here’s a video of them (with very interesting hairstyles) performing “Seattle’s Best Things” for a large crowd at last year’s competition.

Come on downtown and cheer them on! You can take Link directly there and back and avoid any Westlake parking hassles.

Arts, Local Events

Music, “Urban Retreat” among this weekend’s events

Music and a peaceful retreat are coming to North Beacon this weekend through two events.

On Friday (tonight!) at 8 p.m., the Tangletown String Band will bring bluegrass, alt-country, and “old-time” music to Quetzalcoatl Gallery, 3209 Beacon Ave. S. Hear some examples of their music here.

The second event is Urban Retreat: Advent through the Senses, a “day of retreat” at Poustinia House, 3007 16th Ave. S. from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 3. All are welcome. The hosts say:

“Located in a house in North Beacon Hill this retreat will offer spaces to read, walk a labyrinth, do some writing, meditate or have a cup of tea. Advent is a latin word for ‘coming’ and is a season preceding Christmas. In this space we get to be and come into a new way of being during this holiday season.”

Jonathan Myers of Poustinia House adds “We’re not at all interested in preaching to people or having them join anything. All we want to do is provide space for people to escape from the craziness of life, center and ground themselves before the mad rush of the holidays gets too overwhelming.”

Arts, Local Events, Volunteering and Giving

Caspar Babypants to play at Wellspring Open House Saturday

Wellspring Family Services, just a bit east of Beacon Hill on Rainier Avenue, is holding a free Holiday Open House this Saturday, December 3. The event will feature a special performance by Caspar Babypants (otherwise known as Chris Ballew from The Presidents of the United States of America). Caspar will be debuting a brand-new song written about the winner of this summer’s Kids Helping Kids coin drive contest.

The event runs from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. at Wellspring, 1900 Rainier Ave. S. Caspar Babypants performs live at 1 p.m., and there will also be holiday treats and tours of the facility.

Admission is free for all ages, however, you are encouraged to bring a new, unwrapped toy to donate to the Wellspring Holiday Toy Room. The Toy Room is a place where homeless families may come and choose gifts for their children. Wellspring expects to share gifts with over 1,000 children in this year’s Toy Room.

Caspar Babypants performs for happy, dancing children. Photo courtesy of Wellspring Family Services.
Arts

Time, Wasted at NEPO House, 12/17

NEPO House on South Lander Street is hosting an opening reception, Time, Wasted, on December 17. The event will include a screening of Waste of Time: Capitalism, Consumption, and the Quest for Renewal, a documentary film by local filmmaker Shaun Scott, as well as photographs by Virginia Wilcox.

According to NEPO, the presentation will “explore the United States’ brief and improbable journey from pastoral expanse to industrial juggernaut to recession-prone wasteland.” Waste of Time, Shaun Scott’s second feature-length film, will tell the story of our consumer culture through a collage of vintage ads, music, and narration.

Scott’s other work includes Seat of Empire, which The Stranger described as a “strange, fascinating, messy, playful, serious, poetic, philosophical, meandering, grounded, compounded, confounding, political, and insouciant history of Seattle,” and 100% Off: A Recession-Era Romance.

(See a recent interview with Scott in CityArts.)

Virginia Wilcox will show her own new works including photographs of people absorbed by and involved with their mobile devices, and images of bleak post-industrial landscapes in rural America.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with both artists.

The event is at NEPO House, 1723 S. Lander St., on December 17 from 6-10 p.m. Suggested donation is $5.

NEPO celebrated their two-year anniversary last Saturday.

This is the trailer for Waste of Time:

The event is at NEPO House, 1723 S. Lander St., on December 17 from 6-10 p.m. Suggested donation is $5.

NEPO celebrated their two-year anniversary last Saturday.

Arts, Other Neighborhoods

Beacon Hill artist featured at SAM Day of the Dead

Beacon Hill artist Fulgencio Lazo (mentioned earlier this week) will have a tapete (sand painting) on display at the annual Day of the Dead celebration at Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park, tonight, November 4, from 6-7:30 p.m. The park is located at 2901 Western Ave, near Pier 70 and Myrtle Edwards Park.

Banda Gozona, an 18-piece brass band, will perform Oaxacan music at the event. There will be also be art activities for all ages, and Mexican food catered by Manjares Seattle.

