The Whimsical World of Bjørn Wiinblad 

Nordic Heritage Museum

3014 N.W. 67th St.

July 28–Nov. 5 Bjørn Wiinblad (1918-2006) made his appearance in 1945 on the art and design scene at a time when straight lines and simple design dominated the modern ideal. With his characteristic curving lines and his colorful pictorial universe, Bjørn Wiinblad occupied his own quite unique position in Danish cultural life from the outset. Wiinblad is remembered for injecting fantasy and an almost cartoon-ish flair that created a perfect accent to all of the clean-lined furniture and modernist spaces of his time.This retrospective highlights the artist’s substantial body of work and includes graphic art, ceramics, theater sets and costumes, ceramics, tapestries, jigsaw puzzles, tiles and textiles gathered from the Museum of Danish America, The Blue House in Denmark and private collectors. These 78 artifacts offer a thorough sense of Wiinblad’s diverse interests and mastery of various art forms, from one-of-a-kind commissions to mass-produced pop culture. Museum hours: Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; Sun., Noon–4 p.m.; closed Mon. Admission: $8 general; $7 seniors and college students; $6 children 5 and older; FREE for children under 5 and Museum members; free on first Thurs. 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

 

Skandia Dance and Music Events 

Phinney Neighborhood Center

6532 Phinney Ave. N.

Every Wed., Sept. 6–Oct. 11, 7:30–9 p.m. BASICS CLASS SERIES. Lisa Brooks and Larry Reinert will teach the Basics dance class. The class will cover schottis, hambo, waltz, snoa, Rørospols, and telegangar, plus some fun mixers. Beginners will learn these lovely dances; continuing dancers will learn more styling and variants. Dancers at all levels—new, intermediate, and advanced—are welcome, and do show up. Singles and couples are welcome; we change partners frequently. Wear smooth-soled shoes (not running shoes) with a flat heel for easy turning. The fee is $45 for the series for Skandia members (or $10 for individual classes); $55 for the series for nonmembers.

 

Every Thurs., Sept. 7–28, 7:30–9 p.m. BEYOND BASICS CLASS SERIES. The September four-week Beyond Basics dance class series is focused on helping dancers learn new dances and improved their dancing skills. Teachers Judy Patterson and Jerry Walsh will include the frequently played dances of Bingsjö Polska (a smooth polska), Senpolska fran Torp (a slow polska), and Gammalpolska fran Föllinge (a lively dance). Whether you are new to one or more of these dances or have taken many a spin around the floor, you will gain skills and increased confidence. Skandia members, $35; nonmembers, $40.

 

Music Events

Saturday, September 2

THE NORTHWEST SPELMÄNSSTAMMA at the Clearview home of Jim and Margaret Noyes. This year’s theme is Norway, featuring both hardingfele and flat-fiddle workshops, a nyckelharpa workshop, and dance workshops! Featured dances are telespringar and telegangar, with Larry Reinert and Lisa Brooks teaching. Don’t forget your dance shoes! Music workshops will begin at 1 p.m., and teachers include Peter Michaelsen, Bill Boyd, Rachel Nesvig, Vicki Watt Warshaw, and Bart Brashers. Dance workshops will begin at 2:30 p.m. A potluck dinner follows, around 5:30 p.m. Don’t forget to bring a generous dish to share. After supper, plan to stay for dancing to the music of all of our local musicians, not to mention dessert! The suggested donation for this event is $15. Come for a workshop or two (or even three!), stay for supper, and then dance and/or play. If you need the address or directions, email music@skandia-folkdance.org.

 

Sunday, September 3

SKANDIA JAM. September’s Brunch Jam is on Sunday, September 3, following the Northwest Spelmansstaämma. (Yes, the jam really is on SUNDAY!) Your hosts, Frank Brown and Elaine Murakami, will welcome you from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at their home. Bring your instrument, a tune to share with the group, and something to share for a potluck brunch—it could even be leftovers from the evening before! Check the weather; if it’s sunny, music will be outside. Need information, or an address? Email music@skandia-folkdance.org.

 

PUGET SOUND CRUISING CLUB presents: AUTHOR WENDY HINMAN

North Seattle College, Library Auditorium

9600 College Way N.

Sept 15, 7:30 p.m. Local author Wendy Hinman, with Garth Wilcox, presents true life sailing adventures, riveting stories offering rich lessons for prospective voyagers and armchair sailors alike. Tightwads on the Loose details their 34,000-mile, seven-year Pacific voyage together aboard a 31-foot boat. Sea Trials: Around the World with Duct Tape and Bailing Wire recounts teenaged Garth’s tale of shipwreck, wild weather, pirates, gun boats, mines and thieves, dengue fever, scurvy, and more in a sailing trial that tested his family’s limits. Come hear snippets from these amazing adventures from the people who lived them. Donation: $5 (for auditorium rental).

