Pictures and paintings now don the south wall of Cook Inletkeeper’s Community Action Studio in Soldotna. The display formally debuted on Earth Day as one of several activities the organization offered at the studio. Others included a Second Hand Sidewalk Sale for a Cause and an official kickoff of the organization’s Community ActionKit.
Timm Johnson, who volunteers with the studio, helped install the light fixtures along the wall, which, he said Thursday, were made with repurposed material from BuildUP, a building material store off the Sterling Highway, which has a stated goal of preventing usable items from ending up in landfills.
Johnson is also responsible for the organization’s biweekly compost runs, during which he picks up compost dropped off at the studio and at locations across the central peninsula and delivers it to the chicken coop at Diamond M. Ranch, near Kenai.
The fixtures are built such that the lights can be repositioned on the wall by sliding them along a plank, which will help the studio accommodate different configurations of work. Cook Inletkeeper Regional Director Kaitlin Vadla said that the show will rotate every three months.
The theme of the show the studio opened on Thursday is “together” and it features work from four artists across multiple mediums, including painting, photography and poetry. Work by Scott Moon, Steve Schoonmaker, Meezie Hermansen and Vadla will be on display for the next three months.
“The goal will be to have quarterly shows that highlight local artists and watershed issues,” Vadla said.
Vadla said the artists addressed the theme in different ways, ranging from what it means to be together after a year of the COVID-19 pandemic keeping people apart, to how people can come together amid increasing partisan division, to how people can come together to protect their shared resources.
“Inletkeeper’s mission is an invitation and shared responsibility, ‘Together, we can protect the Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains,’” Vadla said regarding the debut display’s theme.
A portion of proceeds from art will go to support Cook Inletkeeper’s stated mission of protecting the Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains.
More information about Cook Inletkeeper and the Community Action Studio can be found at inletkeeper.org.
Reach reporter Ashlyn O’Hara at ashlyn.ohara@peninsulaclarion.com.
Clothes for sale are seen outside of Cook Inletkeeper’s Community Action Studio on Thursday, April 22 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Pieces of art are displayed at Cook Inletkeeper’s Community Action Studio on Thursday, April 22 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
