While Everett can always take pride in its history as a city of mill workers, fishermen and machinists, it has also long been a city of artists, writers and musicians, a legacy that is celebrated each year with the Mayor’s Arts Awards and the Richard Wendt Award of Excellence.
This year’s awards, celebrated Wednesday night at the Hansen Conference Center, honored several artists, including this year’s Wendt Award winner, Russell Day. A story in The Herald’s Nov. 14 A&E section by writer Gale Fiege provides more about the other arts awards winners.
Day, an arts instructor at what would become Everett Community College from the 1940s through the late 1970s, is a renowned glass and jewelry artist who mentored artists including Chuck Close and Dale Chihuly.
Even at 102 years of age, Day made the trip from his home in Lacey to accept the award, accompanied by his wife, Marjorie, herself a respected retired literature instructor at EvCC and a frequent model for her husband’s jewelry.
Driving through Everett on his way to the ceremony, Day said he got a chance to see some of the changes in the city, including the ship masts atop Xfinity Arena, since his move south.
“I was pleased to see the beauty you have surrounded yourself with, and I’m happy to have been a part of it,” he said.
It’s not difficult to find examples of the beauty that Day is talking about. Just walking into the conference center in the arena, visitors are invited to study the works of contemporary glass artists and paintings by famed Edmonds native and Northwest artist Guy Anderson. Attend a public meeting at Everett Station and lumberjacks and mill workers gaze down from Kenneth Callahan’s historic murals. Sculptures dot our waterfront, parks and downtown. That beauty also includes the performing arts, such as Village Theatre’s musicals and Kidstage productions at the Everett Performing Arts Center and this summer’s inaugural Fisherman’s Village Music Festival, staged by the Everett Music Initiative.
That Everett has such an impressive collection of fine art is in large part because of the creation 40 years ago of the city’s 1 Percent for The Arts program and the Everett Cultural Arts Commission.
Mayor Ray Stephanson marked the 40th anniversary of the arts funding program Wednesday night, presenting a proclamation to former Everett Mayor Bob Anderson, who established the program in 1974, borrowing the idea from Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman, to set aside 1 percent of the budget for city capital projects for acquisition of art works for public display.
Anderson’s foresight — and that of his city council and the city’s residents of that day — have allowed Everett to build an impressive collection, one that secures a lasting legacy for the city.
A quote by Day, related as he was introduced Wednesday night, told why the effort is made, why art is created and cherished:
“Life just isn’t very good if your surroundings aren’t beautiful.”
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