Main Street is getting even more artsy.
Skipping Stone Studios and the Alaska Arts Confluence will jointly celebrate their storefront openings in the Gateway Building from 1-5 p.m. Sunday.
With the two spaces next to one another, attendees can pop into Skipping Stone Studios to peruse the new fine art gallery and take in some live music, then stop across the way at the Alaska Arts Confluence’s new office to visit with local author Debi Knight Kennedy and view an art installation by Mandy Ramsey.
“We now have this great art gallery on Main Street, and we want to celebrate that,” said confluence creative director Carol Tuynman.
Artist Knight Kennedy, known primarily for her sculpture work, will be signing copies of her new book, “Becoming Pearls,” at the confluence’s opening. Knight Kennedy said writing and self-publishing the collection of short stories, personal essays, and poems was “pretty terrifying.”
“It’s putting myself out there in public in a different way that I’m not used to. It’s so personal,” she said.
Tuynman said the back part of the office will act as a staging area for the confluence’s Art on Main Street project, while the front, which won’t be complete until this spring, will be a “classy space” full of art and cool furniture.
“The room itself, we want that to look like a window display,” Tuynman said. “We want it to look really fantastic. So when people look in they are looking at an environment they wish they could be in.”
Tuynman said she hopes the office will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. during the tourist season.
“We’ll sell tickets to cultural events, we will direct people to the library, museum and art galleries. We are interested in providing information for people who want to explore the cultural life in Haines,” she said.