Do you remember student art exhibits at the Edmonds Public Library? The Local Artists Exhibit at the Surf and Sand Marina in 1958? Or festivals held at the Edmonds Civic Center in the 1960s and early 1970s? Did you walk through the juried art gallery at the Fire House? What about the festivals at Mill Town? The Frank Freese American Legion Hall? Or Holy Rosary School? All of these locations were part of the Edmonds Arts Festival before settling at the Frances Anderson Cultural Center 27 years ago.
The first festivals featured exhibits at the Carnegie Library on Fifth Avenue. Today the festival has come full circle at the same location, where today’s Edmonds Museum hosts a special exhibit titled “Celebrate 50 years of the Arts in Edmonds.”
The exhibit features notable figures and events from each of the festival’s five decades and traces its evolution from the beginning at the Surf-n-Sand Marina to its current status as one of the most respected arts festivals on the West Coast. A live artist demonstration booth, past newspaper articles and scrapbook pages, plus examples of limited edition festival posters, which were introduced in 1983, are among the exhibit’s highlights. Visitors to the exhibit are also encouraged to write their memories of the Edmonds Arts Festival, as an artist, volunteer or patron.
A feature of the exhibit will be local potter Sam Scott, who has been with the festival for over 30 years. He will have a “booth” within the exhibit representing the artists past and present who have participated in the festival.
“Celebrate 50 Years of Arts in Edmonds” continues through Sept. 2.
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