Friday – Sunday, June 16-18

Frances Anderson Center 

700 Main St., Edmonds

Take a break from the grill this Father’s Day weekend and make sure to visit the Edmonds Art Festival. The festival has grown from a small community art fair to one of the most prestigious in the Pacific Northwest, attracting artists from across the nation and Canada. Festival patrons have the unique opportunity to meet artists and purchase their work in a beautiful outdoor setting overlooking Puget Sound. Don’t miss the free live entertainment, a juried gallery art exhibition and sale, a nationally recognized juried student art exhibit, and a hands-on children’s art activity area. The Edmonds Arts Festival has been held annually for more than 60 years. Produced entirely by community volunteers, the Festival is the primary fundraiser for the Edmonds Arts Festival Foundation which gives scholarships and grants in the community. Over the past 39 years, grants have provided more than $1 million to fund public art installations and large special projects.

Here is a festival site map. I got a little turned around last year, so make sure to find where your favorite artist will be before you head down there. Parents, your little artists will love the “Kids Create” stations located throughout the festival.

Booth Artists

Click this link for a catalog of 167 booth artists participating in the festival!

Gallery Artists

View and purchase award-winning art. Galleries inside the Frances Anderson Center showcase juried art from more than 500 artists. Shown are paintings, prints, drawings, photography, digital art, sculpture, mixed media 2D and artisan works. Juried by professional artists, only the highest-quality art is selected to be displayed, whether it is produced by an established artist, student or emerging artist. Award winners from each media category were picked and announced. Read more about the winners here.

Student Artists

A key element of the Edmonds Arts Festival’s mission is to promote exposure to art and art education to the youth in our community. Partnering with the Edmonds School District, the festival is one of the premier student art events in the U.S., displaying more than 1,100 pieces of art from K-12 students. The 2023 gallery will showcase art from 32 Edmonds School District schools, private schools and individual home-schooled students residing within the boundaries of the Edmonds School District. Read more about student artists here.

Performing Artists

There are two different stages featuring live performances. The main stage is the amphitheater in Frances Anderson Center Park, which offers traditional seating and a large grassy area perfect for sharing a blanket while listening. This large, open-air theater hosts the top professional, community and school performers in our region (including yours truly). From rock and roll and country western, to jazz and classical music, the variety and performances receive enthusiastic reviews.

Visit the Edmonds Plaza Stage to enjoy smaller-scale performances in an intimate, park-like setting. Here music begins at the top of each hour. There is both covered and open-air seating with plenty of chairs so visitors can sit back, relax and enjoy.

See the schedules for both stages and links to artist pages here.

Food Booths

There will be something for everyone! With more than 20 food and drink vendors located throughout the festival grounds, you can get a bite of something good whenever you are in the mood.

Don’t forget to enjoy the Beer & Wine Grotto (adults only) for a place to sit and relax while enjoying Edmonds’ own freshly brewed artisan beers and a refreshing selection of wines.

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Art Walk is still on this Thursday!

Thursday, June 15, 5-8 p.m.

In the hustle and bustle of the arts festival, don’t forget the June Art Walk. Head downtown to grab dinner and walk around to the participating locations. See the map of galleries taking part and featured artists here. Several galleries will hold receptions, including Coldwell Banker Bain featuring artist Nancy Peacock at 108 5th Ave. S., Edmonds.

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Bench and Board presents Rachel Wold and Mona Smiley-Fairbanks

Bench and Board

610 Main St., Edmonds

Bench and Board is featuring new art in their gallery for June and July. Both artists, Rachel Wold and Mona Smiley-Fairbanks, are local to the Pacific Northwest and have sea-focused themes making for a beautiful and soothing exhibition.

Rachel Wold’s art is a form of therapy, developed in response to the frantic energy of modern life. She uses expressive abstraction and a Pacific Northwest palette to explore a meditative practice, creating space for what she feels or needs. Her paintings begin intuitively, with a few tones inspired by the world around her and mixed directly on the canvas. She moves pigment, explores and experiments with tactile textures or fluid splatters, adding and subtracting as a conversation unfolds between the piece and herself — a contemplative dialog of exploration and curiosity. The results are immersive mood pieces that contain moments of calm and space for reflection. She hopes that the viewer feels the invitation to pause, to explore the artwork and delight in discovery, to lose themselves in the moment

Images relating to nature and personal history resonate in Mona Smiley-Fairbanks’ work. Whether she is working figuratively or graphically, her art reflects the Pacific Northwest landscape and navigates between lamenting and celebrating our natural world. She seeks to express the concern for our waning environment while documenting its dynamic resiliency. Often soft-focus organic images are contrasted with textures drawn from her father’s workshop and flat graphic shapes. The message is two-fold: human barriers that diminish nature and the human ability to make positive restoration

— By Elizabeth Murray

Elizabeth Murray is a freelance writer thankful to call Edmonds home. When she’s not busy wrangling her two kids (and husband), you can find her playing ukulele and singing with The Band LeLe.