JUNE 19, 2015 • VOL. 39, ISSUE 13
WWW.CANNONBEACHGAZETTE.COM
COMPLIMENTARY COPY
Tourism, arts recommendations headed to City Council
Eight nonprofi ts make annual pitches for slice of money pie
By Erick Bengel
Cannon Beach Gazette
The Tourism and Arts
Commission, which dedi-
cates a portion of the city’s
lodging taxes to arts-oriented
events meant to attract over-
night visitors or visitors from
more than 50 miles away,
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cal year’s grant amounts.
With eight local non-
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of $375,180.90 and only
$283,850 allocated to the
Tourism and Arts Fund, the
commission listened careful-
ly as the organizations made
their annual pitches during
presentations held May 19
and 20.
The commission prepared
its initial recommendations
June 2. However, during
the City Council’s work
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est was discovered between
commission member Julie
Walker and the Chamber of
Commerce, one of the orga-
nizations requesting money,
City Recorder Colleen Riggs
said.
The commission met
again June 18 (after this is-
sue went to press) to re-vote
on one of the chamber’s
three funding requests, this
time with Walker recusing
herself.
The City Council is
scheduled to vote on the rec-
ommendations July 7 during
its regular meeting.
Arts Association
The Cannon Beach Arts
Association requested fund-
ing for its Juried Show Pro-
gram at Cannon Beach Gal-
lery, tentatively scheduled
for November 2015, Febru-
ary 2016 and June 2016.
Professional and amateur
artists submit their work and
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Northwest art profession-
als, who select artwork for
a month-long installation at
the gallery.
See Tourism, Page 7A
Council
seeks goal
of ‘strategic
budgeting’
Puttz fundraiser
benefi ts the arts
‘It’s all about Tolovana Arts Colony’
Story and photos by Andrew Tonry
Cannon Beach Gazette
By R.J. Marx
I
n the midst of a wet, gray week, the clouds smiled
upon the Tolovana Arts Colony. Rain stopped almost
the moment that the ninth annual Cannon Beach
Puttz mini-golf fundraiser teed off.
“I was really surprised,” said Lisa Kerr, an event co-
ordinator at the Arts Colony. “I actually expected a lot
less people because it was raining in the morning and
it was kind of gloomy out, and it just didn’t seem like
golf-party weather. But people turned out!”
Tuesday, June 2, nearly 40 golfers played the 12
holes scattered throughout Cannon Beach. Each hole
was sponsored, designed and operated by a local busi-
ness, who donated $100 apiece for the privilege. Af-
ter the 12th hole, a Star Wars-themed shooting gallery,
many players, some of them quite nattily dressed, re-
tired to the American Legion for libations, tacos, and to
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Cannon Beach Gazette
Cannon Beach will move
forward with a strategic plan
to solicit input from local
residents and use that input
to prepare a vision statement
for the city. Cost would be ap-
proximately $10,000 for the
survey and $10,000 for the
consultant.
“You’ve already got a
good start with the compre-
hensive plan,” City Manager
Brant Kucera said. “The ul-
timate goal is now strategic
budgeting. Now my budget is
completely tied to the strate-
gic plan. That’s the ultimate,
most effective way of using
our limited resources.”
At the Tuesday, June 8
City Council work session,
Kucera told council members
that all successful strategic
planning processes include
input from three stakehold-
er groups, citizens, council
and staff. The strategic plan
is “very different” from a
comprehensive plan, which
typically talks about transpor-
tation and land use, planning
issues,” he said.
“The strategic plan deals
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community,” he said.
See Fundraiser, Page 11A
National survey,
local audience
Joe Oyala leads a group of golfers between holes.
TOP: Dave Butler, who had the best score on the day, takes aim at the Star Wars shoot-
ing gallery on hole #12. ABOVE LEFT: A bid is placed at the silent auction. ABOVE
RIGHT: Libby Cure shows off her themed attire.
Renowned artist Shirley Gittelsohn dies at 90
famous for her Works Prog-
ress Administration-inspired
landscapes, and her portraits
are noted for their color, en-
By R.J. Marx & Erick Bengel
ergy and connection to peo-
Cannon Beach Gazette
ple and places in Oregon.
