Art Walk Edmonds participating galleries will help you wrap up your holiday in the most artful ways with its Thursday, Dec. 17 art walk. There’s music and cookies, brightly lit shops and the welcome of gallery staff awaiting you this evening.

And though we are very excited about presenting our readers with this week’s art gallery news; once we are all through the Christmas week, and dancing into the New Year, you’ll find Artfully Edmonds featuring a marvelously merry January.

So make sure that we are bookmarked on your smartphones, iPhones and iPads – you’ll be just a click! click! away from online box offices, Google map locators, click-backs to detailed event previews and all of the other benefits that digital news can bring its readers.

See you at this month’s Art Walk Edmonds (AWE). Your AWE map is always available at this map link.

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ZINC Art + Interiors, located at 102 3^rd Ave. S., leads Art Walk Edmonds’ mentions with news that Liam Brazier Star Wars prints are available at the pop culture gallery just as “Star Wars: Episode VII” opens on Friday! From Darth Vader, to Hans Solo, to the evil Kylo Ren and his army of Stormtroopers, Brazier has the galaxy covered.

Just imagine, if you will, the stratospheric excitement of any child, or child-at-heart, who finds a Brazier poster under the tree on Christmas morning.

According to gallery owner Laura Zeck about this month’s Art Walk, “There is going to be some serious partying!”

Always bold! Always in party mode! ZINC Art + Interiors.

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Cole Gallery
107 5^th Ave. S.

This cornerstone gallery has lots to show off this month.

According to gallery owner, Denise Cole, “We have two shows running concurrently for Art Walk Edmonds. “Food and Wine in Art,” which is a group show which began its exhibition in November and features the art of, Pam Harold, Michelle Waldele, Angela Bandurka, Cary Jurriaans, and others. Click here for more on this show. “Winter White: In shades of frost” is the galleries second offering to Art Walk Edmonds strollers. This segment of the exhibition includes sculpture, ceramics and paintings by Bev Jozwiak, Ron Stocke, Jen Diehl, Angela Bandurka, Pam Harold, Sandy Byers and others. Click here for more details on this show.

Cole Gallery will also feature new pieces of crystalline ceramics by Cherry Vancour. Cole says of Vancour’s work, her pieces “make gorgeous, one-of-a-kind gifts for every budget.”

The gallery has invited “Tokas Ensemble” to make music at the gallery this month. “Tokas Ensemble” is a father-son duo of lively gypsy music, with guitar and violin.

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Gallery director Kurt Mattingly of Dragonfire Neighborhood Gallery reminds all that, “Nothing says I Love You like the gift of art.”

And always the romantic, Mattingly is showing universal love: “Dragonfire will be featuring all of its wonderfully talented artist during the December Art Walk.”

Music? Oh yes! Visitors to Dragonfire Gallery will enjoy the mellow voice and acoustics of Randy McAllister while visiting the gallery located at 529 Dayton St.

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Gallery North
401 Main St.

Discover unique hand-created items made by local artists. Join the artists of Gallery North for festive refreshments at the Edmonds Art Walk this Thursday, Dec. 17, from 5-8 p.m.

“Gifts of the Season” will be open seven days a week through Dec. 31. (Gallery North will be closed Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.)

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Cascadia Art Museum

Upcoming Sundays, Dec. 20/27

Free Tour with Admission

Cascadia Art Museum (CAM) located at 190 Sunset Ave. is currently showing a retrospective of Northwest Watercolor Society works and a vintage holiday card collection. Curator David F. Martin will serve as guide to the  Vintage Christmas Card Exhibition on Sunday.

Then, for January’s Art Walk Edmonds an array of historical artwork celebrating the impact of Cornish College of the Arts in it’s 100 year history will be featured.

Consider the gift of an annual membership for the most special person on your gift list.

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An Artfully Edmonds Profile:

Local artist Julie Gangler

Julie Gangler, whose art heads this week’s column, is a native Seattleite who has lived and worked in California and Florida as well as Seattle during her professional career as a writer/editor and public/media relations consultant.

She originally signed up for an oil painting class after moving from San Francisco to Miami, Florida. She admits she took up her new avocation in the tropics, not so much because she wanted to paint as “to have an evening hobby in air-conditioning after work.”

That class led her to join a painting studio group in Miami, and then years later back in Seattle, another painting studio group. Julie has learned her painting technique and style – usually favoring palette knife over brush – from these studio groups rather than formal classes.  She uses oil paints because they dry slowly, giving her the option to rework a painting and so produce a better result. She enjoys painting tranquil landscapes in particular as she paints to relax as well as create.

