Will you chip in to support our nonprofit newsroom with a donation today?
Yes, I want to support My MLTnews!
May has finally arrived, and it didn’t sneak in so much as burst. Petals are unfurling everywhere like tiny fashion reveals. The air buzzes with intention: Bumblebees are galumphing about from the pollen they’ve collected. And everywhere you look, something is building a nest.
This month jazz spills out of open doors and into the streets. Art shows and pop-up markets seem to appear overnight.
It’s a kind of collective barbaric yawp where everything decides it’s time to be seen and heard – and in the loveliest of ways.
~ ~ ~ ~
Sketcher Fest Edmonds reveals 2026 its poster
Sketcher Fest Edmonds has announced its poster, featuring original artwork commissioned from Shoreline-based artist and retired architect David Chamness.
Chamness was inspired to capture the unique roundabout at the intersection of 5th Avenue and Main Street. “It is the cultural and commercial center of Edmonds,” he said. “Many people only see Edmonds as they drive to take the ferry to Kingston, but they miss the downtown village with its charming historic core and Washington state’s first Creative District.”
Copies of the poster will be available for purchase at the Edmonds Waterfront Center, July 11-12.
~ ~ ~ ~
Summer Camps: Summer Music & Arts School
Camps: June 22 through July 10
Meadowdale High School, 6002 168th St. SW, Lynnwood
Cost: $385 price + $12.55 fee
Registration is open for the Edmonds School District Summer Music & Arts School, designed for students entering fifth grade and up.
This summer, the program is expanding with the addition of a visual arts component. No prior music experience is required, making it more accessible for students to try something new.
Students will participate in a variety of activities, including choir, band or orchestra, along with performance opportunities including the Fourth of July parade and a final concert.
~ ~ ~ ~
Upcoming Art Happenings:
Art: Good for the Mind, Body and Soul
Thursday, May 7, 6-8 p.m.
Cascadia Art Museum, 190 Sunset Ave. S., Ste. E, Edmonds
Cost: $16
Join artist and Cascadia Art Museum board member Tori Force for an evening exploring how art is intertwined with wellness. This lecture will discuss the mental, physical and social benefits of both viewing and making art. As an added bonus, Force will also lead a short art experience designed to help participants experience the health benefits in real time.
Force is a board-certified art therapist and licensed mental health counselor in the Seattle area. She works at Lakeside School as a middle school counselor and serves as the education and DEI adviser on the board of directors for Art Therapy For All.
~ ~ ~ ~
Olympic Ballet Theatre presents ‘Giselle’
Saturday, May 9, 7 p.m.; Sunday, May 10 at 5 p.m.
Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 4th Ave. N.
Run time: About 1.5 hours, plus a 15-minute intermission
Olympic Ballet Theatre (OBT) concludes its 45th Anniversary Season with Giselle, returning to the company’s stage for the first time since 2017.
Restaged by Artistic Directors Mara Vinson and Oleg Gorboulev after Marius Petipa, and based on the original choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, this iconic ballet returns to the Edmonds Center for the Arts for two performances.
Set to the score by Adolphe Adam, Giselle tells the haunting story of a young peasant girl who falls in love with a nobleman in disguise. When his betrayal is revealed, Giselle’s fragile heart cannot bear the truth. In the afterlife, she is summoned by the Wilis – vengeful spirits of betrayed women – but her enduring love ultimately saves the man who wronged her. A cornerstone of the Romantic ballet canon, Giselle is a moving meditation on love, loss and forgiveness.
During his career with Moscow Classical Ballet, Gorboulev performed all of the principal male roles in Giselle, while Vinson performed the title role when OBT performed it in 2014 and 2017. This season, the role will be danced by 21-year-old Yasmin Arafe, a dancer in OBT’s Trainee Program.
Arafe’s casting marks a significant moment for the organization. Still in the Trainee Program, she steps into one of the most emotionally and physically demanding roles in classical ballet. Her selection reflects both her individual artistry and the continued growth of OBT.
~ ~ ~ ~
Art Talk with Art Historian Lane Eagles
Tuesday, May 12, 7 p.m.
