Art is in the Eye of the Beholder

Last night I attended the Junior League of Seattle Northwest Art Project Preview at the Wright Exhibition Space.  As a Past President of the Junior League of Seattle and past chairman of the JLS Northwest Art Committee, I was especially interested to see the entire art collection hung in one location.  One of the services that the Junior League of Seattle has provided the community is taking our art collection (usually one piece at a time) out to school classrooms and spending time talking about art and encouraging children to share what they see.  Each year, the Northwest Art Project introduces over 20,000 children to the rich production of these Northwest artists by exhibiting our highly respected art collection in local schools.

This event was a kick-off to the 50^th Anniversary of the JLS Northwest Art Project and was attended by both active and sustaining members of the Junior League of Seattle as well as many of the artists whose works are part of the collection.  Artists in attendance were Catherine Eaton Skinner, Joe Max Emminger, Norman Lundin (top photo with me above), Sherry Markovitz, Jose Orantes (2^nd photo above), Elizabeth Sandvig and Michael Spafford (3^rd photo above).  I was so pleased to meet Norman Lundin since husband, Ken, and I have one of his works and it has always been one of my favorite pieces of art in our collection.  It was also fascinating to watch artist, Michael Spafford, produce a new work on the spot as a door prize drawing, which unfortunately I did not win.

Honorary Event Chairs were Junior League of Seattle members, Dee Dickinson, who was the original founder of Northwest Art Project 50 years ago, Alexis Phelps and Janet True.  As an active member, Alexis also chaired the 30 year Anniversary Celebration of the Northwest Art Project which occurred the same evening that I took the gavel as President of the Junior League of Seattle (gulp!) 20 years ago.  See photo of Alexis and 2008-2009 JLS Past President, Joanne Petitto, above (4^th photo).

In addition to the Honorary Chairs, it was fun to catch up with many friends from Junior League including Colleen Willoughby, Pam Green and daughter Paige Dunn, Ann McCutcheon, Pam Eakes, Janet True and daughter Effie, Lorna Kneeland, Joanne Petitto, Betty Rubenstein and Pat Wallace to name a few.  (See bottom photo of Joanne, Betty & Pat.)  All in attendance enjoyed viewing the art, connecting with one another, sipping wine and nibbling on hors d’oeuvres and miniature cupcakes.