By James Day The Silverton Senior Center was heavily damaged during the recent ice storm and is currently closed until repairs can be made. Board President Jenny Ohren told Our Town that when officials returned to the Center on Jan. 18, after being closed during the ice event, “broken pipes in the attic” led to the collapse of a ceiling because […]
By Melissa Wagoner Award winning neon artist Anne Pinkowski is a fervent believer in the value of art education. When she and her husband, Dave Harris, moved from California to Silverton in 2022, she immediately joined the Silverton Arts Association (SAA), eventually taking on the role of programming director. “I have a degree in Fine Art,” Pinkowski – who also […]
The Silverton Arts Association board has placed the August arts festival on pause for 2024. While a recently posted help wanted ad for the festival drew several applications for a potential event manager, the board decided to use the energy of its volunteers to prioritize its central mission: to nurture, exhibit, inform, and promote appreciation and practice of the arts […]
By Melissa Wagoner The Fischer Flouring Mill was once one of the most eye-catching pieces of architecture in Silverton. Located along Silver Creek – where Silver Falls Library and Old Mill Park are situated today – the mill utilized state of the art turbine-powered electricity to process various grains for farmers in the Silverton area for over 30 years before […]
By Melissa Wagoner This year the Silverton Arts Association’s annual “Teen Art Show” featured 105 pieces of art from students at Evergreen, Bethany, Community Roots, Silverton Middle School, Silverton High School and Sequoia Falls Academy. “It’s a long-standing tradition,” Silverton Arts Association Board (SAA) Member and gallery curator, Megan Smith, said of the show, which ran from May 5 to […]
The first Silver Falls Film Festival is set for Friday, Aug. 18 during the Silverton Arts Festival. A series of short movies will be shown outdoors at Coolidge McClaine Park as the kickoff for the festival, which continues Aug. 19-20. More than 600 entries from around the world have been submitted, said Mike Turner, Silverton filmmaker and Silverton Arts Association […]
By James Day The City of Silverton began work on its 2023-24 budget amid a staff shakeup that has the City Council initiating a search for a new city manager. Ron Chandler, who took over the top administrative post in Silverton in May of 2021, is leaving effective May 12 and relocating to Utah. In an April 12 letter to […]
By James Day The Silverton Arts Association is launching a new family-friendly community arts space at the group’s Arts Center at 300 Coolidge St. The new arts option, which will include a resident artists program, workshops and classes for adults and youth, will debut at 6:30 p.m. on April 7 during First Friday. The association will use the Borland Gallery […]
The Silverton Arts Festival is holding its annual contest that will produce the poster for the event, which is set for Aug. 19-20 at Coolidge McClaine Park. The contest is open to artists 16 and older, with the winner receiving either a 10′ x 10′ festival booth space, valued at $225, or $200 in cash, along with recognition in the […]
By James Day Silverton installed a new mayor and four new councilors on Monday, Jan. 9, signaling the beginning of a new political era in town. Jason Freilinger, who had served as council president, was sworn in as mayor, replacing Kyle Palmer, whose elected office experience dates to 2004. In addition, outgoing councilors Jim Sears, Dana Smith and Crystal Neideigh […]
By Melissa Wagoner When the COVID-19 pandemic began, in the spring of 2020, the students at Silverton Ballet and Performing Arts Company were weeks away from the annual spring recital. The culmination of months – if not years – of practice and hard work, it was never really an option to cancel the show. Instead, studio owner Paula Magee got […]
By Brenna Wiegand Silverton Arts Association is featuring the work of local artist Jim Bornzin, whose show, “Amazing Scissorcuts,” runs Sept. 10-26 at the Borland Gallery. Bornzin became fascinated with the German art form of scissor cutting in high school after observing his cousin’s grandfather, Hans Bittner of Chicago, cutting an intricate design on paper using a small pair of […]
By Melissa Wagoner The mission of the Silverton Arts Association has long been to further the arts through education, promotion and exhibition. “But we’re struggling,” board member Harold Wood admitted. “Everyone is underground in their basement.” In short, 2020 was a tough year for artists. “With the pandemic, we lost our stage,” Wood said. “There’s no show-and-tell anymore. I think […]
By Steve Ritchie The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over 110,000 American lives, ravaged the US economy and plunged budgets of governmental entities into the deep red, all in just over three months. It turns out that nonprofit organizations are not immune to the virus either. Among the local organizations suffering from COVID-19’s impact is the Silverton Arts Association, which has […]
By Steve Ritchie The Borland Gallery was packed with local art lovers on March 6 for the First Friday opening of an exhibition of representational paintings and drawings by local artists Ulan Moore, Helen Bouchard and Brian Sheridan. The walls of the small gallery space were covered “salon-style” – floor to ceiling – with dozens of drawings and paintings by […]
By Steve Ritchie With the 13th edition of the Silverton Fine Arts Festival right around the corner on Aug. 17-18, it’s nervous time for Dwight Berning and Moises Roizen. Berning and Roizen are the vice president and president, respectively, of the Silverton Arts Association board of directors, and the pair are co-chairing the festival this year. Even though the festival, […]
For Ann Altman, the Silverton Arts Association provides “little pockets of opportunities.” For Julie Huisman, art has opened a world of creativity, allowing her to push aside her inhibitions and express herself through her pottery while meeting wonderful friends.
Silverton’s stature as a haven for artists is being bolstered by the Silverton Arts Association’s creation of the Park House Preschool, which opened earlier this month.
Sixty-five kindergarten students at Eugene Field School spent part of a recent Monday morning experimenting with art genres and techniques like pointillism, pop art and self portraits. Some of them even tried drawing while laying on their backs, like Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
It’s a little known fact the 11th annual Silverton Fine Arts Festival actually began 39 years ago, when a small band of artists held the first arts festival in a small area of the Coolidge-McLaine Park on July 16, 1972
n the current members show at the Silverton Arts Association’s Borland Gallery, 16 local artists exhibit work in a variety of media and offer a glimpse of what’s brewing creatively around the region.
Like a sort of joyous ode, Silverton Poetry Festival unfolds over two weekends in settings around Silverton and Mt. Angel. These include a winery, a bakery, two libraries, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Gordon House and the little white church that was a massage school before its present designation as White Steeple Gallery.
