It is a bit unusual to include an article about the beginnings of the Stormy Weather Arts Festival in an issue about the harvest, but perhaps it is appropriate. Like anything else, this event was seeded, and grew organically over time. The seeds held the potential of what the event would become.
Here is what I recall. Some of us were talking casually and I said, “This is an arts town, isn’t it?” The reply was yes. Then I asked, “Why don’t you have an arts festival then?” Someone, I think it was Chamber Director Nancy Littell, was quick on the uptake and said, “Do you want to start one?” I replied that perhaps we could do just that. The year was 1988.
We asked around as to when would be a good time to schedule a new event and began investigating what it would take to make it happen. The idea came to have it just after ‘the season,’ perhaps the first weekend of November. There was concern about whether visitors would actually show up if it was stormy. Then I mentioned, ‘We could call it Stormy Weather Festival and have someone sing the song to open it.’ That went over well.
The early members of the committee included Nancy Littell, Barbara Gray, Marsha LaFarge, Stephen Diehl, Sharon Clyde, Mark Goetz, and myself that I recall. We agreed to design it to include a variety of arts disciplines all at once – like the Bumbershoot Arts Festival on Labor Day weekend in Seattle at the time. Stephen, who managed the Coaster Theater, was enthusiastic and would make sure we had an outstanding event for Saturday night.
We set up the festival to include live music, a focus on art and a gallery walk, a theater show, literary readings, a reception, a dance, a school program, and a Sunday concert. Sponsors were recruited and indoor venues were arranged. We made sure the musicians got paid for the time they played during the day as a solo or as a group. Artist Chris Grant did the original poster of the violinist and Haystack Rock, and created graphics for other arts later.
The first festival opened on a Friday with the Black Tie & Jeans Reception in the Cannon Beach Visitor Center Community Hall. I had asked well-known Portland jazz singer Nancy King to open it by singing the standard ‘Stormy Weather.’ She replied, “But it’s such a sad song!” – and agreed to sing it anyway. So that’s how it began.
In the early years, we added the Quick-Draw by local artists, the Late Nite Beach Coffeehouse which was an open mike, and a concert by the Cannon Beach Chorus directed by Danny Lawson. One year we had an African drummer from Ghana and his wife who was a fantastic dancer. That was a hoot. They also did a dance presentation in animal masks for the Cannon Beach Elementary School students. Later we added puppetry, a drum circle, and other arts-related activities to fill out the weekend.
The Stormy Weather Arts Festival has been held on the first weekend of November in Cannon Beach for 28 years, as of 2015. It continues to celebrate art and music, and more. The harvest has been different each year.
Thank you Frank for sharing this glimpse into the genesis of a wonderful fall festival. You first mentioned this story to me last February at the Beachnik Café, a kick-off event coordinated by Lisa Kerr on behalf of the Tolovana Arts Colony*. It would be cool if that poetry event were to become an annual arts happening, similar to Stormy Weather. If so, your coastal Beat poems a la “Red Snapper” will have played a formative role in launching another local tradition.
Successful events are often started by folks who are overlooked when things get rolling. Reflecting on those beginnings isn’t just a way of giving credit where credit is due. It invites us to pay closer attention to endeavors that are now being seeded. It spotlights the civic value of the creative process.
* Hats off to the TAC board members who helped with the first Beachnik Cafe, and the people who read at the event, and Mark Mizell for conducting his Beat workshop. Also big thanks to the Cannon Beach Arts Association for providing their beautiful gallery space.
I feel like Stormy Weather has become more of a commercial venture than a grass roots community arts celebration–but that’s just my two cents. i would love to see more community based activities like the Beachnik Cafe that I put together with Tolovana Arts Colony. The idea was to re-create the smoky (sans smoke) poet cafes of the Greenwich Village of my youth and I felt like, thanks to the help of Watt and Mark and the Cannon Beach Arts Association–we came close to recreating the open feeling and creative energy of that time. i long for more of that!
Lisa Kerr
Annual events like the Stormy Weather Arts Festival usually have a life of their own, and change over time. It is common that the commercial aspect becomes more dominant, and then if the event becomes somewhat static, someone takes the initiative to bring in something new. Bringing in a new activity in partnership with an existing event is a resourceful way to not have to do all the promotion!
With the opening of two new brewpubs in Cannon Beach in the next year, this will be an opportunity to expand the festival’s involvement in social culture and invigorate the younger crowd. How and what? This is a good question. Fort George Brewery in Astoria has done this very successfully.
I also want to thank Watt Childress for bringing back the Upper Left Edge as a media for thoughtful viewpoints on coastal life, and Lisa Kerr for – snap, snap – the Beachnik Cafe last February. Encore!
Well the weather is certainly getting us all ready for this year’s festival!
What’s the ideal relationship between art and commerce? How do the hearts that beat for our community stay connected with the brains that direct our tourist economy?
Frank is right to recognize Fort George Brewery. The company does a good a job of integrating youthful public ethos with profitability. I’m also a fan of Bill’s Tavern and Warren House Pub (where they serve the best craft root beer in the world).
It’s a long-term challenge here at the coast — balancing cash-flow with creativity and conscience. Yesterday I happened upon a pertinent piece of writing by Evie Alburas in a print edition of the Upper Left Edge (Nov. 2001). The following passage is an excellent companion to Lisa’s comment.
“The Stormy Weather Arts Festival is, in essence, a wonderful thing that supports local artists. They’re able to share their work with neighbors and anyone else who loves art and in the most romantic way it can be perceived as a buttoning down for winter. The Festival takes place in November, when the nights are longer, the weather’s turning lousy and people are spending more time inside. So, after the splendor of summer, artists are forced inside and have more time to express themselves in ways they know best. They create art while passing a stormy and boring Tuesday night. However, the festival is hugely commercial and is designed as much to bring in tourists as to display our local talent.”
Here’s a photo of the Red Snapper sharing a talent at the Beachnik Cafe. Word has it Red will visit Cannon Beach on Friday, Nov. 6th, during the opening of Stormy Weather. Maybe he’ll stop by Jupiter’s Books in the afternoon. Maybe I’ll bring the sax to work. Maybe we’ll help summon the muse, re-seed the weekend with a little grassroots livelihood.
Looks like Frank and I will meet up at Jupiter’s Books tomorrow at 4 pm for conversation, poetry, and a cave-man saxophone ritual to open Stormy Weather weekend. Come join us. I’ll give a free copy of Frank’s book of Beat poems to the first person who shows up and mentions this comment.