April art happenings

Published 1:30 am Thursday, April 9, 2026

Homer’s April art scene is bursting with opportunities to enjoy films, live music, youth performances and workshops in watercolor, Chinese brush painting and mosaics.

Artist-in-residence film presentation

Thursday, April 9, 6 p.m.

Bunnell Street Arts Center, 106 W. Bunnell Ave.

Free

Storyknife Writers Retreat presents their current artist in residence, Princess Daazhraii Johnson, and a screening of three short films she wrote and produced. Her film, “This Is a Story About Salmon,” explores the role of salmon in Alaska Native subsistence communities and shows how these communities come together to support one another, heal and bear witness to their resilience and resistance. “Gath & K’iyh: Listen to Heal” highlights a gathering of community members and renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma coming together to honor salmon and birch trees as part of a process of collective healing. “Shaaghan Neekwaii: Two Old Women” is the first screen adaptation of Velma Wallis’s 1993 novel, filmed in Fairbanks and told entirely in the Gwich’in language. Johnson is Neets’aii Gwich’in and a Peabody Award winning producer/writer and Emmy-nominated writer/producer of PBS Kids’ “Molly of Denali” and HBO’s “True Detective.” After the film screening, Johnson will discuss her work.

Bunnell Arts By Air presents Bill White

Friday, April 10, 7 p.m.

Bunnell Street Arts Center, 106 W. Bunnell Ave.

Tickets: $15 discount, $20 regular, $30 pay-it-forward

Bunnell Street Arts Center presents Bill White, performing live during Bunnell Arts by Air. Originally from Idaho, White is a Homer-based classical guitarist and composer, has appeared as soloist and chamber musician across the country and has released two albums: “Moderno non Troppo,” a selection of modern-but-not-too-modern works for solo guitar and “Echoes,” a collection of works for viola and guitar recorded with his wife, Elizabeth. As a composer, White’s works focus on texture and processes, often for large ensembles of similar instruments. Recent commissions include “Sound Spaces” for mixed electric and classical guitars for the Oh My Ears! festival in Arizona and “Bowing, Breaking” for strings, written for Homer OPUS. White holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Arizona State University. Community members are invited to the live performance in the gallery with seating by 6:45 p.m. The performance can also be heard live on KBBI AM 890 and kbbi.org, starting at 7 p.m. Pay at the door.

2026 Jubilee! Youth Performing Arts Show

Friday, April 10, 7 p.m.

Homer High School Mariner Theater

Tickets: $10 youth, $20 general

Homer Council on the Arts presents the 2026 Jubilee Performing Arts Showcase, featuring Homer-area youth. All proceeds support the Ron Senungetuk Summer Youth Scholarship Fund. Tickets are available for purchase at homerart.org and at the door.

Watercolor Workshop with Tamara Burgh

Wednesday, April 15, 6-8 p.m.

Bunnell Street Arts Center, 106 W. Bunnell Ave.

Fee: $20 discount, $25 general, $30 pay it forward

Bunnell Street Arts Center hosts artist in residence Tamara Burgh who works with watercolor illustrations and woodblock prints. During her residency, the artist will visually reinterpret the book ““Alaskan Igloo Tales” (c. 1974, illustrations by G. Agupuk), specifically the Inupiaq-identifying stories based on her new understanding, gained through studying Joseph Campbell’s mythic language and symbols. To date, she has illustrated all 30 stories in watercolor, with the watercolor sketches serving as composition and color studies for moku hanga, a Japanese woodblock-style printmaking process. On April 15, Burgh will offer a watercolor workshop, Animal Self-Portraits. Based on the Inupiaq myth, “The Man Who was a Caribou,” one of the stories in the book, “Alaskan Igloo Tales,” participants will draw and paint pictures of themselves incorporated into mythic and animal imagery, creating imagery of themselves as animals they might identify with. The workshop accommodates a variety of ages and skill levels. Limit 12. Find more information and register at bunnellarts.org.

Chinese brush painting workshop

Friday, April 17, 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Homer Council on the Arts, 355 W. Pioneer Ave.

Fee: $50 HCOA member, $60 general

Homer artist Sharlene Cline will provide instruction on Chinese Brush Painting. Using traditional techniques of brush loading, color mixing and careful brush strokes, participants will create their own landscape painting. All skill levels are welcome, and all materials will be provided. Space is limited so registration is encouraged. Find more information and register at homerart.org.

Mosaics with Cindy Nelson

Saturday, April 18 and Saturday, April 25

Homer Council on the Arts, 355 W. Pioneer Ave.

Fee: $90 general, $80 HCOA members

Homer artist Cindy Nelson of Purple Crane Designs will teach a two-day workshop introducing participants to the process of building a mosaic artwork. Participants will create a design, learn to nip and arrange glass, work with different types of mounting and learn how to grout, taking home their own mosaic. The April 18 workshop is from 2-5 p.m. The April 25 is 2-4 p.m. All supplies are included and students are welcome to bring objects like shells or rocks to incorporate into their design. Find more information and register at homerart.org.

Mozart Requiem & Community Memory Wall

Friday, May 1, 6:15 p.m., at the Homer High School Mariner Theatre

Saturday, May 2, 3 p.m., at the Kenai Central High School Renee C. Hendersen Auditorium

Tickets: $10 youth, $15 general

In May, Pier One Theatre hosts two performances of the Mozart Requiem, a choral work the composer was writing that remained unfinished upon his death in 1791. The concerts, dedicated to lost loved ones, will be performed by the Kenai Peninsula Community Chorus, which includes singers from the Central Peninsula and the Homer area, and the Homer High School Concert Choir. This production will include approximately 170 singers and 30 instrumentalists. Performances are in Homer on Friday, May 1, and in Kenai on Saturday, May 2.

In addition to the concert, Pier One Theatre is facilitating the creation of a “Memory Wall,” a tangible project to display dedications to loved ones lost. Fabric artists are invited to submit 12.5-inch by 12.5-inch squares to create the border. Squares can be as simple or elaborate as the crafter sees fit. Quilt squares (pieced, to be quilted after the concerts) can be dropped off at the Pier One office above the Homer Bookstore Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. After the concerts are over, the squares will become part of a blanket to be auctioned off or donated. The deadline to submit squares is Wednesday, April 15. For more information about donating squares, email Laura at laura@pieronetheatre.org. Community members are also invited to submit a dedication for a certificate that will be hung inside the fabric frame. At the end of the concert, participants will receive the certificate honoring their loved one. For more information, contact Jennifer at jennifer@pieronetheatre.org. Performance tickets are available for sale by calling 907-226-2287, in person at Pier One Theatre, 332 E. Pioneer Ave #3, or online at pieronetheatre.org.