Whidbey Island Center for the Arts SHINEs at Annual Gala Fundraiser

A beautiful summer evening was the backdrop for the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts (WICA) 28th annual fundraiser. Bringing together the island’s most dedicated patrons for the SHINE Gala, the September 9 event was a night to remember and an opportunity to support the work WICA does in the arts community.

Held at WICA’s iconic campus in Langley, Washington—located on picturesque Whidbey Island—gala guests were treated to an evening of island elegance. Rich tones of champagne and copper transformed WICA’s interior and exterior spaces, with disco balls catching the light and beautiful floral arrangements drawing guests in.

“The 2023 gala theme SHINE was partly inspired by our Executive Artistic Director Deana Duncan’s vision of WICA being a beacon of light for our community. Lighting the way through the arts,” says Louis Muniz, board member and gala co-chair. “It was also a concept that came from looking through the long history of WICA, from its founding members to present. It started as a diamond in the rough and over time, we as a community have nurtured and polished this stone to uncover a gem that truly shines bright like a diamond.”

Beginning at 5:00 p.m., attendees mingled over creative hors d’oeuvres and specialty beverages provided by Freeland’s Fare Market. Under the organization’s beautiful white canopy—which has become synonymous with community gatherings—participants took part in a silent auction that featured everything from sports memorabilia to jewelry. While listening to local musical talent Philip Van Seters, patrons enjoyed a warm evening set against the backdrop of WICA’s Zech Hall outdoor stage. At 6:45, attendees moved to WICA’s Cabaret Mainstage, where from the comfort of WICA’s intimate theatre seating, guests enjoyed a live auction and a raise the paddle donation opportunity, with all proceeds supporting the nonprofit’s next season.

“The evening raised over $230,000 for WICA,” says Executive Artistic Director Deana Duncan. “Because of this, we can continue to enrich lives through powerful shared experiences in the arts. We are feeling the generosity of spirit and support across the entire organization. To our community, please accept our heartfelt thank you! We hope to see you at the theatre soon.”

As WICA begins preparations for its next season, the funds raised at this annual event serve as a reminder of the community’s support for the arts organization and its impactful mission on Whidbey Island.

Investing in Whidbey Island’s Artistic Future

Enriching lives through the power of art is at the heart of the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts (WICA) mission—and that all begins within the community. In 2023, the WICA Board of Directors relaunched its scholarship program with the Bridge Family Scholarship, named for current Board Chair Bobbe Bridge and her family. An island-wide initiative to support recent graduates in the Oak Harbor, Coupeville, and South Whidbey school districts, the scholarship provides funding to Whidbey Island students who are interested in continuing to pursue art as they move on to an accredited institution of higher education.

Reaching students throughout the island was key to the scholarship’s purpose, which Bridge saw as a way to honor the diversity of talent found on Whidbey and to support recent graduates who remain committed to an artistic future—whatever that may look like.

WICA Board Chair Bobbe Bridge and her husband Jon

“It’s open to those who have demonstrated art is important to them,” says Bridge. “However it’s expressed, they will continue to have that as a part of their lives and make sure it’s part of any community they’re [in].”

This year, the scholarship was awarded to three island graduates, with each receiving $1,667 to be used as they pursue the next step in their educational journeys.

“WICA believes in the transformational power of the arts and we know we must support and nurture our youth in their dreams and goals,” says Deana Duncan, WICA’s executive artistic director. “Art makes a difference.”

For Duncan, it’s important to prioritize STEAM curricula—which includes a focus on the arts, in addition to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)—in today’s educational institutions.

“Adding arts to STEM incorporates the study of humanities, language arts, dance, drama, music, visual arts and media and allows students to explore and master artistic subjects that will enrich their lives and support them in their professional and personal growth,” says Duncan. “We see creativity, persuasion, and collaboration as top skills companies have listed for prospective employees, and these are also the hallmarks of a strong arts education.”