 

Fundraising dinner, silent auction, and dance for Leif Erikson Hall

Leif Erikson Hall

2245 N.W. 57th St.

Sat., Sept. 23 6 p.m. Puget Sound Ski for Light is sponsoring the fundraising dinner, silent auction, and dance for Leif Erikson Hall. Serving open-fire grilled salmon and cod with music by Nordic Reflections. Tickets/reservations by calling 206.783.1274 or Brown Paper Tickets www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3061461. Tickets $25. All proceeds go to the repair and upgrade of the Hall. Watch our home being built at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXMmadkwYms&t=99s. Additional donations may be made at: https://www.gofundme.com/leiferiksonlodge.

 

Albert Einstein in National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere

Taproot Theatre Company’

204 N. 85th St.

Sept. 20–Oct. 21, Wed. and Thur., 7:30 p.m.; Fri and Sat, 8 p.m.; Sat. 2 p.m. Taproot Theatre Company is proud to produce the culminating production of the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Mark St. Germain’s period drama, Relativity. In 1902 Albert and Mileva Einstein had a daughter. After 1904 she was never seen or spoken of again. Fast forward to 1948—as an insistent reporter searches for answers to Einstein’s secrets, she discovers that not everything adds up. Single tickets are available online at taproottheatre.org, by phone at 206.781.9707. $5 senior/student discount off of regularly priced tickets (excludes previews or specially priced performances). Discounts are available for groups of 8 or more by visiting taproottheatre.org/group-sales/ or by calling 206.781.9708. 

 

Growing Up: All About Puberty

Swedish Medical Center – Ballard Campus

5300 Tallman Ave. N.W.

Sat., Oct. 14, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. This class provides a perfect opportunity to build a bridge with your 9- to 12-year-old to demystify the challenges of puberty. The focus of this fun, interactive class is to open and enhance communication between parents and preteens and explain the physical and emotional changes ahead. Taught in partnership with Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest. Fee: $35 per family (includes one child and up to two adults; $5 for each additional child). For more information or to register, please visit www.swedish.org/classes or call 1-800-SWEDISH (893-3474).

 

Millefiori 1,000 Flowers - Pilchuck Glass School 

Auction & Gala

Fremont Studios

155 N 35th St.

Sat., Oct. 21, 6 p.m. Join us for Pilchuck’s 39th Annual Auction Gala & Celebration of Glass at Fremont Studios! Enjoy an evening full of art and celebration: live and silent auctions, dinner, and entertainment. Our Auction Tour is happening from October 19–21, and it is an intimate tour of artist studios and private collector homes. Purchase tickets at pilchuck.ejoinme.org/Auction2017. To learn more visit www.pilchuck.com/auction/annual_auction_gala/. For Auction and Auction Tour questions, please contact Lauren Mercurio at lmercurio@pilchuck.com or 206.254.1962.

 

Heartsaver First Aid, CPR & AED

Swedish Medical Center – Ballard Campus

5300 Tallman Ave. N.W.

Sun., Nov. 12, 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Learn how to save a life using proper first aid, automated external defibrillator (AED) and CPR techniques for adults, children and infants. Participant certifications are valid for two years. *This class does not provide Healthcare Provider BLS Certification for doctors, nurses, CNAs, or other Licensed Healthcare Providers. Fee: $70/person. For more information or to register, visit www.swedish.org/classes or call 1-800-SWEDISH. 

 

Seattle Public Theater Announces 2017-18 Season

 

WHO:  Seattle Public Theater

WHAT:  2017-18 Mainstage Season

WHERE:  7312 West Green Lake Dr N, Seattle, WA 98103

INFORMATION: www.seattlepublictheater.org

Gregory Award-winning Seattle Public Theater announced the lineup for its 2017-18 season yesterday. The six plays, including a newly-commissioned world premiere by local playwright Maggie Lee and the runaway broadway sensation Hand to God by Robert Askins, were chosen specifically by newly appointed co-producing Artistic Directors Kelly Kitchens and Annie Lareau as part of the organization’s mission to produce compelling and socially relevant theater that sparks conversation, broadens consciousness, and inspires compassion.

 

October 13 - November 5, 2017

The World of Extreme Happiness by Frances Ya-chu Cowhig

Directed by Desdemona Chiang 

Presented in Collaboration with SIS Productions

When Sunny is born in rural China, her parents leave her in a slop bucket to die because she’s a girl. She survives, and at 14 leaves for the city, where she works a low-paying factory job and attends self-help classes to improve her chances at securing a coveted office position. When Sunny’s attempts to pull herself out of poverty lead to dire consequences for a fellow worker, she is forced to question the system she’s spent her life trying to master – and stand up against the powers that be.

 

December 1 - December 24, 2017

The Flight Before Xmas by Maggie Lee

Directed by Amy Poisson 

With all the stress of the holidays, spending Christmas Eve stranded in an airport with a bunch of strangers is the last thing anyone needs! With endless delays, kids shuttling between stepfamilies, a rogue cat on the loose, an important business deal at stake, and missing your grandson’s first Christmas morning, the holiday spirit can disappear quicker than your lost luggage. But sometimes, all you need is to be a little late in order to truly appreciate what you’re rushing toward. A heartwarming new holiday show about finding your way home and the family we discover for ourselves.

