Aleutian Arts Council Community Art Show & Auction

Friday, April 18 2014

Typically held in January, the Aleutian Arts Council Annual Auction and Meeting was rescheduled on March 28^th. It was held in conjunction with their annual community art show at the Grand Aleutian Hotel’s Makushin Room.The art show started in 1991 by Curator Carolyn Reed and she shared, “Our very first show was through the Bering Sea Art Exchange. Later on, when the Bering Sea Art Exchange closed down, the Aleutian Arts Council adopted intellectual property for the show. The first show was at the Burma Road Chapel and, I think, we had 16 artists and at that point, the Burma Road Chapel was the community center. We had no PCR building so it was maxed out and used every single minute. We had to hang the show in one night and could have it up for the weekend and then take it down so it definitely was a grassroots initiative and the community liked it so much. I think we had 300 people that showed up in two days, which was huge back then and we asked local artists and local people to bake cookies because we didn’t even have catering service at that point. So it’s really come a long way since then and I’m really proud. Every year I’m amazed at how many wonderful artists we have. So it’s a great show.”

27 local artists, current and past residents, came together and submitted 80 different art pieces to the 22^nd Annual Community Art Show and they can have their pieces for sale or not for sale. UCSD’s art teacher Babbi Goodwin commented, “It’s a great show. I think it’s a really powerful show and like all of our shows, it’s really eclectic. There’s a wide variety of media and levels of artistic talent in our community and all different kinds of backgrounds of the people that live here, which is kind of what our show is all about: is to give the flavor of the community of Unalaska. The shows are different every year. Our show reflects that and so it changes every year. There are different strengths this year – we have a huge number of sculptural pieces. Probably more than we’ve ever had before and that changes every year. Sometimes it stronger in drawing and sometimes it’s stronger in photography. And that changes because our population changes, I think.”

The art show was a non-juried exhibit and ran until April 6, 2014.

The fundraiser event had about 26 live auction items and 13 silent auction items and raised over $3,000. An additional $500 was received in memberships. The featured entertainment, Our Band, was working on country music and Board President Kelly Stiles said that they decided to build a theme around it: “country fried with country/western”. This was the first year they had a theme and it was also a trial for future possibilities, like the re-introduction of the “Tacky Party”, an event the council hosted in the past.

“We tried to build a little bit different of an experience this year – not just a fundraising even but an entertaining and engaging even as well.” The community members were encouraged to dress the part.

The Aleutian Arts Council would like to thank the community for coming out to support the Arts Council and to thank the City of Unalaska for keeping their non-profit running and they couldn’t have done it without their grant and of course, their members.