Back to All Events

Community Open House

  • Whidbey Island Center for the Arts 565 Camano Avenue Langley, WA, 98260 United States (map)

Happy Birthday, WICA!
Celebrating 20 Years of Arts and Culture

WICA opened its doors on May 16, 1996 after a ten-year, grassroots effort to raise 1.2 million dollars – an unheard of amount for a community project at that time. Ten years later the community rallied again to double WICA’s capacity in the “Stage Two” expansion, adding a green room, scene shop, dressing rooms, costume and prop storage, administrative offices, and a second performance venue to the campus. Throughout all these changes, the mission of the WICA has remained the same – to provide a diverse season of high-quality, multi-disciplinary artistic programming, in addition to creating educational and participation opportunities. In the words of founding board member Debra Waterman, WICA is “a gathering place for artistic expression and social connections” and a cultural hub for the city of Langley, South Whidbey, and beyond. 


In celebration of these achievements, the entire community is invited to the Arts Center to take a stroll down memory lane during an open house on Thursday, May 12th between 6:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.  Refreshments, light hors d’oeuvres, libations, and birthday cake will be served as guests view pictures, posters, costumes and props, and other memorabilia representing twenty years of our shared experiences in the arts.

Free and Open to the Public

 

Earlier Event: May 6
Who Stole the American Dream?
Later Event: May 13
The Rural Characters Host WICA's 20th Anniversary Variety Show

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Whidbey Island Center for the Arts would like to begin by acknowledging that we gather on the ancestral homelands, originally known as Tscha-kole-chy (SHA-KOL-CHI) in Lushootseed (LU-SHOOT-SEED), of the Coastal Salish Peoples, on the lands of the lower Skagit, Tulalip (tuh·lay·luhp), Swinomish (SWIN-ə-mish), Snohomish (snō-hō-mish), Stillaguamish (still-uh-GWAH-mish), and Suquamish (soo-kwah-mish), who have lived in the Salish Sea basin since time immemorial and have hunted, fished, gathered, and taken care of these lands.

We respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and we honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water.

Please join us in expressing our deepest respect and gratitude to the indigenous people of this territory and for their enduring care and protection of the land in which we currently occupy and share through the Treaty of Point Elliott signed by 82 tribes in Múckl-te-óh (Mukilteo) on January 22, 1855.