This weekend, Bremerton’s historic Bremer building will be the site of an artistic convergence: Gucci, Prada, Chanel, Dolce & Gabanna, pleasantry and tea.
The West Sound Arts Council is gathering virtually everyone who is anyone in the peninsula’s visual arts scene and packing them into the old downtown building one last time for its annual spring tea and fashion show Saturday.
Though most of the event’s fair remains unchanged along with its guest list — which is about as long as 6th Avenue and strung together — this, the eighth annual, will be a sentimental year, WSAC vice president, event organizer Dede Beckley said. It will be the event’s final year in the Bremer Building.
“To take an old building that has so many memories and history and to see it all decorated to the Hilton, it’s something special,” Beckley said. “It’s magic when you walk through the door and people feel it … it’s hard to explain the day, it’s different.”
The annual event — a fund raiser for the WSAC to collect scholarship money — sprang from the vision of artistic entrepreneur Tony White and usually falls on the day before Mother’s Day purely by happenstance, Beckley said.
Tickets for this year’s event titled “Imagine” are $35 and available only by reservation: call (360) 536-3656.
“Some people use it as their Mother’s Day celebration, for us, it’s a celebration of the arts,” Beckley added. “That’s what we’re here for, we’re here to bring art to Bremerton and to give an opportunity for all these artists to show their work.”
A conglomeration of visual, textile and performing artists will be gathered for the tea as local shops and galleries will be setting up displays of their wares, The Dance Within dance company from Poulsbo will put on a performance and the Cap DeMeiro trio will be providing musical ambience.
With doors opening at 12:15 p.m. May 12, the event will segue from a half-hour of viewing/conversation time into tea time — prepared by Joyce Cowdery — at around 12:45. Then The Dance Within will preform followed by the fashion show — with designer gear provided by Texas Glad Rags, Beckley said.
“That’s art in itself, because they have some of the top designers that we will model,” she noted. “We’re modeling these fashions for a reason, so people can see what these designers do.”
And they will also be modeling for the cause of Kitsap’s student artists. All proceeds from ticket sales will be going into the WSAC scholarship fund which is available to teenagers throughout Kitsap County.
The event typically brings in more than $5,000, Beckley said.
