Home is where the art is
Yaquina River Museum of Art unveils new location at December’s First Weekend
Toledo’s First Weekend art celebration is always a moving experience, but never more so than this Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 6 and 7, when the event will mark the relocation of the Yaquina River Museum of Art.
The museum is parting ways with its Schoolhouse Exhibit Space and moving back across the street to its original location, the 1926 Vicarage House, which it will operate as an Artist’s House Museum.
Previous visitors will recognize the vicarage as the Signature Gallery for the late regional artist and museum founder Michael Gibbons. Michael and his wife, Judy, originated the museum with a shared dream to preserve the art, philosophies and histories of artists who work in the Yaquina region. The 1926 Vicarage House will now be part gallery of Michael’s work, and part house museum for visitors to tour.
During First weekend the gallery will showcase “Sun on the Face,” which Michael painted on location in Olympic National Park. The scene depicts a snow-dusted view of Klahhane Ridge peeking through the deep forested landscape
See this work and other originals at Michael Gibbons’ Signature Gallery, located at 140 NE Alder Street, open from noon to 4 pm on Saturday and Sunday. For more information, go to michaelgibbons.net.
Just up the street at Ivan Kelly’s Studio & Gallery, the award-winning artist will be featuring “After the Storm,” a coastal Oregon landscape of retreating storm clouds giving way to blue sky against the windswept bluffs as gulls inspect the beach’s wrack line. Kelly has been an American Society of Marine Artists Signature Member since 2000, and is known for his big game, landscapes and maritime pieces.
Ivan Kelly Studio & Gallery is open from noon to 4 pm Saturday and Sunday at 207 East Graham Street. For more information, go to ivankelly.com.
On Main Street, Crow’s Nest Gallery & Studio will feature the works of more than 15 artists including gallery founder and assemblage artist Janet Runger; Alice Haga, fused glass; Paula Teplitz, sculptural jellyfish mobiles; Jeff Gibford, digitally manipulated photographs; Veta Bakhtina, oil paintings; Sylvia Hosie, wildlife photography; Val Bolen, ceramics and glass mosaics; Tish Epperson, watercolors; and Susan Jones, woven fiber jellyfish.
Crow’s Nest Gallery & Studio is located at 305 N. Main Street and open from 10 am to 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday.
• On Friday, Dec. 12, the Yaquina River Museum of Art will host an open house at its new location The event will feature a retrospective of glass art from the late Larry Sommer as well as many pieces from the Gibbons’ personal art collection. Alex McCormick will play live Christmas music on the piano, and a film about the glass blowing art of world-renowned Dale Chihuly will be shown throughout the afternoon.
Friends of the Museum will serve festive refreshments of wine, cheese and Christmas cookies.
The open house will run from noon to 6 pm at the 1926 Vicarage House located at 140 NE Alder Street in Toledo.
For more information, call 541-336-2797 or email michaelgibbonsart@gmail.com.
• As the Yaquina River Museum of Art says goodbye to the Schoolhouse Exhibit Space, the museum will be hosting a moving sale of items in the Schoolhouse during First Weekend. Furniture, picture frames and more will be on sale at a 50-percent discount. In addition to the moving sale, Rusty Brown's Celtic wood-carved ornaments will be available for purchase.