Fairhaven gears up for holiday season

The holiday season begins with the annual Fairhaven Holiday Festival and Art Walk in the historic southside district with visits with Santa from 3 to 4:45 p.m. Friday Nov. 27, in the gazebo near Skylark’s at the corner of 10th Street and Harris Avenue , followed by the lighting of the trees at 5 p.m. on the Village Green 5 p.m. with a performance by the Bellingham High School Showstoppers. The Holiday Art Walk takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov 28, at about 20 galleries and shops in the neighborhood. Watch for special lights at participating locations.

From noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Santa will be visiting with kids at the Fairhaven Village Inn, and free carriage rides will be offered at the same time, leaving from the portico at the inn. The Bellingham Ukulele Orchestra performs at 5 p.m. on the Village Green.

Ben Mann, a longtime Fairhaven artist, says he will be demonstrating his craft from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at A Lot Of Flowers. Mann says he has shared an aesthetic kinship with the flower shop since 2000, as a perfect venue to perch his canvas and paint a vibrant Northwest townscape.

He, like others on the Art Walk, will offer snacks and sweets, as well as invitations for his upcoming open studio show in the Morgan Block building in December, dubbed, he says, “Hot Cider. Cool Art.”

Erica Hume, owner of Artwood Gallery on Harris Avenue, a co-op gallery of local woodworkers that’s been in Fairhaven for 28 years, will feature member Karen Healy.

Healy has been working with wood for more than 30 years, and Hume says, Healy is now “branching out,” making steel hangers, utensil hangers, tables with steel and wood, tables with wood, steel and marble. Her jewelry is also stone and silver and copper and is beautiful, says Hume.

The gallery’s wall artist is Steve Satushek, she says, and both he and Healy will be in the gallery from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday.

Whatcom Art Guild offers a wide variety of art pieces, including jewelry, crafts, fiber arts, wearable art, and glassworks, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. both Friday and Saturday in the McKenzie Alley off 11th Street. Bellingham painter Jim Williamson will be demonstrating word-line drawings from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday.

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Fairhaven gears up for holiday season."