Art Beat: Uptown jazz, Lunar New Year reading, a whale’s tail

Spotlight: Art Walk Edmonds unveils new sculpture at Edmonds Waterfront Center

Thursday, Feb. 19, 5:30 p.m.

Edmonds Waterfront Center, 220 Railroad Ave. 

Reception to follow inside

Art Walk Edmonds invites the community to celebrate the installation of a new outdoor sculpture titled Memories by artist Ken Barnes. Carved from a 3,000-pound block of granite and shaped into the form of a whale’s tail, Barnes created the piece in honor of his late wife, drawing inspiration from the waterfront, a place that held special meaning for both of them.

“After my wife passed, I found myself needing to make something,” Barnes said. “Adele loved strolling along cobbled beaches, looking out over the water for whales and anything else that might surface. Knowing this sculpture now lives by a waterfront like the ones she loved feels incredibly meaningful to me.”

Accompanying the sculpture is a haiku written by Barnes:

Breaching the surface


From the depths of my lifetime


Then slipping away

The placement came together through a collaboration between Art Walk Edmonds and the Waterfront Center. Art Walk Edmonds Board Member Lynn Hanson connected with Julaine Fleetwood of the Edmonds Waterfront Center while searching for a location for Barnes’ sculpture. Fleetwood and Waterfront Center CEO Daniel Johnson immediately envisioned the perfect location near the building’s east-facing doors.

“While the sculpture is technically on loan, we’re hoping it will grace the entrance of the Waterfront Center for many years to come,” Hanson said.

In addition to Memories, Art Walk Edmonds is currently working on several upcoming public art projects, including a utility box wrap near Highway 99, and a floral-themed mural in partnership with Edmonds in Bloom.

Funding for these projects comes primarily from the popular Summer Wine Walks, hosted twice each year by Art Walk Edmonds. Additional support comes from individual donations, grants and business sponsorships.

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Spotlight: Delfeayo Marsalis & the Uptown Jazz Orchestra  

Sunday, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m.

Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 4th Ave. N.

Tickets

Let the good times roll! Bring a little New Orleans joy to Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra (UJO). Bursting with swing, soul and celebratory energy, this is music meant to be felt as much as heard.

A Grammy-winning producer, trombonist, composer and NEA Jazz Master, Marsalis has dedicated his career to promoting music, theater and education.

Marsalis has toured internationally with music legends such as Ray Charles, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Elvin Jones and Slide Hampton, in addition to leading his own groups. At age 17, he began his career as a producer and has since produced more than 125 recordings, earning one Grammy Award and several nominations.

In addition to the UJO, Marsalis founded Uptown Music Theatre in 2000, a nonprofit organization that empowers youth through musical theater training. He has written 16 musicals and composed more than 100 songs that introduce children to jazz. Through his “Swinging with the Cool School” workshops, he has reached more than 10,000 students nationwide.

In 2007, NEA Jazz Master and Grammy Award-winning trombonist Marsalis formed the UJO to preserve important jazz traditions, including riff playing, spontaneous group improvisation and collective New Orleans instrumental polyphony. At the time, Marsalis recognized that the New Orleans music community lacked an infusion of young, homegrown talent outside the brass band tradition and set out to create an orchestra capable of presenting traditional, classic and modern compositions with authenticity.

Since then, the UJO has grown into one of the premier large ensembles in the world, releasing three critically acclaimed albums and touring locally, nationally and internationally.

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Spotlight: ‘The Outsider’


Performances: Feb. 27 to March 22, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. 

Run time: 2 hours plus a 15-minute intermission

Wade James Theatre, 950 Main Street, Edmonds

Rating: Teen+

Cost: $31 General Adults (ages 19-59); $28 Youth/Senior/Military

Tickets online or by phone at 425-774-9600

Edmonds Driftwood Players (EDP) announces its upcoming comedic production of The Outsider, written by Paul Slade Smith and directed by Tammis Doyle.

Ned Newley doesn’t even want to be governor. He’s terrified of public speaking, and his poll numbers are impressively bad. To his ever-supportive chief of staff, Ned seems destined to fail. But political consultant Arthur Vance sees things differently: Ned might be the worst candidate to ever run for office…unless the public is looking for…the worst candidate to ever run for office. The result is a timely and hilarious comedy that skewers politics while celebrating democracy.

EDP is a volunteer-based nonprofit community theater that has been entertaining audiences in the Pacific Northwest since 1958, making it one of the oldest operating community theaters in Washington state. As EDP celebrates 67 seasons in Edmonds, the organization thanks the community for its continued support of local theater.

The Outsider is presented by special arrangement with Broadway Licensing, LLC, servicing the Dramatists Play Service collection.

