From Art Catalyst to Legacy Maker: Five Awards Presented in Soundcheck Kickoff

News by Diane Urbani de la Paz 

Now that was a roomful of joy. 

Artists—musicians, thespians, painters, community builders—came to the Port Townsend Arts Awards Friday night to revel in one another. The Jefferson County Fairgrounds’ Erickson Building filled up with cheering, stomping and standing ovations as the Port Townsend Arts Commission presented five awards to start off this weekend’s Soundcheck Festival. 

Port Townsend Mayor Amy Howard, along with emcees Christine Walsh Rogers and Jim Burke, city poet laureate Rufina C. Garay and arts commission chair Alexis Arrabito led the celebration, starting with the first honor: to Alexandra Anagnostopoulos, winner of the Arts Catalyst Award. 

Anagnostopoulos orchestrated the sweeping street art project on the fence surrounding Port Townsend’s Memorial Field. When she walked to the stage, the room rose up to applaud. 

The fence, which became a wide canvas for some 85 participants, will be torn down—that was known from the start—so those who added their art to it were able to “just be in the moment and paint without attachment,” Anagnostopoulos said. 

The art fence, which runs along Quincy, Washington and Monroe streets around the old stadium, stands beside the site of the indigenous village of Qatáy. The paintings show tenderness, sorrow, joy and grief—“it is all heart,” said Anagnostopoulos, and “an antidote for disconnection.”

The next winner, Chimacum High School band director Daniel Ferland, spoke up for connection through music. Ferland, also a founder of the Youth Education in Arts, or YEA summer music camps, received the Art Educator Award. He was hailed for one of his next gigs with the Chimacum band: playing in the U.S. 250th anniversary Independence Day parade this July 4 in Washington, D.C. 

“I take this on behalf of all public school music educators,” Ferland said after urging the crowd to contact their local music teachers and offer support. 

Then came the Creative Community Builder Award, presented to Genevieve Barlow, who is a cofounder of Saltfire Theatre, the executive director of KPTZ Community Radio and the artist network coordinator at Centrum. After another outpouring of applause, Barlow touted what she loves about live theater and live radio: the community’s willingness to engage.

“When you join us as an audience, you have to trust us. You come into that space, and you don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. 

“You don’t know how you’re going to feel; what’s going to change your mind. It’s a very vulnerable thing.” 

The Arts Legacy Award went to a woman who has been part of the county’s arts community for more than four decades: Martha Worthley. She has taught art in Port Townsend public schools, edited the Leader’s arts coverage, graced spaces including the Rose Theatre and Centrum’s Fiddle Tunes with her large-scale original artwork, and served as a Centrum program manager, coordinating artist residencies and youth access to arts camps. 

Today, Worthley is executive director of Northwind Art, the nonprofit organization operating Jeanette Best Gallery downtown, Northwind Art School at Fort Worden State Park and other community programs. 

Linda Rosenbury, Northwind’s board president, accepted the award on Worthley’s behalf, since the winner had a previous commitment: Some time ago she was asked to give a talk at the Collective Visions Gallery in Bremerton on this same Friday evening.  

Rosebury read Worthley’s message: “It’s exciting to be among a group of creative leaders receiving awards this year. We are lucky to have the arts as a foundational piece of our identity in the region. Thanks to my fellow awardees for their work to make it so,” she wrote. 

“I feel lucky to be part of creating an infrastructure that will benefit folks in years to come,” Worthley added. 

The final honor, the Youth Impact Award, went to a community of people who are also involved with the future. 

The Port Townsend Youth Theater—cofounders Tobi and Danny McEnerney and artist director Marc Weinblatt—ignited a wave of cheers as they brought a flock of young artists up to the stage with them. 

Weinblatt saluted the community members, including professionals, who have lifted up the young people in the project. These kids, he said, “are just open. They’re ready. They absorb, and then they fly.” 

On Saturday during the Soundcheck Festival, members of the project will do a playback theater session. They’re the newly created PT Youth Theater Ensemble, making its debut during the Performances for the People in the Port Townsend City Council Chambers at 250 Madison St. 

From 2:15 p.m. to 3 p.m., audience members will have a chance to share their stories, and see the young performers act them out, then and there. 

“Come see them fly without a net,” Weinblatt said. 

The Port Townsend Arts Awards, which began in 1999, are one of the ways the community tends to its artists, said Arts Commission chair Arrabito. She added that the commission supports artists, through grants and these awards, in turning their visions into reality. 

“That’s what tonight is about,” she said. Arrabito then expressed her hope that the awards party in front of her keeps growing—in size and in joy. 

The city commission’s message to art makers, she said, is: “we see you, we value you; what you do matters.”