This video shows the process of creating one of Lazo’s sand paintings:

Arts, Volunteering and Giving

Create art chairs with painter Fulgencio Lazo

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Art Chair #1, painted by Kathleen McHugh earlier this year. Photo courtesy of ROCKiT space.
ROCKiT space is hosting a work party on Saturday, November 5 as part of a continuing project to decorate art chairs for community events. The “Have a Seat, Beacon” project, which began earlier this year, will create 45 chairs that are also individual works of art. This free workshop with Oaxacan and Seattle-based painter and print-maker Fulgencio Lazo will provide participants with the opportunity to transform a plain metal folding chair into a painted art chair.

Lazo, who resides on Beacon Hill with his family, will share his technique and aesthetic approach at the workshop, as well as painting two chairs himself. His work has been exhibited extensively in Mexico, Japan and the United States. Sue Peters of the Seattle Weekly wrote about him in 2005: “There’s a simplicity and joy to Fulgencio Lazo’s work that’s refreshing. His oil paintings evoke Paul Klee and Marc Chagall in their vividly whimsical celebration of family, heritage, and community in his native Oaxaca.”

Space is limited, so the free workshop is open to the public by reservation. No experience is necessary, and the workshop is bilingual. For more information or to reserve a spot in the workshop, contact Sheba Burney-Jones at shebabj@gmail.com or 206-669-4574.

(Wendi Dunlap also contributed to this article.)

Arts, Local Events

Tile-making party takes place tonight at BHIS

The first of two tile-making parties is today, October 19, from 4:30-7:30 p.m. at the Beacon Hill International School Multipurpose Room. Neighbors and friends of the school can take part in the creation of a tile mosaic for the south-facing wall of the BHIS entryway. (Previously mentioned here on the BHB.) Mosaic artist Julie Maher will lead the project.

The tiles and supplies will be provided, as will dinner. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Beacon Hill International School is located at 2025 14th Ave. S.

For more information, download the PDF here.

The next tile-making party will be Wednesday, November 9 from 4:30-7:30 p.m.

Arts, Local Events

Harvest Fair comes to Garden House on 10/22

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Mark your calendar for the Beacon Hill Harvest Fair, Saturday October 22 from 2-9 p.m. Activities for all ages include apple cider pressing, art, music, and dancing. On the edible side of things, there will also be a bake sale, food vendors, a Food Forest demonstration, and, to share the harvest’s bounty, a donation drive for the El Centro de la Raza food bank.

The Harvest Fair is free and will take place at the Garden House, 2336 15th Ave. S.

Here’s the planned schedule of events:

  • 2 p.m. until dark:

    • Apple cider pressing with 300 pounds of apples grown here on Beacon Hill at the Jose Rizal Park orchard. If you have extra home grown apples you would like to share, bring them to be pressed.
    • El Centro de la Raza Food Bank food drive
    • Beacon Food Forest demonstrates a “fruit tree guild”
    • Beacon Hill Garden Club members talk to interested folks about membership in their organization
    • ROCKiT space bake sale
    • Food vendors
  • 2-5 p.m.: Create an Art Chair with Kathleen McHugh. For all ages, no experience required.
  • 3 p.m.: Hamanah Don plays West African Malinke harvest rhythms.
  • 5 p.m.: Aaron Hennings leads the Mercer Middle School eighth grade orchestra.
  • 6 p.m.: Jefferson Community Center-based break dance crews perform.
  • 7-9 p.m.: Harvest Fair Barn Dance featuring the Small Time String Band (Oliver Abrahamson on fiddle, Eli Abrahamson on banjo, Terrie Abrahamson on guitar, and Danny Abrahamson on bass), with Sherry Nevins calling dances that are fun for the whole family—no lessons or experience needed.
Arts, Local Events

Beacon Boogie brings art, music, and fun on 10/29

The first Beacon Boogie will celebrate food, art, and music on the Hill on October 29. Five bands will perform in five different North Beacon venues for five dollars (free for kids 12 and under). All of the venues are on Beacon Avenue South within a half block of South Hanford Street.

The festivities begin with pizza and the jazz of Trio Zazou at Bar del Corso from 5-7 p.m. Then from 7-10, the music moves to four other venues:

Quetzalcoatl Gallery will also host a community Day of the Dead altar, and a reception for a photography exhibition by Almendra Sandoval.

The Beacon Boogie is sponsored by the Beacon Hill Merchants Association.

Here’s a video of Beacon Boogie performer Greg Ruby:

Read on to see more videos and a clickable map of the event’s venues.
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