Art walks, chorus performances and the Festival of Lights highlight this weekend’s events on the Peninsula.
• First Friday Art Walk will celebrate autumn with a gold-themed walk from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday at various venues in downtown Sequim.
Maps for the self-guided tour are available at www.sequimartwalk.com.
Special events in December include:
— Over the Fence, 118 E. Washington St., will host Mary Beth Beuke of West Coast Sea Glass.
Beuke, a local artist, creates fine silver art jewelry that features sea glass pieces of every color.
Beuke also is the author and photographer of the book “The Ultimate Guide to Sea Glass.”
— The A. Milligan Art Gallery, 520 N. Sequim Ave., will host Olympic Peninsula Art Association’s Members Show and Fundraiser.
The annual sale benefits the association’s art scholarship program.
Visitors will be able to vote in the show’s “People’s Choice Awards.” Winning artists will be announced during the reception.
— Sequim Museum and Arts, 544 N. Sequim Ave., will exhibit the photography of Randall Tomaras in the Judith McInnes Tozzer Art Gallery.
Tomaras will share photographs from his world travels that include his explorations, portraits, landscapes, fine art and local events and sights.
Tomaras has published a new two-volume photo book, “It is NOT the Camera,” that features 115 photos and 115 short stories to help readers improve their images and their communication, regardless of skill level.
— Locally Known Cowork, 112 W. Washington St., will host the North Olympic Shuttle and Spindle Guild Fiber Arts Sale.
The guild has conducted workshops, study groups and monthly meetings for more than 40 years.
Members include fiber artists, fiber animal owners and fiber interested fans, from beginners to advanced.
— Blue Whole Gallery, 129 W. Washington St., will celebrate the holiday season with its annual Holiday Gift Gallery and the exhibition “Visions of Winter.”
The front window display includes winter-themed works from all the gallery artists.
Inside the gallery, the work of former Port Angeles resident Carol Janda, will be on display and available for purchase throughout the month.
For more information, including adding a venue or an artist to the listing, call Renne Emiko Brock at 360-460-3023 or email renneemiko@gmail.com.
• The Sequim Community Christmas Chorus will present “The Christmas Story” at 7 p.m. Friday and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church, 30 Sanford Lane, Sequim.
The 50-voice volunteer chorus will perform a program of 17 songs representing three centuries of musical styles.
The program will include a carol medley for two pianos and audience sing-along.
The chorus will be joined by instrumentalists and the Clallam Children’s Choir.
Tickets are by donation at the door. Proceeds will benefit the Sequim Food Bank and Clallam Children’s Choir.
• The Community Chorus of Port Townsend and East Jefferson County will present “Music Changes the World” at 7 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday.
Friday’s performance will be at First Presbyterian Church, 1111 Franklin St., Port Townsend, and Saturday’s performance will be at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, 45 Redeemer Way, Chimacum.
Tickets for each performance are $15 per person at www.brownpapertickets.com or at the door.
The concerts, which will be directed by Sarah Moran, include Spanish, African, Hebrew, German and Japanese songs.
The program includes variations on Christmas favorites such as “O Tannenbaum” and “Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella.”
In keeping with the world theme, Moran also has included 1971’s “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” “Umoja Tunaimba (United We Sing),” “Sing to Bring Us Together” and “Your Hand and Mine.”
Musical accompaniment will be provided by pianist Liz Hopkins and percussionist Sammy J. Watkins.
These concerts mark the return of the chorus’ cookie sale extravaganza, which has not been seen since 2019. Homemade holiday cookies will be available for purchase at both concerts for $15 per box.
Proceeds will help support next fall’s performance, with Port Townsend’s Rainshadow Chorale, of Handel’s “Messiah.”
All singers age 16 and older are welcome to join the combined choir to celebrate the Community Chorus’ 50th anniversary.
For information, call 360-643-3345, or visit www.ptchorus.org.
• Port Townsend Symphony Orchestra will perform its December concert at 2 p.m. Sunday in the auditorium at Chimacum High School, 91 West Valley Road, Chimacum.
