Ready…….Set…ART!

Grace Ridge Brewery in partnership with Ptarmigan Arts hosted an outstanding fundraiser last Saturday, April 19. Nineteen visual artists gathered there and created a work in their chosen medium in 60 minutes! All of these pieces were first silent and then live auctioned off to a generous crowd, raising over $5,300 for Ptarmigan Arts’ Visual Art Scholarship Fund, administered by the Homer Foundation.

A hearty thank you to the many generous people involved. First off is Sherry Stead, owner of Grace Ridge Brewery with her husband Don. Sherry enthusiastically facilitated this event from the very start. Our sparklng auctioneer Zoe Story, who did an enthusiastic job encouraging bidders during the live auction part.

Next and indispensable are the courageous 19 artists: Jim Buncak, Caryl Christy, Dan Coe, Jeff Dean, Jen DePesa, Krista Etzwiler, Allison Galbraith, Jenna Gerrety, Richard Gustafson, Valisa Higman, Willow Jones, Maygen Lotscher, Deb Lowney, Gary Lyon, David Pettibone, Jan Peyton, Sarah Sims, Lisa Talbott and Leo Vait. All you artists donated your materials, time and reputations, huge thanks!

Thank you to these members of Ptarmigan Arts who helped in many other ways; Diane Briggs, Chick and Barb Deal (managed the silent auction/buy-it-now section), Dave Christy, Olga Amaral, Jules Joy, Linda Skelton and Aleda Yourdon. A big thank you to Megumi Beams and Paul Seaton, our two live portrait models. And many thanks to Christina Whiting and the venerable Homer News for the great article and KBBI for hosting us on “Slack Tide.”

And huge thanks to all the art supporters, art lovers and winning bidders who showed up to support this event. All of us are working together to support the next generation of visual artists.

Gary Lyon

Chair, Ptarmigan Arts Scholarship Committee

On April 10, Homer OPUS hosted Sea of Strings, a free community concert showcasing close to 200 string musicians ages 5-50-plus on the Mariner Stage. Featuring nearly all our students from all our programs, including Fireweed Frescoes, Paul Banks Preludes, Chapman Eagle Ensemble, Homer Youth String Orchestra Club and Codas Ensemble, the concert was conducted by Abimael Melendez and featured work by composer Johnny B, with Johnny on piano and Scott Bartlett on percussion.

For their financial support towards the concert, we would like to express our gratitude to Homer Dental Associates, Kachemak Gear Shed/LFS, Inc., Petro Marine, Summit Physical Therapy and Ulmer’s Drug & Hardware. We also recognize the dozens upon dozens of individuals who worked incredibly hard behind the scenes ahead of time and on-site, from helping with student rehearsals, tech support, instrument transport and tuning, stage setup, commons setup and cleanup, providing desserts, and more. And a very special thank you to all of the students for their hard work practicing and to their parents and teachers for their time, energy and enthusiasm in helping to nurture their music education. We are grateful to everyone for their efforts.

We are a nonprofit organization that believes that broad access to music education changes children’s lives and transforms communities. By providing the youngest members of our community with a chance to create music together, and venues where diverse families sit side by side to enjoy the collaborative music-making of their children, we feel we are knitting critical community bonds, one musical note at a time.

Christina Whiting, program manager

Homer OPUS

Help keep public media funded

I want to express my gratitude to residents across our broadcast area for their support during our Spring Membership Drive at KBBI. Our listeners have once again shown their appreciation, helping us exceed our fundraising goal. Thank you for making sure that we’re here to provide local news, weather, marine forecasts, bushlines, local entertainment from volunteer DJs, live music, and education, freely available to all, over the airwaves on AM 890, 88.1 FM in Seward, and online at KBBI.org.

We have a mantra called the three-legged stool that supports local public media. The first leg is listener support, which as you demonstrated is quite strong. The second is local underwriting and business support, which our business and nonprofit community backs enthusiastically. The third is federal funding, which for nearly 60 years has provided stability to local public broadcasters through grants (based in part on the level of local support) from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Funding for CPB is provided by Congress and has historically been approved two years ahead. Right now, that funding is at risk through a Rescission Request, asking for Congress to withdraw approved CPB funding. Because of our strong local support, it’s likely that KBBI will survive the loss of federal funds, at some cost. Other stations in less populated parts the state will cease to be viable and will close.

Please reach out to our representatives to stress the importance of public broadcasting in Alaska where there are huge areas with no other media access, for the delivery of the Emergency Alert System, and a provider of local content unavailable through any other sources. Visit ProtectMyPublicMedia.org and do your part to keep public broadcasting funded, for us, and for all the listeners across the state that depend on it. Thank you.

Josh Krohn

General Manager, KBBI