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Thursday, Dec. 17
7:30 p.m.
Mukilteo Christmas Concert
   at Trinity Lutheran Church
   6215 196^th St. S.W.

The 21^st Anniversary Mukilteo Christmas Concert being held at Trinity Lutheran Church will feature musical luminaries violinist Kwan Bin Park and Seattle Opera performers, Ksenia Popova and Rebecca Sacks.

See Artfully Edmonds’ preview of the event at this link.

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Plays through Dec. 20
Thursday-Saturday ~ 7:30 p.m.
Sunday matinee ~ 2 p.m. 

Wade James Theatre
950 Main St.
Begin your evening at Scott’s Bar & Grill
Then head over to the Wade James Theatre for
Two Exciting Holiday Offerings in One Production

 

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

In this hilarious Christmas classic, a couple struggling to put on a church Christmas pageant is faced with casting the Herdman kids–probably the most inventively awful kids in history. You won’t believe the mayhem – and the fun – when the Herdmans collide with the Christmas story head on!  But it will make this year’s pageant the most unusual anyone has seen and, just possibly, the best one ever.

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Timmy Perlmutter’s Extraordinary Hanukkah: A One-Act Musical
Book by Carissa Meisner Smit
Music and Lyrics by Paul Lewis

Timmy Perlmutter’s family has a surprise holiday visitor — Timmy’s well-meaning but often unthinking uncle. Although Timmy can’t possibly keep the astonishing gift that Uncle Jerome has brought for him, his disappointment gives way to understanding, and this Hanukkah turns out to be Timmy’s most extraordinary Hanukkah of all. Directed by Andrew Coopman.

Find your way to the Wade James Theatre online ticket booth through this link .

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Dec. 18-20
The Nutcracker Ballet
Composed by Tchaikovsky
Edmonds Center for the Arts
410 4^th Ave. N.

Clara, the Nutcracker, the Mouse! The growing Christmas Tree, the Booming Canon, a larger-than-life Mother Goose and so many other charming, surprising, breath-taking characters return to the stage in Olympic Ballet Theatre’s “The Nutcracker” a beloved holiday favorite.

Program highlights can be found at the OBT website.

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Friday, Dec. 18
7 p.m. 
Café Louvre
The home of “Edmonds Tunes”
210 5^th Ave. S.

 Edmonds Tunes emcee, Bob Z. announces a very special Holiday Concert and food drive, featuring local musicians playing all your seasonal favorites.

But for devotees of Café Louvre and Edmonds Tunes there’s more! Edmonds Tunes is expecting a special appearance by Macy’s Santa.

Bob Z. invites audience members to bring a canned or dried food item for donation to Northwest Harvest in order to be entered to win a prize.

He reminds Edmonds’ residents, “It’s not too late to get on Santa’s “nice” list!”

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Friday, Dec. 18
6 p.m.
Carolers and Strollers Buskers
Edmonds Downtown!

Visit Downtown Edmonds through the holidays and Friday evenings from 6-8 p.m. where you will find carolers and live music to accompany your stroll through shops and attractions.

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Free!
Saturday, Dec. 19
Starting at noon  
Ride the trolley with Santa

The colorful Edmonds holiday trolley winds its way through downtown, making stops along the way for shoppers – and even for Santa!

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Saturday, Dec. 19
3 p.m. 
SoundScapes Concert Series
With Abigail Lennox and the Beggar Boys
   Plus! Irish Step Dancing
Edmonds United Methodist Church
828 Caspers St.

This mid-afternoon event features Christmas music from the British Isles including foot-stomping dance tunes, traditional carols and a few originals.

Seattle’s Tara Academy of Irish Dance will perform Irish step dancing, and as a highlight Larry Young will tell one of his celebrated Christmas stories.

This program is family-friendly, and a “Meet The Artists” reception will follow the show.

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Sunday, Dec. 20
4-6 p.m.
Artist, Kim Brayman
   Beers and Brushes!
Brigid’s Bottleshop
190 Sunset Ave.

The first of its kind local artist Kim Brayman will be pairing up with Brigid’s Bottleshop for the event, “Beer and Brushes”.

Kim promises from her Facebook page, “I’ll be guiding everyone through one of the colorful processes I use to create many of my works of art. You can do it too!”

The ticket price is $30 and includes a beverage from Brigid’s long list of taps, Kim’s art lesson, plus all of your art materials.

Email Kim at kimbraymanart@gmail.com to sign up!