The public also is invited to the orchestra’s dress rehearsal at 7 p.m. Friday.
Both the concert and the rehearsal are free.
Guest soloist Emmelyne Ulmer, a Seattle-based timpanist, will perform on Werner Thärichen’s Concerto for Tympani and Orchestra.
Ulmer has played with the Seattle Philharmonic, the Orchester der Technischen Universitaet Wien in Vienna and is a coach with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. She was a student participant at the Marrowstone Music Festival at Fort Worden and has served as an organizational leader for the festival and as a coach for younger participants.
The concerto brings out many capabilities of the timpani, including its ability to play melodies and even introduce chord structures.
“The interplay and musical conversations with other instruments in the orchestra are unique and intriguing, and full of color and really more melodic than may be anticipated,” Ulmer said.
The program, under the direction of Tigran Arakelyan, also includes the L’Arlésienne Suites by Georges Bizet.
This music began life in 1872 as incidental music for the drama “The Girl from Arles” by Alphonse Daudet.
Bizet composed 27 different pieces for both background music and entr’actes, pieces performed between acts in a play or opera. The background music turned out to be more popular than the play, so Bizet arranged it into two suites for a full symphony.
For more information, visit www.ptsymphony.org.
• The fourth Wintertide Festival of Lights at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center is set from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at the Esther Webster Gallery and in the adjacent Webster’s Woods, both located at 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd. in Port Angeles.
Tickets are $30 per person, $12 for youths. Family packages also are available at https://pafac.kindful.com/e/wintertide-2024.
The annual festival features 14 lighted art installations along the forest paths in the 5 acres of woods.
The light art exhibit, “Sparks in the Night,” will remain on display from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. nightly through Jan. 1.
The festival also includes food and drink vendors, shopping at the Makers Market, live performances and interactive light art stations and activities for all ages throughout Webster’s Woods.
A Lantern Walk is planned for 5 p.m. Attendees may purchase lanterns, bring their own or just walk among the other participants.
The Fractal Phase will return with choreographed fire performances at 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.
There also will be a performance by the Chaotic Noise Marching Band.
The Makers Market, food vendors and solstice crown station will open at 4 p.m. The glow paint tent, interactive art stations and the beer garden will open at 5 p.m.
Sarah Shea, a local jazz vocalist, will perform holiday music from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the courtyard.
Food and drink vendors include Pacific Pantry, Angeles Brewing Supplies and Dragon’s Brew Coffee Company.
For more information, visit www.pafac.org.
• Sarah Shea and Chez Jazz will perform from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at Wind Rose Cellars, 143 W. Washington St., Sequim. No cover charge.
• The Tess Teel Trio will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday at Joshua’s Restaurant, 113 S. Del Guzzi Drive, Port Angeles. No cover charge.
• The Stardust Big Band will perform from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday for a Holiday Dance at the Elks Lodge No. 2642, 143 Port Williams Road, Sequim.
Admission is $12 per person, $10 for lodge members.
• The Second Sunday Social Dance series will finish at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Quimper Grange, 1219 Corona St., Port Townsend. Admission is by donation. Doug, Barbara, Cheri and Rocky will match donations to the Recovery Cafe up to $500.
• Andrew Schelling and Tim McNulty will read poetry at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Port Townsend Friends Meetinghouse, 1841 Sheridan St., Port Townsend.
Schelling will read from his new book “Forests, Temples, Glacial Rivers.”
McNulty will read from his books “Cloud Studies” and ”Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain.”
For more information, visit www.emptybowl.org.
• Lisa Hillier will present “Sharks of Washington” at 3 p.m. Sunday in the chapel on Fort Worden on Fort Worden Way near W Street.
The free presentation is part of the Port Townsend Marine Science Center’s Future of Oceans series.
Hillier will discuss the sharks that inhabit Washington waters and how the state Department of Fish and Wildlife monitors and manages them.
Hillier is the Washington representative on the Coastal Pelagic Species Management Team for the Pacific Council and represents Washington on both the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska Plan Teams.
For more information, visit www.ptmsc.org.
