Whatcom Museum

Clear skies, mid 70s, and a boat.

Seats are still open for tomorrow's "Summer Sunset Cruise" on Bellingham Bay. Kolby LaBree of the Good Time Girls narrates two hours of Bellingham lore and local history while the light does its thing over the water.

Tuesday, August 4. Board at 5:45 pm, sail 6 – 8 pm from the Bellingham Cruise and Ferry Terminal, 355 Harris Ave. Covered seating, snack bar, and full bar on board.

Ticket sales close at noon tomorrow.

www.whatcommuseum.org/cruise

Trust your eyes? Look again.

This August, Free First Friday bends perception. A day of optical illusions, hands-on making, and art that isn't quite what it seems.

Friday, August 7. Free all day.

Full lineup coming soon: whatcommuseum.org/free-first-friday/

Scientific illustration is a way of seeing before it's a way of painting. Spend a day building both.

Natural history artist Madison Erin Mayfield, ornithology collections manager at the Burke Museum, leads "Intermediate Scientific Illustration Watercolor Workshop with Madison Erin Mayfield" on August 8 from 10:30 am – 2:30 pm at the Lightcatcher Studio, 250 Flora Street.

After a sketching warmup, you'll complete two watercolor studies: seasonal summer flowers and a Blackburnian Warbler. Registration includes museum admission and all materials. Best suited to artists with a regular drawing practice and some painting experience. $140 members / $160 public.

Register: https://www.whatcommuseum.org/event/intermediate-scientific-illustration-watercolor/

There's no better way to see Bellingham Bay than from the water.

Step aboard the Victoria Star for a Summer Sunset Cruise — historic waterfront, working harbor, Lummi Island, and (when the skies cooperate) Mt. Baker in the evening light. Onboard bar, covered seating, and two hours of golden-hour views. Keep an eye out for harbor seals and water birds along the way.

Tickets: https://www.whatcommuseum.org/cruise

Our July geology cruise sold out fast, so we added one more. Join WWU geology professor Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, Ph.D., aboard the Victoria Star for the "Geology Hazards Cruise" on Bellingham Bay.

Living in Washington means living alongside the forces that shaped it. This sunset sail explores the region's volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis, and how we live safely in dramatic terrain, with views of Lummi Island and (skies permitting) Mt. Baker along the way.

Tuesday, September 1 | 6 – 8 pm | Boarding 5:45 pm

Bellingham Cruise and Ferry Terminal, 355 Harris Ave

Members $50, general $60, kids 5 and under free (pre-registration required)

Tickets: https://www.whatcommuseum.org/cruise

Cascadia Daily News profiled our new Executive Director, Jessica Borusky, who started earlier this month. Thanks to Cocoa Laney and Cascadia Daily News for the profile.

New director wants to see collision of culture, art, civics at Whatcom Museum | Cascadia Daily News Jessica Borusky is former Pratt Fine Arts Center director; tenure began this month

Behind the glow.

A look inside the Lightcatcher as "Luminous Glow" came together. Light artist and master neon glass tube bender Kelsey Fernkopf explores the materiality and expressive potential of luminous neon glass through large-scale sculptures and site-responsive installations. The result is an interior landscape that shifts as viewers move through the space.

Also on view: images made with photographer Steve Gilbert, capturing Fernkopf's temporary neon interventions in natural and urban settings.

"Luminous Glow: The Neon Landscapes of Kelsey Fernkopf & Photography by Steve Gilbert" runs at the Lightcatcher through March 7, 2027. Open Wed – Sun, 12 – 5 pm.

https://www.whatcommuseum.org/exhibition/luminous-glow/

An unbriefed visitor stood in the middle of Old City Hall recently, took in the full scale of it, and asked the only question that matters: "What is this place? Why is it so big?"

Short answer: ambition. Back when the towns around Bellingham Bay came together as New Whatcom, the new city decided it needed a city hall worthy of the metropolis it was sure it was about to become. The design came from a local self-taught architect who pieced it together from building catalogs of the era. Modest beginnings, immodest results: three stories, four corner cupolas, and a clock tower over the bay.

Then the money ran short before it was finished, and for a long stretch the tower clock sat frozen, its hands stuck in place.

The dreams were a little bigger than the budget. But the building is still standing, and it's been home to the Whatcom Museum for decades.

So. Why is it so big? Because somebody was sure it would need to be.

Got a quote you've overheard at the museum? Drop it in the comments.

📷 Manuel Rod del Pozo Collection, Whatcom Museum 2009.0018.000516

"Kollide" is here: a collaborative, kaleidoscopic, audiovisual installation set to original music and animations by artists and composers from Western Washington University. Two days only -- July 3 and July 5.