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The Phoenix Theatre
9673 Firdale Ave. 
Firdale Village

The Phoenix Theatre’s production of “Expressing Willie” ends on Sunday. Which means that including tonight’s 8 p.m. curtain time you have four more opportunities to see a Broadway caliber production of one of Rachel Crother’s impeccable-linguistic masterpiece.

The storyline: A young man in Long Island finds himself in the company of the obscenely wealthy after a successful run in the business world. With new-found money and an increased ego, he becomes involved with all that accompanies wealth.

Unbeknownst to him his unsophisticated former girlfriend has been invited by his mother to attend the holiday party that’s when the hilarity begins — Midwestern values go up against the idle rich.

Artfully Edmonds chose Opening Night to review https://myedmondsnews.com/2015/12/artfully-edmonds-review-new-york-strasburg-influences-rise-for-outstanding-phoenix-production/ this production – and gave it ★ ★ ★ ★ ★-stars.

The Phoenix Theatre box office awaits your ticket order .

And remember! At The Phoenix Theatre there’s an intimate wine bar and reserved seating.

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Tuesday, Dec. 22
7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Nick Sanchez’ 2^nd Annual
Christmas Reunion Concert 
Edmonds Presbyterian Church
22600 96th Ave. W.

Nick Sanchez, 2014 graduate of Meadowdale High School, four-year multiple award winning Jazz 1 and Impressions drummer and current drummer/composer at Berklee College of Music in Boston is hosting the 2nd Annual “Christmas Reunion Concert”.

The local all-star lineup includes; 2013 Meadowdale High graduate Taylor Zickefoose on vocals, 2015 Edmonds Woodway High graduate Jack White on sax, 2016 Edmonds Woodway High Senior Luis Ross on bass and 2016 Roosevelt High Senior Leo Folsom on piano / keys. There’s no fee for this incredible performance though tips are greatly appreciated.

Come get in the Christmas spirit and enjoy a jazzy Christmas concert performed by some of the most decorated local musicians.

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Tuesday, Dec. 22
7:30 pm
A Christmas Peril
With Tracey Conway

Seattle Radio Theatre will storm into Edmonds with this season’s “A Christmas Peril”.

“A Christmas Peril” which premiers Curtis Takahashi’s original radio dram-edy, takes a hazy-crazy and distinctly NW twist on Scrooge, Bob Crachit and those famous ghosts of Christmas past and future.

In Takahashi’s rendition we find the spirited spectors stranded together on a public transit bus during a Christmas Eve snowstorm.

Narrated by a former Fredericks & Nelson Santa looking back on one of the wackiest holiday seasons ever experienced, the tales include an elf with rock-n-roll blues and Mike Murphy’s “O Christmas Tree” revealing the inner-thoughts of an exceptionally ‘live’ evergreen.

Seattle Radio Theatre productions feature music, old-time sound effects and celebrity vocal talent. Headlined by Northwest media personalities the rotating cast includes Pat Cashman, Tracey Conway, John Curley, Dave Ross, Jim Dever, Lee Callahan, John Maynard and Delores Rogers.

Tickets for the one-night show are available at the ECA online ticket box office  website.

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Friday, Jan. 1
7:30 p.m.

Skandia First 2016 Friday Night Dance
Cedar Valley Grange
20526 52^nd Ave. W.
Lynnwood

Start the New Year out by dancing! Learn the “gammalkils polska”

The theme of Skandia’s first dance of 2016 is community, and it will start off with teaching of the gammalkils polska, by Jennifer Roach and Sal Gordon.

Music for dancing is provided by the musicians of Skandia—in a large all-comers band!

Do you play an instrument? Great! Bring your instrument and your dance shoes, and go between playing and dancing.

Have some questions before you start out? Call (425) 954-5262 to get answers.

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Saturday, Jan. 2
9:30 a.m. to Noon
Skandia Jam
2601 N.W. 97th St.
Seattle’s North Beach neighborhood

Ring in the New Year with your instruments and/or dance shoes

Musicians from all around will gather to play some of their favorite picks, and to also entertain requests by dancers for some favorites.

Contact music@skandia-folkdance.org or direct event inquiries to (206) 794-0656.

— By Emily HIll

Emily Hill is the author of two novels and a short story collection. She also writes the “Lynnwood Lifestyle” column for Lynnwood Today. Emily is retired from a career in public information and news media relations. If you would like your event listed, or featured, in Artfully Edmonds, Emily invites you to contact her at arts@myedmondsnews.com.