SOU’WESTER EVENTS!
Discover what’s happening during your next stay or plan a visit around our free live music, workshops, wellness offerings and more!
New Victorian : Presented by Sou’wester Arts
New Victorian is the ethereal, small-rock project from Portlander Scott Taylor.
4th Annual ARTS WEEK!
During Arts Week The Sou’wester hosts 30-35 artists and art collectives for a week of residency work culminating in a weekend (Friday and Saturday) of music, studio tours, performances and installations.
Over the past 9 years we have held an event around this time of year to highlight the creative process and the experiential nature of the Sou’wester Residency Program. Each year this event brings amazing artists to this neck of the woods and shines creative light into the darkest heart of winter.
The focus of Arts Week 2023 is SHIFTING CYCLES:
“Our reliance on a known occurrence has been disrupted. This shift is replacing existing patterns and problems. Collective action and individual insight paving our path forward.”
On the weekend, Friday and Saturday March 17th and 18th, 2023 the public will be invited, free and open to all, to tour the grounds and surrounding areas for a weekend full of installations, music, performances and open studios.
(The Sou’wester has regular residencies offered year-round in addition to residency events such as the annual ARTS WEEK. Applications for the Sou’wester Standard Residency are separate from ARTS WEEK and accepted on a rolling basis.)
Thank you to our Arts Week 2023 Sponsors!
Singing in the land: earth magic, song, and the body
Thursday, May 25 5-7 pmJoin bodyworker, musician, and animist priest ell rieke (they/them) in residency at the Sou’wester for a magical, musical exploration of connection with the earth, our ancestors, and the world of spirit. Part workshop, part participatory sonic experience, we will spend the first part of our time in conversation, talking through questions like: what is magic and why does it matter? Where do songs come from? Is the earth talking to us? How can sound and rhythm help us navigate this complicated, painful, beautiful world?In the second half of our gathering, ell will guide participants in using voice and body to connect with spirit and the earth. They will teach some songs of the season, from both folk and modern traditions, and then guide a gentle ritual of reverence and celebration for the coming of summer. You will be invited to sing or hum and move your body, and are also welcome to just sit and experience. All bodies, voices, and backgrounds are welcome, including kids!Please bring something to sit on, and cozy layers in case the evening is cool. You may want to bring a journal and pen, if you like taking notes, and are also invited to bring a special object (that will return home with you) and/or flowers for the group altar.
“Portraits, Men in Ballgowns, Sound, We Will Be Heard” by Scott Braucht
Sou’Wester Arts is thrilled to welcome filmmaker Scott Braucht whose program Portraits / Men in Ballgowns // Sound / We Will Be Heard will be featured in a special exhibition celebrating Pacific County Pride in our Red Bus Microcinema.
On view at The Sou’Wester’s Red Bus Theatre
May 29 – July 14, 2023.
Opening reception Monday, May 29 6-8p with a special acoustic performance from musician Khaelo Dé.
Portraits is a collection of film interviews shot both on super 8mm and digital formats. It includes a selection from the series Men in Ballgowns, exploring ideas of masculinity and femininity in the LGBTQ2SIA+ community. This work-in-progress highlights men wearing gowns in different environments filmed on super 8mm with audio interviews detailing how growing up LGBTQ2SIA+ reflects in their art. Portraits concludes with the short film Mel & Kate about letting go and moving on. // Sound is a collection of music videos featuring the short documentary We Will Be Heard about rappers that identify as LGBTQIA+.
Curated by Nikki Cormaci
QUADRAPHONIC + ACUPUNCTURE + SOUND BATH
AUGUST 31 • 7PM
Featuring Sonic Ceremonies with Dr. Kade Rose (they/them) of Celestial Window Restorative Arts.
Harmonize your body with the healing waves of a sound bath combined with the flow of intuitive acupuncture.
- $88 WITH ACUPUNCTURE
- $44 SOUND BATH ONLY
Join us along with certified acupuncturist, Kade Rose, here at the Sou’wester Thursday August 31st for a unique wellness experience. This event will be held in our spacious Pavilion on the grounds of the beautiful Sou’wester and will be open to 15 participants. 8 reservations will be for a sound bath and acupuncture combination where Kade will be performing intuitive acupuncture while the sounds of her polyphonic analogue synthesizer offer deep relaxation and realignment. The remaining 7 reservations are for sound bath only where you can lay in a state of deep relaxation while the sound waves wash over you.The event will be an hour and a half long and we request you bring your yoga mats, blankets, pillows or anything that will make you more comfortable laying on the floor for an extended period of time. We are very excited to welcome you all to join us in wellness.
