The Duvall Foundation for the Arts promotes creativity, diversity and cultural awareness by supporting the arts and art education in the lower Snoqualmie Valley of Washington State.

    Download DFA Annual Report 2007

Projects               

Sand Blast

  • The Duvall Sand Blast Festival is all about Community, Arts, Music, and Family Fun...
  • and, of course, Sand Sculpturing.
  • Sand Blast got its start in 1995 and was simply a gathering of some friends who thought it would be fun to do some sand sculpturing down where the Snoqualmie River makes a couple of sharp bends and in the process deposits a large sand bar. In the early days of Sand Blast, 1995-1997, the sand bar(or beach) was accessible via a small path, surrounded by wild shrubbery, from the old railroad trail off of Main Street . In 1998, the newly formed Duvall Foundation for The Arts got involved and there was entertainment in the parking area across the old railroad trail. The 1999 opening of McCormick Park along the river and the old railroad trail also opened up the possibility to unify the Sand Blast sand sculpturing on the river bank with the Sand Blast entertainment previously held in the parking lot.
    The 10th annual Sand Blast festival had roughly 2500 visitors.  Sand Blast is held in July each year.

  • Event chairman; Clare Chapple,  chapplesauce@gmail.com   

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    Art in Bloom
    This was the second year for “Art in Bloom”, our outdoor sculpture show.  It was held in the beautiful landscape of Duvall’s Kokopelli Gardens.  Sculptures from 20 artists, in mediums of glass, steel, wood, cement and stone were displayed, and maps provided for the walk along the garden paths.
        The opening of the event was a “Garden Party”.   An evening of chamber music by a string quartet and wine and hors d’oeuvres provided an opportunity to visit with the artists and preview the event.

    For info, email bloom@duvallarts.com

    Committee chairman; Becki Thomas,
    Co-chair ; Kim Deline

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           Duvall City Hall Gallery
    City Hall Featured Artist
    Duvall’s City Hall provides a wall as a showplace for local artists, managed by DFA.  The artwork is changed every six to eight weeks, and the subject artist displays their resume along with the artwork, which is featured on both the website of the City and of DFA.        

    Contact:       
    Clare Chapple,      chapplesauce@gmail.com  

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    Masquerade Ball

    This year our annual fundraiser was in the theme of a masquerade ball.  Attendees were encouraged to dress up and to wear a mask, whether one that they made or one purchased at the event.  The evening consisted of a silent auction, good food and drinks, and music for listening and for dancing by the Paul Hannover Band of local notoriety.
    Items in the silent auction were mainly art-related or art inspired.  All professional artists’ works were sold on a gallery basis (only a small commission was retained by DFA).  In this way new and established artists were introduced to the public and were paid for their work – just another way that DFA supports and promotes local artists.

    Auction chairman Hajek,; dhajek@frontierbank.com
    Ball/Party chairman; Amanda Austin, roberson@fhoarch.com
    Art Procurement Chairman; Lin McBride, mcbridefrm@aol.com. 

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          DFA Youth Scholarship Fund
    The Duvall Foundation for the Arts (DFA) provides scholarship opportunities to children and young adults residing in the Lower Snoqualmie Valley who have shown a strong interest and ability in the arts and, who may, because of financial restrictions, be unable to take advantage of the educational programs otherwise available to them.
      Eligibility:
    Applicants must be residents of the Lower Snoqualmie Valley and demonstrate economic need for scholarship assistance.
      Application Process:
    Applicants must complete and submit the scholarship application to the Duvall Foundation for the Arts (DFA) for review by the scholarship committee no less than 1 month prior to the date their program begins.
    Thank you for your interest in the DFA and our scholarship program.  We appreciate the opportunity to fulfill our mission to “promote creativity, diversity and cultural awareness by supporting the arts and arts education in the Lower Snoqualmie Valley”.

     Download Application
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    Various Activities

    Children’s Art at Duvall Days
        The children’s art activities at this annual festival are sponsored and directed by DFA volunteers.  This year children could decorate masks, or make tambourines and maracas.  Children of all ages enjoyed these activities.

    “Valley Art Show” sponsor
        For the second year the Valley Art Show portion of Duvall Days produced over 300 pieces of art by local artists, from preschool age children to senior citizens – amateur and professional.  DFA personnel directed the hanging of the artworks in businesses all around town, and sponsored many of the cash awards given to the participating children.

    “Farmers’ Market” sponsor
        The Duvall Farmers’ Market was held every Wednesday from June through September.  Each week a different musician or group performed during the market hours.  DFA sponsored half of this expense.

        DFA also hosted the children’s art booth at the September 19th market – children were provided paper masks to paint or to decorate.

    Art Workshops
        DFA held mask-making workshops for children and for adults in conjunction with the Northwest Art Center.  Six workshops were held where masks were either created from clay, or preformed paper masks were painted and adorned.

    Artists’ Directory
       A directory of local artists and musicians was produces  and is provided on the DFA website.  The directory contains contact information for working artists in all mediums. 