Connecting with youth through arts education programming is a key component of WICA’s work in the community. This includes a focus on outreach opportunities that create spaces for critical thinking, joy and the celebration of self for the island’s youth. For Duncan, taking that commitment and extending it beyond WICA’s walls is what makes this scholarship so important.

“We work with all ages and to see these students who have grown up on Whidbey find their voice, choose their paths and move forward with art at the core of their lives is a joy,” she says. “We are so proud of them and thankful to the Bridge family and WICA Board of Directors for funding three local scholarships this year. Our mission is to impact and enrich lives through powerful shared experiences in the arts. This scholarship allows us to honor the mission and help our local youth.”

Scholarship recipient Ada Faith-Feyma

For scholarship recipient Ada Faith-Feyma, who will be studying forensic psychology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, involvement in the arts began at an early age.

“My entire family is artistic—my mother is a pianist and two of my siblings are heavy metal musicians. I grew up following mom to her rehearsals and renting old musicals from the library,” she says. “It’s safe to say I’ve always been interested in art. When I was in the first grade, my dad found a flyer for a summer camp at WICA where they were putting on a production of Fantastic Mr. Fox, directed by the one and only Deana Duncan. From there I was set.”

Hoping to pursue drama classes in college “focused on justice and current world problems,” Faith-Feyma sees art as central to the exciting new chapter she is embarking on.

A commitment to art has also been a constant for scholarship recipient Abigail Ireland, who began playing instruments at an early age.

Scholarship recipient Abigail Ireland

“I played my first instrument in 5th grade and instantly fell in love with the challenges and satisfactions that came along with learning how to read and play music,” she says.

For this incoming first-year student at the University of San Francisco who plans on majoring in environmental science with a possible minor in music or history, WICA’s support is a wonderful recognition of the passion she has for the arts.

“Music is intertwined into all aspects of my life, I always want to have the opportunity to play and perform music for fun and to challenge myself,” she says. “I am grateful to be recognized for my passion for music. That motivates me to learn and grow.”

For Bridge, the scholarship’s purpose is to support all artistic educational paths, highlighting the importance art plays in our world.

“Art is necessary for a full life,” she says. “[Now is] a time to ensure we’re bringing up young people who appreciate the arts. It’s just such a great part of our community, our culture, [and] what brings people together.”

As WICA looks ahead to the future of art on Whidbey Island, it’s clear that supporting the next generation of art lovers is key to continued success.

“Human creativity consists of imagination, ideas, and the willingness to take risks. We must support and nurture our youth in following creative endeavors so that the arts can flourish and touch lives in profound ways,” says Duncan. “WICA is dedicated to arts in education and building our scholarship base to help Whidbey's youth continue their journey in the arts.”

Billy's Blog at WICA

I’m so glad to be here, and that you’re here too. Thank you for taking the time to visit and I hope to make your stay, at the very least, perfect. My name is Billy and since my name alliterates with the word, Blog, the name of this production quite simply fell into my lap. I am the new Managing Director here at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts and one of my goals heading into this new year is to strengthen our community outreach, in part by keeping folks more up to date about the happenings on the horizon at the Center, so that partnerships may form and ideas shared and connections made.

Right now in the Lasher Gallery we are nearing the end of hosting our most successful art opening in the Center’s history, in number of attendees and quantity of pieces sold. The hanging consists of 37 pieces from local artist, Rosie Brouse. Our next hanging will be up to show in time for the Whidbey Island Film Festival.

Not that it is of great interest to the general public, but WICA has switched over to a calendar year for its fiscal operation and I’m flat tickled about that change and would feel confident guessing at least two other employees are as much if not more so tickled than I.

This week we will be posting two job openings, one for a godsend in marketing and one for a front of house all-star – WICA is a wonderful place to work and so if you’re looking or know someone who may be a good fit keep your eyes peeled on Drewslist or WICAonline.org for the postings, which will contain most of the relevant details.

Entering the new year, our first major piece of programming is the Whidbey Island Film Festival, which spans Wednesday through Sunday starting next week, with 7 films featured along with a concert featuring music from the scores of the featured films, and a unique event Sunday for pass holders only, Primo by Prima, a pasta event after BIG NIGHT put on with the help of Prima Bistro.  January is also peppered with concerts from fan favorites Take 3, Nancy Nolan, and LeRoy Bell.

