First Friday
The Haines Sheldon Museum will premier its exhibit, A Mystery Lies Beneath the Waves: The Legend of the Clara Nevada, from 5-7 p.m. The exhibit honors the 125 year anniversary of the sinking of the Clara Nevada, a ship bound for Skagway. The exhibit will have interactive features that encourage readers to solve the mystery.
“It’s a really fun mystery history exhibit,” Haines Sheldon Museum curator Cordelia Nelson said. “Everybody gets to be a little bit of their own detective.”
The Port Chilkoot Distillery will showcase local artist James E. Hart’s collection of Tlingit formline paintings, art prints and drums from 4-8 p.m.
“I was really trying to push for a new stylisation,” Hart said. “I’ve been coaxed into more of a free flowing design rather than a stiff, traditional style of Tlingit art.”
The Haines Economic Development Corporation (HEDC) is hosting an open house from 4-6 p.m. at the HEDC office in the Gateway Building. Stop in to view commercial photography of local Haines businesses and the chance to meet HEDC’s Pivot Partners.
Wildhaven Wools is offering an open studio from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Sewing machines, serger and coverstitch will be available to the public, as well as an area to cut fabrics. Owner Julia Billings will be available for questions and guidance. Wildhaven Wools will also host a “knit-along” for a simple kal sweater every Friday from 12-1 p.m. Sweater yarn will be 30% off during the event.
The Pioneer Bar hosts trivia every Friday at 7 p.m. followed by open mic night at 9 p.m.
The Strange Fate of the Clara
Nevada
The Haines Sheldon Museum will host a reader’s theater of the play, “The Strange Fate of the Clara Nevada” on Sunday, Feb. 5 from 1-2:30 p.m. Admission is free.
The play is paired with the opening of its Clara Nevada exhibit, which opens on First Friday from 5-7 p.m. The ship was a Gold Rush steamer then sank in 1898 off Eldred Rock.
“The script is fantastic, it’s got every historical fact you would need to know about the Clara Nevada,” Lynn Canal Community Players board member Dena Selby said.
Brandon Wilks, Tom Morphet, Jim Wilson, Ryan Staska and Kyle Clayton will be reading parts.
KHNS will broadcast a recording of the play on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 10 a.m. The recording is one hour and 15 minutes.
Love Letters
A performance of the two-person play “Love Letters” by A. R. Gurney will be showcased on Feb. 14, 18 at 7 p.m., with a matinee on Feb. 19 at 2 p.m. at the Chilkat Center.
The play, told in epistolary form, follows two characters beginning from their childhood friendship. Their correspondences are read by each character, from birthday thank you notes to love letters, which detail roughly five decades of their lives, including a brief love affair. The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
The event will be produced by the Alaska Arts Confluence. Admission is $15 for adults and $10 for children.
“It’s a very romantic play,” director Roger Gentry said. “It’s the love of two people who, even though they have their own paths in life, are bound together by their letters through a lifetime. It’s very moving.”
Northern Light Showcase
The Northern Light Showcase will be held Sunday Feb. 19 from 7-9 p.m. in the Chilkat Center Lobby. Ben Aultman-Moore, Eric Holle, Michael Reynolds, Burl Sheldon and Nancy Berland, Joe Aultman-Moore, the Davis family, and more will perform original music and spoken word pieces. Admission is $7.
Wildhaven Wools
Wildhaven Wools is offering a beginning crochet class taught by Raquel Leal on Feb 15, 16 and 21. Recruits will learn to crochet a hat. Admission is $30.
The Bookstore
The Bookstore is hosting an evening of wine and books on Sun Feb. 5 at 5 p.m. Readers will celebrate Antoine Laurain’s book The Red Notebook. The event will include three wines from Burgundy as well as appetizers. The event suggests a donation of $50, and is limited to 25 guests.