Leadership at Northwind Art say the organization is based on the belief that art makes us human and helps us to connect with each other, including through galleries or classes. That also animates the Jefferson County-based nonprofit organization’s upcoming annual gala, said Mary Black, development manager of Northwind Art, whose biggest event of the year will be a night of live music on Saturday, Oct. 19, at the Fort Worden USO Hall.

“Even if we can’t speak the same language, we can still connect with other people,” Black said.

The Salish Surf Rockabillies are slated to provide the live music for an auction, a dessert dash, drinks, appetizers and dinner featuring Cape Cleare salmon. Tickets are $130 apiece and available through Tuesday, Oct. 15, at northwindart.org.

Northwind Art Executive Director Martha Worthley recalled that she joined the board after the Northwind Arts Center and the Port Townsend School of Arts had merged in 2021. COVID concerns discouraged a larger gathering, but there was still an online auction that year, along with a separate outdoor event on the Fort Worden campus.

Worthley recounted how Northwind wanted to celebrate the new leases it had acquired with the Fort Worden Public Development Authority in 2022, to expand the school from one building to three, which inspired that year’s open house reveals of all three facilities, while 2023 marked Northwind’s first indoor gala at the Fort Worden Commons.

The 2024 gala continues last year’s live auction, but debuts live music and dinner as features this year. That will help highlight Northwind venues ranging from the Jeanette Best Gallery, which displays and sells the works of local and regional artists at 701 Water St., to the Northwind Art School at Fort Worden State Park, which offers art courses and workshops for everyone from beginners to professionals.

“We want a really welcoming culture,” Worthley said, “where people are cooperative and open, and where growth and learning are part of your everyday life.”

As part of Northwind’s mission “to support artists where they live,” Worthley elaborated that the nonprofit paid out more than $200,000 to local artists showing their work in the gallery, and to teachers at the school.

Northwind Art also partners with Jefferson Healthcare to display local artists’ work at the hospital. Northwind tries to provide art that might offer “some kind of comfort,” or bright colors, or some other form of “respite for someone who is maybe under duress at the hospital,” said Worthley. She said the various programs require Northwind to seek grants and collect donations.

Black touted the gala as an opportunity to support Northwind through ticket sales and bidding on auction items, which include a private screening for 45 people at the Rose Theatre’s Starlight Room, a garden party at the Bishop Hotel, local theater tickets, a framed and signed print by marine photographer Bill Curtsinger, private art classes with local teaching artists, and two “Spirit Stick” sculptures by the late Russell Jaqua.

“Financial gifts are absolutely essential to our very existence,” Black said.

Whaleheart Productions of Port Townsend has also produced a short documentary that will premiere at the Northwind Art Gala.

Northwind Art depends on not only the “earned income” art sales and class fees, but also donations from people “who want to have art in their lives,” said Worthley.