Residents of the upper Chilkat Valley are hosting an art show in a repurposed school building. They want to exhibit art by locals, and showcase how the building has become a busy hub for the neighborhood.
Since the Mosquito Lake School closed a few years ago, residents have used the building as a community center. They formed a non-profit to administer the building. Julie Korstmeyer is president of the board.
Korstmeyer: “We create lots of community events up there because we feel that this is the only place where we all can get together in the upper valley.”
There is a yoga class on Tuesday as well as lots of games for kids that morning. A game night happens the first Saturday of the every month. The center is available for rent, and it has hosted weddings and birthdays. Volunteers have hosted an art camp for kids.
There is a commercial kitchen and a 6,000 square feet community garden. Resident Erika Merklin is working towards establishing the center as a food hub.
Merklin: “We are working with the Salvation Army, they do their distribution in the upper valley on the third Thursdays at the community center, and we are also working towards a partnership with the Southeast Alaska food bank.”
Merklin says she is also working in partnership with a community garden in Klukwan.
She says a tool library is also in the works, residents will be able to borrow a log splitter, and walking tractor with multiple attachments.
To celebrate all this activity, the center’s volunteers are hosting an art exhibit, on Saturday. Merklin hopes to get many artists to enter their work.
Merklin: “We try to encourage everyone to participate, and our focus is really on trying to bring people together, and help each individual feel connected to their community.”
Merklin says they are casting a wide net, with entries coming from the border and from the end of the Chilkat Peninsula. Korstmeyer says just the food will be worth coming to.
Korstmeyer: “We are going to be connected to the local food challenge that is going on, so we’ve asked a lot of volunteers to make beautiful hors d’oeuvres based on locally sourced food.”
Korstmeyer says she hopes to make the event a yearly thing.
Korstmeyer: “A lot of artists have no venue to show the work that they are doing. We are going to have drinks and food and music, so come on up everybody”
She says artists wanting to show their work should contact her. [web: at 858 334 5185]
The exhibit is on Saturday, from 4 to 8 pm, a shuttle from town will be available, leaving from the Starvin Marvin Garden behind the Aspen Hotel at 3.15, and returning at 8.
