Vashon Center for the Arts

Mission

Vashon Center for the Arts is a collaborative, community-based arts organization that provides a home for the arts on Vashon Island by initiating quality arts experiences for all ages and creating opportunities for artists to perform and exhibit their work. Built out of a grass-roots movement to support the visual arts on the Island in the 1950s, today VCA sponsors five primary program areas: Arts Education, Vashon Artists in Schools, Vashon Center for Dance, Visual Arts, and Performance Arts.

Description

• Performances at the Katherine L White Hall: We bring professional off-Island performers in music, theatre, and dance and provide opportunities for Island groups to showcase their work as well -- including partner organizations Vashon Chamber Music, Vashon Island Chorale, Vashon Opera, and Drama Dock.

• The Gallery: VCA's Gallery offers a number of exhibitions per year and features both Island and regional artists in all media that showcase both traditional art forms and cutting-edge conceptual installations.

• The Gift Shop: Our consignment gift shop displays and sells the work of the Vashon Island Visual Artists (VIVA). It is open five days a week and during evening performances.

• All Ages Arts Education: Each year, VCA offers three terms of classes in virtually every arts discipline to children and adults including theatre, metal work, photography, painting, glasswork, chorus, pottery and more. We also offer summer art camps for children.

• VCA Center for Dance: This is a pre-professional dance-training program, which offers sequential training for students from age three to young adults. In addition to Ballet, dance styles offered include Hip Hop, Jazz, and Modern Dance. This program serves more than 200 students each year.

• Talks on the Rock Series: This program (started in 2009 as the Arts & Humanities Series) has become one of VCA's most popular endeavors. This lecture/discussion series has featured speakers such as internationally renowned landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson, Pulitzer Prize finalist Bob Shacochis and photographer Stewart Harvey, among others.

• Vashon Artists in Schools: Celebrating more than 30 years of partnership between VCA and the Vashon Island School District, VAIS offers curriculum-based artist residencies, artist/teacher mentorships, and public art projects in each of the district's three K-12 schools.