I am so pumped(!!) for 2023, because I will be creating a Billy Improv Series for both performance and education. On the performance side, I have had the honor and privilege to connect with some of the best improvisers in North America throughout my time improvising, which began in the late nineties. Anyway, I recently reached out to a couple of old friends from my Festival days and currently one of them has agreed to come out and do an improv show with me, just the two or three of us.

On the education component of the Billy Improv Series, starting January 19th I will be hosting/facilitating/teaching a weekly drop-in improv study time from 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm on Thursdays, by donation to the Center. The “class” will range from performance improv training to personal development work, and will be good for anyone interested in growth in the areas of listening, social and spatial and emotional awareness, humor, and human connection. It will be 18+ only with exceptions granted on a case by case basis. No improv experience is required.

If you would like to be added to A) a Billy Improv Series: Performance list, or B) a Billy Improv Series: Education list, please email me and let me know at: Billy.Tierney@WICAonline.org or comment below.

Thank you very much for reading, and I hope to see you soon around the Center!

WICA Celebrates current and former Board members at unique event.

Before our new play, Apostrophe, hit the stage, we created an opportunity for our past and present board members to come in for some socialization, an important announcement, and a fruitful conversation with the playwright, Liza Powel O’Brien, and director, Vito Zingarelli, of the new work hitting our stage this weekend.

Bobbe Bridge addresses the attendees.

Starting with some light snack fare and adult beverages, including an impressive home collection of scotch, the evening truly got underway with the announcement by current Board President Bobbe Bridge that the Board of Directors had voted in favor of honoring Deana Duncan with the duties and title of Executive Artistic Director of Whidbey Island Center for the Arts; this announcement was met with much enthusiasm and applause from the attendees and reinforced Bobbe’s message that the organization was truly dedicated to an Arts-first approach to the future.

Past and present Board members, along with their partners, socialize and reconnect.

The final act of the evening’s event was a very special conversation between Vito Zingarelli and Liza Powel O’Brien, regarding the new play, Apostrophe, hitting the stage for opening night June 10th, at 7:30 PM. The topics included the differences and challenges of producing a new work rather than an established work, the process that this play in particular went through in order to come to life, and the in-residence approach that Liza and WICA came to agreement on when bringing the play here for it’s premiere live performances.

Attendees are brought up to speed on who they’ll be hearing from next.

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The conversation was captivating and interesting and went on longer than intended because of the quality of conversation and the quality of questions from the delighted crowd. One former Board member, Peter Morton, asked, since the play is about a private girls school and thematically connects to the youth experience of today, if there was any promotion going out to high school aged people… when the answer was unsure, Peter offered to sponsor 10 tickets to go to youth coming out to see the show. This offering was met with others who desired to do the same and before we knew it there were 70 tickets pledged to youth to come see the show! Do you know anyone who might want to take Peter and the others up on their offer?

Every Brilliant Thing Interview

INTERVIEW | BRINGING EVERY BRILLIANT THING TO WHIDBEY

We sat down with the team behind Every Brilliant Thing to talk about hope, the healing power of story, and grieving together as a community.

In Conversation with Actor, Billy Tierney, Director, Deana Duncan, and Co-Founder and Co-Director of Healing Circles Langley, Diana Lindsay.

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How did this collaboration between Whidbey Island Center for the Arts [WICA] and Healing Circles Langley come about?