Graphite Arts Center, 202 Main St., Edmonds
Free and register
Join Art Historian Lane Eagles as she examines the lives and art of three Renaissance female painters: Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532-1625), Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614) and Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654).
Learn about the barriers they faced as female artists, how their work engages in dialogue with one another and their achievements as trailblazers.
Eagles has a Ph.D. and master’s degree in art history and serves on the faculty for the Masters of Arts in Museology program at the University of Washington Information School. She has lectured and curated throughout the Puget Sound, most recently as the associate curator for the Bellevue Arts Museum.
* There may be some nudity displayed during the event.
~ ~ ~ ~
Watercolor for Relaxation: Mushrooms
Wednesday, May 13, 6-8 p.m.
Graphite Arts Center, 202 Main St., Edmonds
Cost: $45; $10 supply fee payable to instructor
Ages: 18+
Level: All levels
Watercolor for Relaxation is a class designed to help participants cultivate calm while exploring watercolor.
The session begins with grounding warm-up exercises, followed by a 10-minute guided visualization to encourage relaxation and creative flow.
Instructor Missy Hancock will share watercolor techniques, painting tips and color theory. No prior watercolor experience is necessary. The class focuses on the process of painting as a tool for mindfulness instead of aiming for a finished product.
Hancock holds a master’s degree in teaching from Seattle University and has more than 20 years experience teaching in and out of the classroom. In 2022 she founded Rooted Design, LLC, with the goal of bringing positivity and purpose to people’s lives through art. She also serves as director of school programs for Art Start NW, a nonprofit that operates inside Graphite Arts Center.
~ ~ ~ ~
Calling all pet owners!
Sunday, May 17 or Saturday, May 30, noon to 3 p.m.
Cole Gallery, 107 5th Ave. S., Edmonds
What to bring: Your pet
Cole Gallery and Pam Ingalls present a new portrait project, Pets & Their People, a series of 35 paintings celebrating the connection between pets and their people.
Participants are invited to bring their four-legged, two-legged, feathered or furry companion to Cole Gallery, where they’ll spend a few minutes with the artist and her video camera. From this brief encounter, Ingalls will create a one-of-a-kind painted portrait.
Participation includes a complimentary 8 × 10 printed portrait, along with the first opportunity to purchase the original painting at a 10% discount (purchase is optional).
Selected works will be featured in the Pets & Their People exhibition in August 2026 at Cole Gallery. All ages, personalities and species are welcome.
~ ~ ~ ~
Janée J. Baugher: ‘The Andrew Wyeth Chronicles’
Thursday, May 21, 6 p.m. (during Art Walk Edmonds)
Edmonds Bookshop, 111 5th Ave. S.
Edmonds Bookshop announced writer, editor and lecturer Janée J. Baugher will read from her newest book of poetry, The Andrew Wyeth Chronicles, during Art Walk Edmonds.
The Andrew Wyeth Chronicles is her third full-length poetry collection, which won the Tupelo Press’s Dorset Prize. It presents an imaginative narrative of painter Andrew Wyeth’s creative life, marked by both losses and pleasures.
Baugher has crafted a book-length work of ekphrastic poetry in which Wyeth serves as a character chronicling his internal musings. Ekphrastic poetry is defined as vivid written descriptions as emotional responses to works of visual art. Wyeth’s paintings, drawings and watercolors become portals through which the author imagines worlds beyond her immediate awareness while exploring linguistic possibilities.
Baugher is also the author of The Ekphrastic Writer: Creating Art-Influenced Poetry, Fiction and Nonfiction and has been a featured reader at the Library of Congress. She is a lecturer, a longtime assistant editor at Boulevard magazine and lives in Seattle, where the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture awarded her a 2024-25 CityArtist grant.
~ ~ ~ ~
Big Band Night
Thursday, May 21, 6:30-8:30 p.m. (during Art Walk Edmonds)
Edmonds Opera House, 515 Dayton St.
No cover
Join Jake Bergevin and the Jazz Punishments Big Band for their last Big Band Night of the season.