    Arts Promotion in the Media
        For the last year and a half DFA has been a sponsor of the arts page of a local newspaper, The River Current News.  The focus of this arts page is to promote local artists, art events and art related activities in the valley.
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             The Thayer Barn
    Woodinville Weekly/Edition Date: May 14, 2007
    ‘Promises made, promises broken’ by Lisa Allen, Valley View Editor

    Duvall Foundation for the Arts still hopes to saveThayer Barn. It wasn’t supposed to end like this. By now, the Thayer Barn should have been moved, remodeled and be well on its way to becoming the city’s signature community arts center. Instead, the once-magnificent structure faces an uncertain future as it sits decaying alongside the road, with its paint peeling, roof disintegrating and looking about as sad as it could look. Duvall Foundation for the Arts members, who over four years ago spearheaded a campaign to save the historic dairy barn, are “disheartened” and blame the city for the current plight of the building. “Promises were made and promises were broken,” says DFA past President Lin McBride. “DFA and the city had a contract and they are abandoning their promises of saving the barn and providing a community arts center.” The promises were an agreement that if DFA coulddemonstrate public support for saving the barn by raising $100,000 by a May 1, 2003 deadline, the city would get behind the project as well by pledging $200,000 in its 2003 budget. That money would be set aside to pay for the first phase of the project, estimated to cost $300,000. The first phase would include moving the barn a couple hundred feet to make room for the construction of Duvall Village, a 10-acre mixed use development.

    Newhall Jones, the owners of the Duvall Village property (where the barn sits), agreed that when their site plans were approved and they were ready to move ahead with developing the property they would deed the barn and future barn site (approximately one-third of an acre) to the city. The community did their part by successfully coming together and raising the money through a series of fund-raising events and activities. DFA celebrated by offering a toast to the future of the barn. Then nothing happened. Newhall Jones had put their development on hold, “indefinitely,” the arts group was told. Then in February of this year, the city announced a revised plan for the property had been approved that did not include the Thayer Barn, the land to move it on to, or a community arts center. The announcement forced DFA to write a letter to supporters that said in part, “What this means for those who had the vision of a Community Arts Center in this historic icon is that it is not to be – the gathering place so needed by this community will not happen as we had planned and as DFA and the City had agreed. … DFA is very disheartened by the actions of the City. We feel that the city has broken its promise to its people. We are still very much committed to saving the Thayer Barn and feel that even if it cannot be an arts center it is still our priority.” McBride said DFA still has all the funds that were raised and is holding them in an account designated for the arts center. Earlier this spring, former Duvall planner and current Economic Development Director Doreen Booth explained that the city was concerned the remodeling effort could “run into the millions and the city was concerned over increasing cost projections and that the city would be responsible.” McBride countered that statement by saying, “They knew how much it would cost and that we (DFA) were prepared to raise the money needed.”

    In a March 1 letter to DFA President Julie Frazier, Duvall Mayor Will Ibershof insists the city still supports arts and cultural programs but … “we are also very much aware that each time we invest taxpayer funds in a capital project, we have to take into account the capital costs and operational costs for that project, both for the short term and the long term. … After due consideration, the City Council determined that we do not have the resources to fund this project and I concur with that determination. … Currently, the City is working with Newhall Jones on revising the Settlement Agreement for the Duvall Village property. As part of the revisions to that Agreement, we are giving up our rights to the Thayer Barn and will issue a demolition permit for the Thayer Barn when the time comes to begin the site work for the project.” Ironically, this all comes at a time when the state is encouraging the preservation of historic barns. Earlier this month the governor signed a state barn preservation bill, establishing a grant program to support preservation of historic barns. However, that bill would not help the Thayer Barn because of the requirement that barns must stay barns and not be converted into other uses. The Thayer Barn, built in the 1930s, was once the centerpiece of a working dairy. Barns of that era were constructed of lumber from old-growth timber and sported high lofts to contain the massive mountains of hay needed to sustain the milk cows through the long, rainy winters.

    DFA’s music experts, asked to study the acoustical     effects of the loft, were enthusiastic about the space and gave it high marks. But now it appears no concerts will ever be played there. The building, now inside the city limits, sits on the west side of SR 203 and just north of the Duvall Safeway. Moving it anywhere else due to its size would be a monumental project. But it could be done. In September 2005 a structural engineer and a building mover toured the barn to assess its condition. Reports were encouraging – the barn was essentially as stable as it was when the original plan to move it was outlined and is suitable for moving. DFA held out brief hopes the barn could be moved to the Dougherty Farmstead north of town. That idea, however, went nowhere. “Wires would have to be moved,” said McBride. “But we are still in hopes the barn can be saved for some purpose.” As for an alternative arts venue, she noted the city never came back to DFA with any offers. “We are looking for an alternative site and the monies we raised will be used for that purpose,” she said. “The city says they no longer support the Thayer Barn project but has offered no alternative. I would like to say how disheartened we are after the citizens came forward and all that was done that they would just dismiss it.” She said the city re-allocated the $200,000 that was previously committed to the Thayer Barn project to other projects.

    “It’s a loss to the community and very disheartening,” she repeated. “Their (the city’s) position is that they want it to go away. The citizens spoke, promises were broken. We have an 8-page list of people who gave money. They wanted us to prove the community was behind us and we did that. The present City Council
    isn’t honoring the history of the area. But the DFA is still hopeful we can provide those arts services in another place.” McBride still clings to the thought that the barn can be moved and saved. “I can still hope,” McBride said wistfully. “I have shed tears over this. If only some place could be found …”
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