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Port Angeles Fine Arts Center:
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PORT ANGELES FINE ARTS CENTER
Port Angeles Fine Arts Center logo

A place that encourages discovery and awareness through the arts in a natural setting.


PROFILE
One of the pieces of art featured at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center
The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center is the westernmost center for contemporary art in the contiguous United States. Located in the shadow of Olympic National Park, its superlative physical setting provides an inspiring frame for cultural offerings.

The Center is located at 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd., near the Jones Street water tank.

The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center is open all year round and presents exhibits of visual art in all media. PAFAC has presented over 115 gallery exhibitions since 1986 and five seasons of Art Outside since 2000.

Works by more than 500 artists, principally from the Northwest, have been featured in exhibitions curated by the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center staff and, on occasion, by guest curators.


The award winning Port Angeles Fine Arts Center presents a mix of works by widely recognized masters and innovative emerging artists using a wide range of art media and aesthetic approaches.

Lectures, concerts, readings, and other special programs complement the changing exhibitions of visual art. PAFAC hosts the Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts each Memorial Day weekend.


HISTORY
Ester Barrows WebsterThe Port Angeles Fine Arts Center is the legacy of Esther Barrows Webster - artist, publisher and philanthropist.

In celebration of how much art had added to her own life, she bequeathed her entire estate to the City of Port Angeles to establish a fine Arts Center for the enjoyment and enlightenment of the community and its visitors.

Explore the history of the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center and the story of Esther Barrows Webster, founder and artist.


GALLERY
Gallery at the Port Angeles Fine Arts CenterThe Port Angeles Fine Arts Center is open year round and presents exhibits of visual arts in all media. Gallery exhibitions average two to three months in duration and feature both well established and significant emerging artists from the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center is the legacy of Esther Barrows Webster - artist, publisher, and philanthropist.

The circular Webster House, designed in 1951 by innovative Northwest architect Paul Hayden Kirk, sits on the crest of Beaver Hill. Sweeping vistas of the city, the harbor, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the horizons of Canada's Vancouver Island frame the artistic visions in the gallery.



ART OUTSIDE
Target by David Nechak.Art Outside is a full season of the beloved outdoor art program in the Center's Webster's Woods. "Magical, enchanted, whimsical, delightful, transcendent" are a few of the adjectives that escape routinely from the lips of those who walk the discovery trails of this unique five-acre "museum without walls."

From its grand opening in 2000 with works by forty Northwest artists, the population of this singular art park has increased every season.

While over the years some pieces have been returned to their creators or succumbed to the elements, the net presence of art in the park has grown steadily through gift, entrenchment and extended loan.

Art OutsideThere is a playful and not-always-distinct border between the artists' creations and the flora and natural features of these beautiful woods, which we are privileged to use as a living laboratory. Artists are stimulated by our sublime setting and excited to be able to try out their ideas with the amount of freedom accorded to them. I don't know of any other opportunity quite like it in the Northwest."


Pi in the Sky by Micajah Bienvenu Since 2000 more than sixty artists have created works for Webster's Woods. Pieces are committed for a minimum of one year, but often stay on longer through extended loans.

Many works have been donated by the artists, acquired through gift purchases by patrons, or simply melted away back into the landscape. The collection, like the living landscape itself, is changing and growing and takes on new aspects with the passing of the seasons.

Walkers must remember to look up and to look down if they want to catch everything there is to see here. Art Outside has many more surprises in store.  

Watch for announcements of further public tours. Webster's Woods is open all daylight hours year round. Admission is free.

For more information about this exhibit, please visit the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center webpage: http://www.pafac.org/exhibitions/art-outside.html

PORT ANGELES FINE ARTS CENTER
360-417-4590 or 360-457-3532
Web site: http://www.portangelesartscenter.com
or
http://www.pafac.org

Managed creatively and safely,
Recreational programs and cultural programs
broaden individual human potential.




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ CONTACT INFO ~

RECEATION
OFFICE

360-417-4550

EMAIL


HOURS
Monday - Friday
8:00 am
to 5:00 pm