Volunteer!

Be a part of the Anacortes' largest community event of the year, the 2012 Anacortes Arts Festival. Volunteers are the ambassadors of the Festival.

Each year over 90,000 visitors come to the Festival and our Volunteers field their many questions and special needs.

Mary Leone (staff) oversees the Volunteer function with help from experienced volunteer team leaders. Please consider experiencing the Festival through the eyes of a volunteer.

 

Benefits to Volunteers

  • A wonderful sense of community
  • A free Festival T-shirt for those who complete the orientation and 4 hours of service
  • A volunteers-only Orientation and Reception
  • Special training in your area of volunteering
  • Special recognition for 5 and 10 years of service

 

Four Hour Shifts

  • Booth Sitter: Relieve Booth Vendors allowing them to take a break.
  • Information Booth: Provide directions and program information about the Festival (3+ years general Festival experience required).
  • Docent/Art Cashier: Secure artwork in Port Warehouse, answers questions regarding artwork and write up art work sales.  Must have an arts background or a demonstrated interest in art.
  • Distribution/Publicity: Pre-festival poster distribution, hang sponsor banners, help with Publicity.
  • Exhibition Team: Art show set-up, take down.  Must have exhibition production or art handling experience.
  • Booth Artisan Services: Help with Booth Artisan lunch preparation and maintain our Hospitality Room for those wishing to take a quiet break.
  • Production: Provide physical set-up and take down of the Festival.  Some jobs require manual labor and construction knowledge.
  • Office: Help with phones, mail outs, Booth Artisan Check-In and Check-Out (banking or accounting experience needed).
  • Youth Activities: Help participating groups with youth area arts activities

Update from Mary

The 2011 Anacortes Arts Festival was special this year. We celebrated our 50th year! With 250 booths artisans, 3 full days of entertainment and a first class regional Fine Art show, it's Anacortes' largest annual celebration. It just couldn't happen without our family of volunteers!

Join us as we prepare for the 2012 Festivities. You can work alone, with a friend, or with a group - the rewards are many!

We love you!
And we all thank you for all you do.

Mary Leone, Volunteer Coordinator

 

2011 Volunteer of the Year

Congratulations and many thanks to Carol Masters as she receives the 2011 AAF Volunteer of the Year Award. As a member of the Fine Arts Exhibition Team, Carol provides invaluable help as the Port venue is prepared for the annual exhibition and art is received, with great care, from participating artists.

As Assistant Docent Coordinator, Carol's hours of interaction during training and scheduling of docents is greatly appreciated - as well as her attention to questions from visitors and other docents during the festival.

Carol teamed up with AAF as soon as she arrived in Anacortes in 2006 and continues to be vital to the success of the fine arts show. Her willingness to help with any aspect of the exhibition makes her indispensable.

Carol Masters grew up in Whitehorse, Yukon, where she learned to love the natural beauty of the Northwest. After training as a cytology technician, Carol married Bob Masters (almost 48 years ago). Their family loved boating in Puget Sound and led an active, engaged life in Bellevue as sons Brad and Todd grew up.

Carol volunteered as a docent (two years of training required) at the Seattle Art Museum. It gave her a "panoramic view of art," she recalls. Art history and appreciation became a personal and professional focus as Carol launched an art tours business with a travel writer friend. The business grew to include national and international in-depth art tours that Carol researched, organized and led for 20 years.

Carol is an active volunteer docent at the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner and has donated time to the AAF Fine Arts Exhibition. As Assistant Docent Coordinator, Carol's art expertise and enthusiasm are an inspiration to docents and show visitors. "We are so fortunate to have the Arts Festival show here. I love all our local galleries, but I especially enjoy what we do at the Port every year," she says. The show exposes so many visitors to high caliber art they may not see otherwise."

Thanks, Carol, for all the hard work nourishing and guiding art appreciation in so many ways for so many people.

Volunteers of the Year

  • Carol Masters 2011
  • Lil and Terry Green 2010
  • Don Bergner 2009
  • Laura Hamilton 2008
  • Kerry Allen 2007
  • Stew Sterling 2006
  • Geralyn Curtis 2005
  • Shirley Smith 2004
  • Claire Ingstad 2003
  • Diane Light 2002

10 or more consecutive years

  • Richard Bergner
  • Geralyn Curtis
  • Sharon Klint
  • Billie Schooler
  • Shirley Smith

5 or more consecutive years
(completed in 2009)

  • Judi Acker
  • Barbara Bear
  • Shirley Forsman
  • Phyllis Guy
  • Robert Hoffman
  • Don Lee
  • Ed Mazur
  • Ruth Mazur
  • Donna Smith
  • Tim Vogel