Maryhill Arts Festival puts focus on area arts, theater
Lisl Garnett
For The Sentinel
Reflecting the variety and abundance of arts in the region, the Maryhill Arts Festival last weekend drew artists from around the Northwest.
According to Maryhill Museum Development Director Tim Copeland, there were 67 booths, 73 artists, and seven music groups at the Festival, not to mention the play put on by the Portland Actors Ensemble (see separate article).
This year’s theme centered on glass works as the museum is currently running an exhibit of celebrated glass artist William Morrison. Due to this year’s focus, Maryhill Museum staff invited the Oregon Glass Guild, and 14 of the booths at the show were registered to individuals from the guild.
Charlene Fort, President of the Oregon Glass Guild, has been drawn to the festival for years due to its scenic location. There are four chapters in the guild, reaching all the way to Eugene, Ore., and all chapters were represented at the Festival. In total the guild has close to 250 members who participate in everything related to glass, including fused glass, blown glass, cut and cast class, and stained glass.
Local artist Harry Horn is a part of the Gorge Chapter of Oregon Glass Guild and was at the festival. Horn got his start in glass blowing by working for NASA, doing glass work for the agency for close to 30 years. He started artistic glass blowing because one of his supervisors told him that no one could be both an artistic and a scientific glass worker. He has been a part of the guild for 12 years now. He says the guild offers useful classes and interaction.
Besides booths and live entertainment, the festival also had several artists demonstrating their craft for the public. Charlene Morrison gave painting demonstrations, and Cindy Martin demonstrated pottery on her wheel. There was a station especially devoted to allowing children to create “art” with foil that was very popular. Casa el Mirador and the Glass Onion offered food when people got hungry, and the museum’s café offered a variety of things, including ever-popular ice cream.
Bob Yoesle of the Goldendale Astronomy club offered viewing of the sun through a specially protected telescope. Yoesle does a number of events to educate the public on the sun and the advantages of eco-friendly energy. There was a line of interested people at his station constantly, and he said he has seen as many as 1,500 people in one weekend at some festivals, although at this one he said the numbers were “only” a few hundred.
Other local artists included: Jim and Dorothy Walter, Tami Lande, Kenneth Heikkila and Sandra Choate, Ron Sheldon, Scott and Felicia Gray, and Ron Schilling.
Performance warms up cold museum audience for A Comedy of Errors
Lisl Garnett
For The Sentinel
The audience for last Saturday’s performance of Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors by the Portland Actors Ensemble looked more like an REI warehouse than the usual patrons of the arts. Down jackets, sleeping bags and Coleman lanterns dotted the sculpture garden lawn while the actors performed. Members of the Ensemble estimated that close to 430 people turned out for the play, and most of them stayed despite extremely breezy conditions.
The actors themselves performed with zest, even when the wind grew so strong they had to lash their set to the trees to keep it from blowing over. Wind or no wind, this was, after all, one of the bard’s more beloved plays. Within minutes the audience was entranced enough to laugh and enjoy the show.
One particular person of interest in the cast was actor and business director Curtis Hanson, who got his start in acting by playing Elgin Perkins in The Goonies in 1985. He’s done many roles for the Ensemble, including the lead in King Lear last year.
The show was brought to the Maryhill Museum by local donors Robert Morrow and Judy Lackstrom. The two have been sponsoring artistic programs at the museum for a while because they “believe strongly in the cultural significance of the area,” Morrow said. He added that he felt the play and other programs at Maryhill Museum impacted the Goldendale area significantly.
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