BIMA is super excited to be participating in Refract, The Seattle Glass Experience from October 17-20, 2019!

Refract celebrates the region’s luminaries of glass art with epic exhibitions, festive art parties, fascinating talks, tours & demos, scores of open studios and exclusive collector events over four days. Glass artists, collectors, enthusiasts and more will converge on the Puget Sound region to give credit where credit is due in the Pacific Northwest’s role in advancing the art form.

To participate, BIMA is opening its first-ever exhibition exclusively dedicated to the many glass pieces in the Museum’s Permanent Art Collection. The exhibition opens October 12, 2019 and will remain up through February 23, 2010. It is also holding over its popular solo exhibition Carol Milne: Knit Wit which features kiln-cast glass techniques. Her sculptures defy the meticulous processes employed to complete the work. Milne’s ‘knitted’ sculptures go beyond realism and re-creation — they also weave personal memories and stories.

Chihuly Garden and Glass and Visit Seattle set out to answer the question of why the PNW has become such a center for glass art by creating Refract: The Seattle Glass Experience, which is the nation’s newest festival highlighting creative uses of glass. Refract brings together more than 50 art organizations and artists to host events throughout the region. Tour local studios, get up-close to the art of glassblowing at live demonstrations, explore exhibitions and museums, attend evening parties, and more.

See where glass art is created with obsessive passion, beauty, and who-knows-what’s-next creativity. Explore the magic and depths of this fascinating material. Celebrate alongside the artists who put this region on the map. We hope to see you there.

We’re excited to feature local artist and designer Joel DeTray in the Museum Store for the month of September 2019. Stop by the Museum Store to pick up one of Joel’s charming etchings featuring wildlife and the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

The Museum Store is open daily from 10am-6pm.

About Joel DeTray

Joel DeTray is an artist and goldsmith living on Dyes Inlet in Bremerton, WA. A graduate of Western Washington University, Joel received a Fine Arts degree in Studio Drawing and Painting. He went on to own and operate a working Intaglio Printmaking Studio/Gallery in Spokane, WA. Later he transformed his creative talents into the jewelry trade as a GIA Graduate Gemologist and master jeweler; going on to own and operate a successful business in custom fine jewelry and art for over 25 years. 

Printmaking is Joel’s passion; focusing on artistic creativity, discovery techniques, and expression. The detail of his original prints (etchings, dry points, monotypes, and linocuts) are direct, expressive, and easily translatable. He is known for his “artist’s touch” – an innovative and imaginative style.

We’re excited to welcome guest blogger Natalie! Natalie, who will be starting 3rd grade in the fall, recently attended the Art & Nature Camp at BIMA this summer and wanted to share some of her experience with the world:

Art camp was good. There was lots of art. Lots and lots of art. My teacher was Isobel. We did indigo dying, cyanotypes, made camouflage out of natural material we found in the park, made paint brushes from nature and painted with special paints made from vegetables. I did so much art that I have no where to put it. It was a good camp. BIMA is fun.

BIMA staff are sad to learn of the passing of Steve Franz, a friend of BIMA and invaluable member of the music community.

If you attended the daytime events at this year’s MOJO Rhythm and Blues Festival at BIMA in July 2019 you heard him sharing music at the blues listening parties, his commentary on the documentary And This is Free, and his insights into documenting, preserving and sharing blues music history during the panel discussion. Steve added incredible depth and richness to the program, we are grateful to his contributions to preserving and honoring blues music.

Mark Hoffman, Bainbridge Islander and one of Steve’s co-panelists from the MOJO festivities, wrote a tribute he has allowed us to share:

Steve was the real deal—one of the most knowledgeable scholars of vernacular music I ever met, and I’ve met some of the greatest. He was up there with Paul Oliver, Mike Leadbitter, Peter Guralnick, his mentor David Evans, and very few others as a vast storehouse of accurate information about every aspect of blues history, and he could also astound you with his knowledge country & western, rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, and bluegrass. He could tell you everything I knew and more about the blues players I followed and everything you’d want to know about blues players I barely recognized. His book about Elmore James was the first and last word about one of the greatest blues singers and electric slide players ever. Steve ran the best blues podcast I ever heard: Blues Unlimited Radio, where as “Sleepy Boy Hawkins” he did a weekly two-hour deep dive into a different genre, topic, or theme of the blues. He was a thoughtful man who tirelessly publicized the music and doings of many up-and-coming young blues players. He leaves behind the broken hearts of his many friends, who knew him as a learned gentleman of infinite kindness.

We’re excited to feature local artist and designer Alex Sanso in the Museum Store for the month of August 2019.

Stop by the Museum Store to pick up one of Alex’s charming and colorful designs featuring the beauty of our back yard, including a collection of her signature vintage Bainbridge Island travel poster style greeting cards featuring artwork that is exclusive to BIMA.