Her son, John Gittelsohn,
Shirley Georges Gittelsohn, described her work: “She
a painter who made Cannon was a colorist whose can-
Beach her second home and vases burst exuberantly with
an obsessive focus of her art, WKHFREDOWEOXHRIWKH3DFL¿F
died June 12 at age 90.
the purples and forest greens
Gittelsohn had been of the Coast Range, the lav-
painting in Oregon for more ender-hued hydrangeas and
WKDQ ¿YH GHFDGHV 6KH ZDV white roses of her garden.”
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‘Thick, salty air’
inspired her
“Shirley’s
ever-present
smile, engaging eyes and
laughter that always gave us a
lift,” said Rex Amos, a long-
time Cannon Beach resident.
Others throughout the com-
munity recognized Gittelsohn
and her extraordinary talent.
“Shirley was a wonderful art-
ist. It was very inspiring to lis-
ten to her talk about her work
and life amongst her paint-
ings,” said former Cannon
Beach Gallery Director An-
drea Mace. “She will most cer-
Shirley Gittelsohn in 2013
during the filming of a doc-
umentary for Oregon Public
Broadcasting’s Oregon Art Beat.
tainly be missed in this coastal
enclave of Cannon Beach.”
Summers on the coast
Shirley Gittelsohn was
born in Portland but began
summering on the coast in
her infancy.
See Artist, Page 5A
SUBMITTED PHOTO
According to Kucera, the
National Citizen’s Survey is
a nationally recognized sur-
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out the people’s opinion of
community services, com-
munity direction. The com-
prehensive plan does not
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the vision of the city
Kucera said the proposed
strategic plan, prepared by the
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Survey under the auspices of
the National Resource Cen-
ter in Boulder, Colo., would
be updated about two years,
while comprehensive plans
are typically updated every
10 years. Comprehensive
plans are legally mandated,
but the strategic plan is not,
he said.
See Plan, Page 7A
Meet the artist behind the Cannon
Beach Sandcastle Contest poster
Offi cer Devon
Edwards patrols the
streets, makes art
By Erick Bengel
Cannon Beach Gazette
Every year, the poster for Can-
non Beach’s Sandcastle Contest be-
comes a ubiquitous image, stamped
on promotional clothing and dis-
played in storefront windows
throughout town. And the poster
for the 51st annual contest — held
June 2O with related events sched-
uled for the 19th and 21st — is a
memorable one.
A comely, curvy mermaid, orna-
mented with pearls, shells, sea stars
and other oceanic objects, relaxes
CANNON BEACH
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on the sand, her piscine tail raised
in welcome. Behind the red-headed
sea siren, a spired sandcastle rises
from the shoreline, while, in the
distance, Haystack Rock grounds
the scene in Cannon Beach.
Though the artist — 26-year-old
Devon Edwards, of Seaside — is
well known in Cannon Beach, she
isn’t typically known for her art but
for keeping the city safe. For near-
ly four years, Edwards has served
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Beach Police Department.
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night, I’m an artist,” she said.
In January, the Chamber of
Commerce Sandcastle Contest
Committee commissioned Edwards
— a mixed-media artist who spe-
cializes in the human form — after
her supervisor, Police Chief Jason
Schermerhorn, vice president of
the chamber board, mentioned her
name at a committee meeting.
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ally thought, ‘How cool would it be
one day to actually do the poster for
Sandcastle,’” she said. “I didn’t ac-
tually think it would ever happen.”
Originally rendered on illustra-
tion board in ink, gel pens, gouache
ERICK BENGEL PHOTO
Patrol Offi cer Devon Edwards, 26,
of Seaside, designed and created the
poster for the 51st annual Sandcastle
Contest. She also designed the decals
for the city’s police vehicles featuring
the silhouette of Haystack Rock.
paints, artist markers and watercol-
ors, the poster went through several
concepts before Edwards and the
sandcastle committee decided on
See Edwards, Page 10A