PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Fine Art Center will host its annual Art in Bloom Pop Up exhibit over Mother’s Day weekend, Friday through Sunday.
The exhibit will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day at the center at 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Art in Bloom will feature colorful floral designs in response to the center’s current exhibition, ‘What’s For Lunch?’, a Flower Bar, and a Plant a Pansy station. Gallery visitors will be able to enjoy original floral designs paired with the fiber art that inspired them.
Seven of the Peninsula’s floral designers will use flowers, greenery and other natural materials to create original arrangements in response to artwork in the exhibit. After visiting the gallery and studying the exhibit, each designer set to work creating an arrangement based on their selected piece of artwork.
On Saturday, visitors can purchase tickets for The Flower Bar from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., a ticketed opportunity to make floral arrangements, and children 12 and younger can Plant a Pansy for free from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Flower Bar tickets are $35 for arts center members and $40 for the general public. They can be purchased at: https://pafac.kindful.com/e/flower-bar-2023. The Flower Bar will operate in one-hour time slots from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
A ticket includes a vessel, locally grown flowers from Tin Can Floral Co., all necessary tools, and basic instruction for creating a floral arrangement that participants can take home. The workshop will be led by Ariel Zimman, who has worked as both a professional florist and ceramicist. Spaces are limited.
At the Plant a Pansy station, children can decorate their own mini “pots” and learn how to plant flowers. All the flowers have been donated by the Airport Garden Center.
Designers participating in this year’s event from the Port Angeles Garden Club are Pamela Ehtee, Billie Fitch, Bernice Cook, Patty Wheatley, Tina Cozzolino, Mary Lou Paulson and Linda Nutter.
They hold certificates in floral design and judging and are members of the Olympic Peninsula Judges Council of the Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs.
Art in Bloom, a longtime tradition at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, began in 2004 as the vision of longtime board member and volunteer Mim Foley, who participated in the event until her death in 2010.
Since then, Mim’s family and friends have established a memorial fund to ensure that Art in Bloom will continue. Foley’s daughter, Irene Alltucker, describes Art in Bloom as “a family activity that combined [Mim’s] two great loves: gardening and the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center.”
For more abut the arts center, see www.pafac.org.