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Upcoming art events

Third Thursdays: Art Walk Edmonds

Thursday, Feb.19, 5-8 p.m.

Downtown Edmonds

Printable map and interactive map

Art Walk Edmonds is a free monthly community event where, every third Thursday, participating businesses open their doors to showcase local and regional art, giving the public a chance to meet and mingle with the artists and see new work.

Highlight: “Let the Good Times Roll”

Join Jake Bergevin and the Jazz Apostates Dektette at the Old Edmonds Opera House at 6:30 p.m.

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Kids Self-Portrait Art /Arte de Autorretrato para Niños

Saturday, Feb. 21, 4-5 p.m.

Mariner Library, Mariner Library Meeting Room, 520 128th St. SW, Everett

Create a unique self-portrait using a variety of arts and crafts supplies. Celebrate your identity through colorful painting, paper collage and other techniques. Materials are provided by the library while supplies last – just bring your creativity.

Crea un autorretrato único usando una variedad de materiales de arte. Celebraremos nuestra identidad a través de pinturas coloridas, collages de papel y otras técnicas. La biblioteca proporcionará los materiales hasta agotar. Solo hay que traer creatividad.

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The second Kids Book Talk! 

Sunday, Feb. 22, 3-3:30 p.m.

Edmonds Bookshop, 111 5th Ave. S.

Free

Children ages 8-12 are invited to join a monthly “book club” just for them, with fun activities centered around the book-of-the-month. The February selection is Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell.

All middle-grade readers who have read the book are welcome to attend with an adult; this is not a drop-off event. 

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Capture the Magic of the World Around You in Watercolor with Kim Caldwell

Four Wednesdays, Feb. 25 to March 18, 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Cole Art Studio, 107 5th Ave. S., Edmonds (located in the lower level of Cole Gallery)

Level: All levels

Cost: $325

Registration and supplies list

Gain confidence in your brushwork and color-mixing skills in this watercolor class for beginners. Taught by artist and instructor Kim Caldwell, the class focuses on building confidence while working with the expressive medium of watercolor.

You’ll learn to control the water-to-paint ratio to achieve deep, rich darks, luminous highlights and subtle, harmonious grays. Using reference photos as inspiration, Caldwell will guide you in deciding what details to include and what to simplify, helping you create paintings that express your personal impression of a scene rather than copying every detail.

Color mixing is made easy through the use of a limited palette. You’ll also learn how to paint hard and soft edges, use your brush to create texture, and apply principles of composition, design and depth. By the end of the series, you’ll feel more confident about painting with watercolor.

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Celebrate Lunar New Year with Edmonds Bookshop’s Story Time 

Edmonds Bookshop, 111 5th Ave. S.

Friday, Feb. 27, 9:30 am

Free

At Edmonds Bookshop’s monthly Story Time, Karin Butler and Dina Soy-Olson of the Multicultural Association of Edmonds (MAE) will read a story in celebration of Lunar New Year. 

The featured book is A Sweet New Year for Ren by Michelle Sterling, illustrated by Dung Ho, and a fun activity will follow the reading. Children and their grown-ups are welcome to join this special holiday Story Time.

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‘Xanadu’ auditions at Black Box Theatre

Auditions: March 2 and 3, 2026


Audition Workshop: March 2, 7 p.m.


Auditions: March 3, 7 p.m.

Rehearsals: April 6 to May 13

Performances: May 14-17

The Black Box Theatre at Edmonds College, 20310 68th Ave. W., Lynnwood


Call 425-640-1448 for more information

Edmonds College’s Black Box Theatre announces its auditions for Xanadu, written by Douglas Carter Beane, Jeff Lynne and John Farrar, and directed by Rachel Klem.

In Greek legend, the Muses inspire artists of the mortal world. When Clio, Muse of History, spots down-on-his-luck artist Sonny, she vows to help him create a 1980s artistic masterpiece: A roller disco. Her plan is thwarted by her evil sisters, who trick her into falling in love with Sonny, an unforgivable crime for a Muse. How will Zeus punish the well-meaning couple?

Based on the film by the same name, Xanadu puts a playful twist on Greek myth, combining it with disco fever and the outrageous style of the 1980s. Featuring music by the Electric Light Orchestra and an unabashedly silly script, Xanadu is a tongue-in-cheek celebration of the absurdity of art and the joy of being human.

*If you would like your event included in future Art Beat listings, email Nahline Gouin at nahline.gouin@gmail.com.

Based in Edmonds, Nahline Gouin is a freelance writer, ceramicist and arts advocate with experience in art museums and performing arts centers. She continues to create with clay, homeschool her son and write as a creative practice.