 

December 8 - December 24, 2017

Christmastown: A Holiday Noir by Wayne Rawley

Directed by Kelly Kitchens

In this film noir-inspired holiday thriller by Seattle playwright Wayne Rawley, hard-boiled detective Nick Holiday investigates some un-holiday-like shenanigans taking place in Christmastown that sends him on a search for the truth about Big Red. Add a glamorous elf, a used-Christmas-tree salesman, a muckraking reporter, and a quick-thinking cab driver, and you’ve got what the Seattle Times calls “best new holiday romp of the year!”

 

February 2 - February 25, 2017

Vanishing Point by Rob Hartmann & Liv Cummins
Music by Rob Hartmann
Original Concept & Additional Lyrics by Scott Keys
Directed by Annie Lareau 

Aviatrix Amelia Earhart, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and author Agatha Christie each vanished mysteriously: Agatha disappeared for eleven days; Aimee disappeared for three weeks; and of course Amelia vanished completely. Vanishing Point, a musical comedy-fantasy, brings these three women together as they solve the mystery of their disappearances from their own lives.

 

March 23 - April 15, 2018
Ironbound by Martyna Majok
Directed by Kelly Kitchens

An immigrant woman waits for her late night bus in the shadows of a run-down Jersey factory. A man appears. A man always appears. And he’s got something she needs. Spanning over 20 years, three relationships, and three presidents, what will two working class people trade and how dirtily will they fight for the cheapest safety in a world that does not value all kinds of people?

 

May 11 - June 3, 2018

Hand to God by Robert Askins
Directed by Kelly Kitchens

After the death of his father, meek Jason finds an outlet for his anxiety at the Christian Puppet Ministry, in the devoutly religious, relatively quiet small town of Cypress, Texas. Jason’s complicated relationships with the town pastor, the school bully, the girl next door, and—most especially—his mother are thrown into upheaval when Jason’s puppet, Tyrone, takes on a shocking and dangerously irreverent personality all its own. Hand to God explores the startlingly fragile nature of faith, morality, and the ties that bind us.

ONGOING

Alzheimer’s Association Caregiver Support Group

Swedish Medical Center, Ballard

5300 Tallman Ave. N.W.

Third Sat. of month, 10:30 a.m.–Noon. Free. Alzheimer’s Association family caregiver support groups provide a consistent and caring place for people to learn, share and gain emotional support from others who are also on a unique journey of providing care to a person with memory loss. Info: Linda Whiteside, 206.529.3875.

 

The Market Street Singers

Ballard Senior Center

5429 32nd Ave. N.W.

Every Tues., 7 p.m. The Market Street Singers is a non-audition community choir. We’re always open to new members, particularly tenors and basses. For more information isit marketstreetsingers.org.

 

Alzheimer’s Cafe 

Monthly Meeting

Stage Door Cafe, Taproot Theatre

208 N. 85th St.

Second Tues. of month, 3:30–5 p.m. The Alzheimer’s Cafe provides an opportunity to get out and socialize in a safe environment. No judgement or expectations—just support. There is no cost other than the food that is ordered. Parking available in the lot behind the Taproot. This is a program of the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s Greenwood Senior Center. For info: Carin Mack at 206.230.0166.

 

Exercise Class at Leif Erikson Lodge

2245 N.W. 57th St.

206.783.1274

Every Wed., 10–10:45 a.m., 45-minute light workout that includes aerobics, strength training, coordination, balance and brainpower. $3 fee per class attended, walk-ins welcome and open to the public.

 

Free Nia Fitness Class

Amazing Grace Spiritual Center

2007 N.W. 61st St.

Every Fri., 10–11 a.m. Suitable for all ages and all fitness levels, the first class is free. Nia is a barefoot fitness fusion blending martial arts, dance arts, and healing arts, along with world music sounds into an hour fitness fusion that is geared for “everybody.” Practiced globally, Nia is designed to work with everybody and every fitness level. Contact Deborah at ddzippie3@gmail.com.

 

Sustainable Ballard Knitters for the Homeless  

On the Park

2233 N.W. 58th St.

(contact Jody for entrance directions) 

Second Fri. of the month, 7–9 p.m. Knitting instruction and yarn provided. Donated yarn welcome. Info: Jody at 206.718.1529 or jodytgrage@gmail.com. 

 

Sustainable Ballard Knitters for the Homeless  

On the Park, 2233 NW 58th Street

(contact Jody for entrance directions) 

Tues., Aug. 15, 7–9 p.m. (NOTE DATE CHANGE) Knitting instruction and yarn provided. Donated yarn welcome. Info: Jody at 206.718.1529 or jodytgrage@gmail.com.