Amateur musicians are also invited to participate in a sight-reading session alongside professional musicians, offering a unique collaborative experience. Refreshments will be provided by Vinbero.
~ ~ ~ ~
Edmonds-Woodway Jazz Band performs at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley
Wednesday, May 27, 7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)
Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, 2033 6th Ave, Seattle
Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley presents the Edmonds-Woodway High School Jazz Ensembles, directed by Jake Bergevin and Max Bennett, for one night only.
Edmonds-Woodway’s Jazz Ensemble I is recognized by Starbucks as one of the area’s top five high school jazz programs. Edmonds-Woodway is also a five-time finalist in the Essentially Ellington Competition in New York.
The concert celebrates senior musicians in their final performance, featuring performances by student soloists and ensembles.
~ ~ ~ ~
Evergreen Ensemble premieres ‘To Look West’
Saturday, May 30, 7 p.m. at Trinity Parish Episcopal Church, Seattle; Sunday, May 31, 3 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, Lynnwood
Evergreen Ensemble presents the world premiere of To Look West, a new multi-movement choral work by composer Connor Koppin inspired by Pacific Northwest voices.
Written for choir, string quartet and piano, To Look West explores the relationship between landscape and human memory, drawing on texts from early Northwest voices, including David Douglas, David Thompson and Ella Rhoads Higginson.
Through journals, scientific writings and poetry, the work reflects on the experience of returning to familiar places that have changed over time.
About half of the text is drawn from the writings of Douglas and Thompson, whose detailed records of exploration and scientific observation helped shape early understanding of the region. These voices are set alongside the vivid, descriptive poetry of Higginson, whose work brings a more intimate and contemporary resonance. Together, these sources form a layered portrait, bridging past and present through both language and music.
For Artistic Director David Hendrix, the connection between the work and its place of performance is central. “We get to sing this piece first, in the very place it’s about,” Hendrix said. “These are texts written about landscapes we know – places that, in some cases, are just down the road. That connection makes the piece feel especially close to home.”
Musically, To Look West unfolds across the arc of a single day, moving from dawn through twilight and tracing the shifting interplay between memory and the physical world.
The instrumental writing evokes the natural environment, while the choir gives voice to the human presence within it.
Koppin’s compositional approach emphasizes both challenge and reward for performers. “What draws me again and again to Connor’s music,” Hendrix said, “is that it challenges singers in a meaningful way. There’s a real sense of reward in it, a genuine pleasure in singing something that asks a lot of you.”
~ ~ ~ ~
5th Annual Edmonds Jazz Walk
Saturday, May 30, 2026, 5 p.m. to midnight
Adult tickets: $45.00 early bird/$55 presale/$60 at the door
Student tickets: $35.00 early bird/$45 presale/$50 at the door
* One ticket allows access to all shows
The 5th Annual Edmonds Jazz Walk is a highly-anticipated music festival near the waterfront in Edmonds, featuring some of the finest jazz talent in the Pacific Northwest. Sixteen venues will host throughout downtown Edmonds.
This year, five student big band and vocal jazz performances will also take place at the Masonic Lodge beginning at 5 p.m., featuring ensembles from College Place Middle School, Edmonds-Woodway High School, the University of Washington, Shoreline Community College and Edmonds College’s Soundsation.
“I’m so grateful for all the people in our community who realize the importance of leaving their couches and screens to experience living jazz artists practicing their craft locally (up close and personally),” Jake Bergevin said. “The merchant hosts, donors, volunteers, artists and the fans are all helping to build healthy relationships that make Edmonds so great. This years’ lineup is another humdinger. Don’t miss it.”
Most venues are family-friendly for all ages, except Kelnero and The Fox and Bottle which are 21-plus.
Visit the Edmonds Jazz Walk website for a list of performers and venues.
*If you would like your event included in future Art Beat listings, email Nahline Gouin at [email protected].
Real first and last names — as well as city of residence — are required for all commenters.
This is so we can verify your identity before approving your comment.
By commenting here you agree to abide by our Code of Conduct. Please read our code at the bottom of this page before commenting.