Exhibtion opening in our Art Trailer Gallery
No Lo Tenia Escrito / It Wasn’t in My Plans by Jade Mara Novarino
No Lo Tenia Escrito showcases a short film, Mi Abuela La Hormiga / My Grandma the Ant (40 minutes, 2023), and several prints and works on paper. The footage and the work are from a trip to Argentina in February of 2023. This work was made in order to remember—my grandma, us, a place, and a time. In a sense, it is a small archive, a document that marks a special moment in our relationship. Initially, for the film, I had set out to ask my grandmother many questions, and in some cases succeeded in receiving answers—but in the still and quiet moments of the footage, when the camera was just another piece of furniture and not someone to act in front of, was where I learned the most. The film is conscious of its own form, and the camera itself is acknowledged multiple times. Even so, the main subject—my grandma—doesn’t seem shy or to change before its presence. The prints and works on paper are reflections, journal entries, and photographs made within the year leading up to the show.
Jade Mara Novarino is a first generation American artist, educator, farmer, and community member born and raised in San Diego, California. Her work draws on inspiration from her family and the seasons, personal narrative, site-specificity, songs, and attempts to highlight the everyday as sacred. Her multidisciplinary work spans from socially engaged projects to imaginary restaurants to calligraphy to video to collage, photography, painting, and found sculpture. She runs an artist space and farm from her home in Milwaukie, Oregon. Her birthday is in February, her favorite month is September, and she looks forward to planting garlic every October. She is always looking for new pen-pals.
Curated by Nikki Cormaci
FREE Public screening in The Sou’wester Lodge
12/1/23 at 7 p.m to open our Winter exhibition in our Red Bus Theatre featuring
Wide Blue Yawn – An experimental documentary film by Eva Knowles
The idea for Wide Blue Yawn occurred to Eva after observing a UFO while alone on the beach in October 2020. She always had a powerful relationship to the Long Beach Peninsula, having grown up coming here for family getaways since she was a child–and so, after her mysterious encounter she decided to embark on deeper research of this place and make a film about it. Wide Blue Yawn attempts to capture layers of history at the mouth of the Columbia River and to honor the specific feelings evoked by the rugged pacific northwest geology, the spiritual presence of the first human inhabitants (the Chinookan people), and all that has unfolded since Lewis and Clark hit the scene in 1805. Wide Blue yawn spans centuries and wonders at how we ended up here, in our strange present reality.
Eva Knowles was born in 1990 and grew up in Bonney Lake, Washington. Her films are shot with a handheld digital camcorder and have an intimate and personal feeling. As an artist Eva is concerned with the mysterious, the sublime, and the mundane. She has worked as a teacher, a farmer, and also practices reiki. She has many projects in the works about fascinating topics.
Contact: email: eeva.knowles@gmail.com / instagram
Curated by Nikki Cormaci
1:1 Wellness / Acupuncture Sessions
w/ Celestial Window Restorative Arts
$150 / 90 Minute Sessions
December 18, 2023 by Appointment | Text: 971-282-3891 to Book
My work is focused in the lineage of Worsley Five Element Acupuncture, however, in my 8 years of clinical training I studied many modalities and can offer a variety of treatment strategies. Acupuncture is a beautiful craft with techniques for bringing flow to stuck places, and fostering a deeper harmonization within the body. It is based on philosophy that sees the human being as whole, with the full potential for healing as innate. Acupuncture uses a network of physical connections to activate the body’s own healing potential and is supportive for all aspects of life, from pain management, fertility support, digestive disorders, to finding creative expansion and self actualization.
Solstice at Sou’wester
Tea “As Gentle Hospitality” Service
(by appointment) in the Tea Trailer | December 20, 2023
Hosted by Celestial Window Restorative Arts as part of their Creative Wellness Residency
Sessions by Appointment | $33 / Person for 75 Minute Sessions
Text 971-282-3891 to Book
Solstice at Sou’wester
Acupuncture + Sound Bath
“Sound Dérive (Drift)”
An Embodied-Listening-Acupuncture-Sound Bathing-Fluxus-Art-Exercise with Unity Garnish x Feast of The Epiphany
Wednesday, Dec 20, 2023 | 6-7:30pm
For this unique group “sound bathing” experience we are invoking the 1960s French Fluxus Art Exercise of the “Dérive (Drift)”, which in essence describes a meditation through which one is invited to “get lost on purpose”, in order to facilitate an embodied state of inspiration and wellbeing crafted through the blending of multiple creative mediums. Utilizing sound, visual art and the option of gentle acupuncture, participants will be guided to reset and renew into an evolution of self. In the vein of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, individuals will leave with a one of a kind art object to carry the experience with them into life and the remainder of their time at the Sou’Wester.