The Museum Store is open daily from 10am-6pm.

About Alex Sanso

Originally from California, artist and designer Alex Sanso has been a Bainbridge Islander since 2007. Alex has been a creative professional her entire adult life, as a graphic designer, illustrator, and artist for world-renowned companies such as Disney Theme Parks in Orlando, Florida (which included a life-altering expatriate detour in Tokyo, Japan for almost two years), and Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Missouri. Since bringing her family back to the West Coast and making Bainbridge Island her home, Alex has been the sole proprietor of her own business, Alex Sanso Creative, creating outstanding art and design for clients from around the
world and from right here on Bainbridge.

From early in her career, Alex found a passion for creating art that helps people celebrate and remember the travels, adventures, and special events in their lives—whether a long-planned family vacation to Walt Disney World, or an adventure through a US National Park. She’s brought that passion home to her own backyard and now shares the special qualities of Bainbridge Island through her art and collectibles. Her art gifts are enjoyed and collected by visiting travelers and locals alike.

See more from Alex Sanso

• Alex Sanso’s official website
• Alex Sanso’s Facebook page
• Alex Sanso’s Instagram

We were honored to host printmaker and book artist Amos Kennedy, Jr. at the museum for a weekend in May 2019 for a printmaking workshop with local youth, as well as an artist talk and screening of the documentary Proceed and Be Bold about Amos himself in the Frank Buxton Auditorium. This special visit coincided with BIMA’s exhibition Open Sesame! The Magic of Artist’s Books Revealed.

Once upon a time, Amos was a successful computer programmer for AT&T. He was stopped in his tracks one day when he saw a printing press at colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. At age 40, he decided that his corporate life was over. He had found his calling, he says, as a printer and provocateur. The rest, as they say, is history. We’re so grateful that Amos shared his time, his story, and his talent with us throughout this unforgettable weekend.

Check out this short video capturing some of this highlight moments from his visit to BIMA!

It’s a wrap! Thank you to everybody who showed up to BIMA’s first-ever MOJO Rhythm & Blues Festival! What a weekend and what a thrilling weekend of music and learning!

During the day, local blues artists Chebon Tiger and Tina Dietz drew steady crowds in the galleries, and blues documentarians and biographers Mark Hoffman, Jim Basnight, and Steve Franz shared their favorite blues tunes and presented fascinating & insightful programs on Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Chicago’s Maxwell Street. The evening concerts inspired three consecutive nights of standing ovations and if you attended any of these performances, you experienced the magic and wonder of world-class musicianship and true artistry. This weekend highlighted the rich Seattle music scene and celebrated a genre that shaped the last 100 years of popular music.

Tiffany Wilson kicked things off Thursday night with her smokin’ six-piece soul-funk extravaganza that had people singing along and on their feet, getting down with their bad selves in the aisles. Friday night, Tacoma singer-songwriter Stephanie Anne Johnson swept audiences away her magical and emotional original music, and everybody fell in love with her. After one song she commented, “Wow, you are an affectionate audience!” We love you, Stephanie! If Thursday was funky and Friday night was soulful, Saturday night was on fire.

Mark Pickerel & the Peyote 3 and Ian Moore & the Mescal 4’s sold-out Saturday night rock and roll show blew the doors off of the building. Featuring legendary Seattle musician, Mark Pickerel, blues virtuoso Ian Moore, and a band full of members of the Posies, the Shins, the Cops, the Screaming Trees, the Intelligence this night of music was an unrelenting wall of rock and roll that sunk its teeth in and never let go.

Keep that MOJO workin’! See you in 2020!

Our dedicated Install Crew which is made up of staff and our handiest of volunteers is hard at work hanging our Summer Exhibitions which open this Saturday, June 29. Come see their hard work and hundreds of beautiful works of art at the public reception from 2-5pm or any day between June 29 and September 29 from 10am-6pm.

In honor of our upcoming Mojo Rhythm & Blues Festival (July 11-14), BIMA Cultural Programs Manager Jesse Ziebart put together this awesome YouTube playlist with music by featured artists:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHwzS6Uhxef5jsX7rAIpHW8LJw93oF07w

Turn up your speakers (or headphones) and get your mojo workin’!

All of us at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art are still recuperating from an amazing BIMA Bash! auction weekend in support of the Museum’s exhibitions, programs and operations. While we take a minute to gather our thoughts and photos, we thought we’d share out the video that played during the Saturday night event. We feel fortunate to work with so many wonderful organizations and individuals to help us realize our mission “to inspire curiosity, wonder and understanding by connecting people with the contemporary art and craft of the Puget Sound region.”

Thanks for your support!