DEANA: I try really hard when I pick plays for WICA that I’m thinking about the community and a story that is important, a reason—that there is a why these words now, why this story now—not just what will it make at box office or what actor wants to be in this show. But this one was really, really personal, because a friend of mine last year took his life…I realized that I wasn’t processing it well and I read that there was this play about this…I was really touched by it. I knew it was one of the most personal plays I was ever going to choose, because not only did I want to produce but I wanted to direct it and I wanted to have influence on the impact it could have in the community…The more I started working on it the more I realized that I needed help around the themes, about making sure that I was holding it correctly

I literally look out my window at Healing Circles everyday, that’s just part of my life. And I think about Greg almost every day. I knew I wanted to reach out to Diana and that I wanted to ask Healing Circles to be part of the process. The play didn’t make any sense to me if I didn’t do that—if Healing Circles wasn’t involved…I didn’t want to do this play without them. So we were meeting around something else, having coffee, and I mentioned that I was working on this play and would she be willing to read it to collaborate.

DIANA: Well we’re really delighted that you reached out to us. The themes in this play of what are the conditions that would lead someone to consider suicide? Are they irretractable? Is there something that can be done?...Is there something we can do? You know, we all want to do something, to help someone anchor back into life. WICA held a conversation on mental health and suicide prevention and it was so powerful, and we had many discussions after at Healing Circles on that topic. But we’ve also held many grief circles for those that have been impacted by the suicide of others or by the death of others, and we felt like that’s an important conversation too, because suicide, because of our laws, has to be private—it can’t be with others. The others that surround the person don’t understand why usually, and feel a lot of regret, and have a lot of I wish I could have that they are not given the opportunity to work through. So that can be a lifelong impact, and it felt like that’s important to bring in, and this play is so beautiful with that.

But we’ve also had many conversations about what if choosing to end your life is the best available choice? Because of our work with cancer we brought in End of Life Washington early on to talk about the options that are available for somebody with a clear six months left and two doctors that will verify it. Death with dignity can be a humane way of letting people make that choice. But we’ve talked about how there are so many other situations in life that are equally full of suffering and pain where that’s not an option, dementia being one. And so we felt that that conversation was also an important one.

DEANA: We are doing three separate talks with Healing Circles during the run of the show…and the last one is going to be about end of life choices.

DIANA: So we look forward to being able to look at it in a bigger context.

How about you, Billy?

BILLY: Well, I am an observer of things, and I was here that day that Deana’s friend took his own life. I didn’t know him, but I was with Deana when that was happening and I could tell how much it affected her. For me it's not so much about whether or not I knew a person. I think that all human life is valuable…Then Deana had me read the script. My background is in improvisation and this is going to be my second play, my first one being about three-minutes on stage last summer for Curse of the Starving Class. But when I read the play, even though I’ve not done this before, I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing it. I could see myself in the role…And it's a unique play in that it wholeheartedly invites the audience to the experience. It’s done “in the round”, so everyone sees everyone and it’s done with lights up to some extent—so everyone really sees everyone…it’s an exercise almost, in seeing each other, and having a shared experience that could be at times uncomfortable, at other times is delightful and hilarious. I was really drawn to that.

And that sharing of the experience you spoke of, how do you all feel about the importance of processing something like this as a community, and how do orgs like Healing Circles and WICA work together in helping communities through these types of things?

DEANA: Well that’s the most we can hope for and I think that’s the best work we can do: if WICA can collaborate with Healing Circles in this way then we’re reaching the full potential of what this organization I think was always meant to be and what we’re built to be here for… When we’re having strong conversations and we’re holding community, that speaks directly to our power and purpose, and why we do what we do—not how we do what we do, but why.

DIANA: Rachel [Naomi] Remen says, “We heal best in community.” Francis Weller talks about grieving together as an essential healing need. And really we can’t grieve any other way. After our friend died, we held many circles trying to understand it. Many of our community were very close to him but it was COVID, and we could only [gather] by zoom. One of our poetry circles had gone global during the pandemic…The day after he died, I asked if the circle would be able to help us process. So everybody that knew him from Whidbey had a chance to say how they were feeling, how they were being impacted, and it was very beautiful. And then I just asked the people from elsewhere if they wanted to reflect back, and one of them said, “I am just so moved by what a loving man he was, and how loving your community is. I don’t live in that kind of community.” And a woman from Ireland said, “In Ireland we tell each other two hundred stories about the deceased person, and I’m really honored that I was here for the first, and I would be really honored to be here at the hundred and ninety-ninth telling.” And so, that is what we have to do. We have to tell each other these stories, it’s how we grieve. So I am really happy now that we can get back together in person to continue our process of individual grief and to continue, I feel like, we owe it to him to have the broader conversation.

