Community Art Programs

Every summer, Alchemy Art Center brings a robust line-up of free activities and programs to our island community. Thanks to partnerships with Island Rec, The Family Resource Center, the San Juan Island Sculpture Park, and the Farmers Market, our activities touch the lives of hundreds of kids and adults and each season. Activities are created and led by different cohorts of seasonal visiting artists, as part of our Artists in Community Program. Our 2024 community programming is made possible through the support of ArtsFund, ArtsWA, Tulalip Charitable Funds, the San Juan Island Community Foundation, the San Juan County Arts Council, and by generous donations from our community members. Thank you for helping us bring art to islanders!

Click Here for the complete 2024 Summer Programming Schedule

Past Season Projects and Programs

In 2021, we served over 1600 people- many of them during one of over 60 free community
arts programming events.

Alchemy Art Center believes in arts access for all.

Community Partnerships

In 2019, Alchemy partnered with the San Juan Island Library and the Family Resource Center to bring art projects to kids in the Friday Harbor Trailer Courts. This program was run by our 2019 summer intern, Anjanette Garcia Rosas. Since the pandemic, we have continued to partner with the Family Resource Center’s Mentorship Program, working groups of grade-schoolers and middle-schoolers on special art projects in the summer.

Alchemy Art Center partners with Island Rec to bring art activities to kids enrolled in Camp Eagle Rock, as well as through our “Free Art Days” at Linde Park. We have also run discounted adult classes in collaboration with Island Rec.

In the summer, you can often find Alchemy at the San Juan Island Farmers Market offering free hands-on activities for kids, as well as featuring art created by our summer Artists in Residence and interns.

Community Mural Project

During the early days of the Pandemic, Alchemy created a community mosaic project that islanders could participate in from home. The project, a 15-foot salmon made up of about 240 individual tiles, was intended to create a feeling of connection and collaboration during what was an incredibly difficult and isolated time for everyone. The salmon image was chosen for its key role in our Salish Sea ecosystem, and it’s symbolism for our interdependence.

Some 80 quarantined islanders participated in the first salmon, working from home to create their unique pieces of the larger whole. This project grew to include kids from Camp Eagle Rock and the Family Resource Center. In the summer of 2021, a new double-sided version was created on-site at the San Juan Island Sculpture Park, to be permanently installed as a freestanding sculpture in the collection. This piece was created with the help of hundreds of visitors to the sculpture park, and reflects our local and global communities.