Nora masters
Nora Masters Oil, 11 x 14 inches
To begin this new year, I thought it might be nice to offer “dinner and show” ideas, or perhaps a “coffee and show,” and more. The Amelia Wynn Winery Bistro is offering a pop-up art exhibition with seven wonderful local painters. The show is open Thursdays from 4:30pm to 7:30pm and Friday-Sunday 12:00pm to 8:00pm. The food is very good, so view the artwork while waiting for a take-out. For lighter fare, visit Cups Espresso & Café on Bjune Avenue. Have a coffee and sandwich, and while waiting, relax with the tranquil nature photography on the walls by Erich Schultz. While Schultz has been a photographer for fifty years and traveled extensively, the images are all based locally, giving a calm sense of our place on earth. As we are isolated during this pandemic, these images reflect our current state of stillness in the company of nature.
Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (BIMA), on the other hand, can also offer you fine dining and a show with their “Tuesday Take Out and a Movie Program.” BIMA’s Chef Stephanie offers this dinner pairing to “go with” movie streaming. While you cannot buy artwork to take home from the BIMA Bistro, there will be new exhibitions beginning this month in the museum itself.
Four exhibitions will open at BIMA between January 8 and 11 and close May 9. “Breathe” is a group exhibition dealing with human rights issues going back to Martin Luther King, Jr. days in what the museum calls their “Untold Stories” series of exhibitions. Another exhibition is “Paul Rucker: Forever.” Rucker’s work is a fascinating series that also recalls the civil rights issues of the 1960’s and the more contemporary civil rights movement, with the “Say Their Name” call and response witnessed during the 2020 demonstrations. He adds Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, and a dozen more to the civil rights history. These young martyrs are memorialized in the format of the US Postal Service’s Forever Stamps on a very large scale.
The main exhibition is a large one-person show of Kimberly Trowbridge’s paintings titled, “In the Garden.” The works on view are from the series she created as a Creative Fellow at Bloedel Reserve for the past two years. The works are abstract verdant landscapes.
Finally, the new exhibition in the Sherry Grover Gallery of BIMA is “Water Is….” These are a curated selection by Cynthia Sears and book artist, Catherine Alice Michaels. It includes works in the museum’s permanent book art collection.
Attendance at the museum will depend on the evolving restrictions due to the pandemic. Check the website or call to find out the admission status. With a vaccine, there is increasing hope that more institutions will open soon.
ABOUT BILL BARAN-MICKLE: 2020 Island Treasure Awardee . Recently, Bill has enjoyed exhibiting in several international art biennial exhibitions. Of the three in which he has participated, he won Third Place for Sculpture from the European Confederation of Art Critics in the Chianciamo Biennale, at the Chianciano Art Museum in Italy in 2011, and First Place in Applied Arts in the London Biennale of 2013. In 2013 alone, he will have participated in eight exhibitions: from London to a two-person exhibition near home. In addition, Bill was asked to be a representative for CCAC’s exhibition celebrating 100 years of the Metals Department, and a mix of group shows in New York City, Miami, Seattle and Las Vegas. Bill is the designer of the 10 foot Equitorial Bowstring Sundial located at the Richie Observatory in Battle Point Park on Bainbridge Island, WA and completed in 2015.