DEANA: …I think there is real beauty in that: creating space for us to help each other heal. [As you enter the show] …you’re going to walk through hopeful quotes and hopeful conversation, every brilliant thing about how beautiful it is to be on the planet and have this moment, what a gift this lifetime is. So there is great hope in this show, and for me I think there are two things for the community: if somebody is struggling, the reason we’re having Healing Circles there, if they are triggered or need to speak they know there is somebody there that they can speak to and that will help them with that. And that for all of us…all of us know what grief is—that we understand the importance and feel the community.

What are three of your brilliant things that make you happy to be alive?

BILLY: …Off the top of my head I will say number one is breathing. I think that breathing is way more of a brilliant thing than we give it credit for. We’re just like Ah that old thing that happens every moment…but for me breathing is a brilliant thing. I think that watching people grow is a brilliant thing…for me it's my kids, watching my kids grow. But really, truly, it's always been: watching students of mine grow or watching people I perform with or people that I work alongside. Seeing people grow has got to be one of the greatest brilliant things in the world. And then, might as well just for the sake of good measure and sort of an homage to the first brilliant thing I mentioned, I think drinking water is a brilliant thing.

DIANA: I would say singing with family, creating with my grandkids, and walking with my friends in nature.

DEANA: Continuing to see growth in the love with my kids. They’re adults and they’re growing, it’s just getting bigger and bigger, it warms my heart. Time with my mom and dad, cause I know it’s scarce, I know I’m at the end, I recognize the end, and it’s brilliant to recognize it and see it. A life lived towards purpose. I feel really blessed that I’m in a place on the planet, with an education, how privileged I am, to get to do what I love—it’s a brilliant thing to live on purpose.

And I want to just say one thing as a shout out, I think this is a brilliant thing too: I love performers. I think actors are brilliant. And Billy…you bring an authenticity and a wholeheartedness…you bring that like in buckets. And that’s what this audience is going to leave with: they are going to be witness to this man telling a story that he needs to tell, and they are going to be touched by it, they are, I have no doubt. You’re brilliant.

BILLY: I have a hard time accepting compliments, but thank you.

What do you hope the audience and anyone struggling with any of these issues might take away from these performances?

BILLY: I hope people are affected in some way. I hope that some of the…parts of this character’s, this person’s story, cause people to consider their own story…This is just how I look at media in general—that maybe there is something that I can learn from this that helps me in my life. So, I hope that our audiences are open to the experience…I think it’s going to be surprising and maybe emotional for people to be a part of, and I just hope that they leave it feeling some new feelings or being able to address some old feelings that they might have, just from having the experience of watching a show in Zech Hall.

DIANA: I also think it’s very important [to know]—these are times of big upheaval and we’ve just reopened our circle of two program—[that] there is somebody sitting there right now. So if you have a bad day, you can talk to somebody…that feeling of we’re not alone, there’s somebody to talk to, I think that’s really important. I feel in terms of death itself, that there’s been a long standing movement to see it as of course a part of life, but a part of life that we may not have any influence over, and yet sometimes we do…

People have been so generous with me to share their thoughts on end of life, what they’ve observed, [and] when my husband got sick and died just before the pandemic, I could spend his last year really making it as beautiful as possible, up until the moment of his death. I think when we don’t talk about it, we lose those opportunities that we could have to really make every moment of life as beautiful as it can be.

DEANA: Every Brilliant Thing.

DIANA: Yep. Every Brilliant Thing.

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Every Brilliant Thing runs April 8-23 at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts.

Tickets and more information available at www.wicaonline.org.

Healing Circles Langley is open once again for in-person drop ins!

Please drop by Monday - Friday from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm for tea and conversation. You can learn more about Healing Circles Langley and their community resources at www.healingcircleslangley.org.