Bellingham Flea Market opens

Downtown Bellingham has a new weekend attraction as of May 15 with the opening of O'Donnell's Bellingham Flea Market and Outdoor Food Market.

O’Donnell’s Bellingham Flea Market opened May 15 with the hope of bringing a new attraction to Downtown Bellingham.
Located at 1520 Cornwall Ave., next to the Bellingham Public Market, the Flea Market is now open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It boasts fun treasure hunting and a circus-like atmosphere.
The Flea Market is a sister project to O’Donnell’s Outdoor Food Market which opened Friday evening in the parking lot of the same location. Tacos the size of footballs from Ah! Chihuahua Tacos, slices of pizza from Cicchitti’s and hot dogs from Neiner Neiner Weiner were staples at the grand opening.
Dan O’Donnell and his dog, Frog, spent Friday night at the opening of the Outdoor Food Market, recruiting people to spread the word and get people to come and eat.
“Tell all your drunk friends to get down here,” he said.
Both projects were started by the 29-year-old entrepreneur with the goal of bringing more people to downtown. The Outdoor Market will provide a place for people to get cheap food in the evenings while the Flea Market offers fun treasure hunting on Saturday and Sunday during the day, he said.
“Part Flea Market, Part Circus”
O’Donnell compared the formation of his flea market idea to someone realizing Bellingham didn’t have a gas station.
“It’s really a no-brainer. Well duh! We need a flea market!” he said.
Now O’Donnell’s idea has become reality, with about 40 vendors inside selling things from organic dog treats to antique pottery. But the vendors will not be the same every week, he said, as the goal is to keep the market mysterious so people keep coming.
The other aspect to keep visitors interested is O’Donnell’s promise of “Part Flea Market, Part Circus.” Each week he has some carnival aspects planned such as magic, face painting, live music and massage booths, he said.
“It’s different every time, that’s why it’s cool,” O’Donnell said.
Flea Market brings year round spot for vendors
Booths at the Flea Market are available to all vendors who pay the daily rental fee of $26, provide their own tables and chairs and sign a Vendor Agreement, according to the market website.
Carolyn O’Donnell, a vendor and the mother of Dan O’Donnell, cleaned out her garage and attic the first weekend of the market and sold $122 worth of old movies and things she deemed trash.
“One man’s junk is another’s treasure,” she said.
Tessa García, a recycled jewelry maker and vendor last weekend, said that she thinks the Flea Market is a great opportunity for vendors because it will be open year-round. Most markets aren’t open on Sundays or during the winter, so O’Donnell’s market will provide a place for vendors to still sell during those times, she said.
While the Outdoor Market is open in the summer, the Bellingham Public Market, which is next door to the new festivities, may see an increase in business, according to employee Keeley Savatgy. They are open until 10 p.m. on Fridays, and what usually is a slow night might become busier with the presence of the Outdoor Food Market, she said.
A slow, but steady start
Another jewelry vendor, Jacqueline Starble, said that things were a little slow the first weekend but that the Flea Market has potential. She hopes that more vendors and customers will head to the Flea Market in December when the Bellingham Farmer’s Market closes.
“That’s when this will explode,” she said.
With the Ski to Sea Grand Parade passing right by their front door next weekend, hopes are high for increased awareness and clientele for the new markets, said Carolyn O’Donnell. She plans to have her booth ready for a considerable increase in business.
Tanna Anderson, a market customer, said she hopes the Flea Market does well.
“It would be great for people watching, filling bellies and buying cheap necklaces!” she said.
Now that it has started Dan O’Donnell thinks the two markets might outgrow the current location.
“We’ve got some big ideas,” he said.
Market staff members are also looking for more ideas for the space, as they own it during the week as well with no current plans for its usage, O’Donnell said.
For more information to visit, to give suggestions or to sign up for a booth, go to http://bellinghamfleamarket.wordpress.com/.

Pickford sells advance tickets online

The Pickford Film Center entered into the digital age of ticket sales this month, as advance tickets for the upcoming hit movie “Babies” went on sale at the Brown Paper Tickets website.
Since its opening in 1998, the Pickford has been a cash and check only institution, and tickets were only available at the ticket window which opens 20 minutes before showings.
The movie “Babies”, opening May 28, is expected to sell out shows during its first week in the theater so the Pickford opened up a presale location, said projectionist Carey Ross.
Directed by Thomas Balmès, “Babies” follows four infants from four different countries through their first year of life as a human nature documentary without narration, according to the Pickford website.
Brown Paper Tickets is an organization that boasts “Fair-Trade Ticketing,” with low service fees and at least 5 percent of profits donated to charity, according to the ticketing website. This service matches the Pickford’s non-profit themes.
The staff of the Pickford is using the “Babies” presale as a test-run for future online ticket sales. If enough tickets are sold, the staff may decide to have all showings open for presale, Ross said.
Tickets are available online for all shows from May 28 to June 3 with the price varying from $5.25 to $8.75 per ticket.

Pickford recieves tourism funding

The Bellingham City Council voted to grant $75,000 to the non-profit Pickford Film Center so that it can build a new larger cinema and a new tourism spot for downtown.

The Pickford Film Center is $75,000 closer to having the funding to bring its “dream space” to life, as the Bellingham City Council met Monday and voted unanimously in favor of a grant from the Tourism Fund.
This is the second of two grants received in the last week, the other being $250,000 from the state capital budget. Now, the organization only has $100,000 left to meet the goal of $3.25 million for the project, said Alice Clark, director of the Pickford Film Center.
The funds are going to help finish the development of a new cinema location on Bay Street. The project will create space for two screens, 250 seats, and a large lobby and café for concessions.
It has been estimated that the new location will bring 300 people per day to the downtown core, according to Carey Ross, Pickford projectionist.
The most recent grant of $75,000 from the Tourism Fund was supported by the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee. According to Monday’s City Council Agenda Bill, the new venues will “benefit all the arts and cultural organizations in Bellingham due to the volume of programming and visitors it brings to downtown, supporting both the Whatcom Museum and the overall Arts District as well.”
With the slogan, “More than Movies!” the Pickford Film Center is a non-profit arts organization that was started in 1998. It is powered 365 days a year by over 2,000 members and is sponsored by local businesses, Ross said. Rocket Donuts is one of the biggest sponsors, and the movie experience is complete with a chance to win a free pint of ice cream from Mallards Ice Cream, another contributor.
“It has a lot of personality and the people there really love their films,” said Brie Phillips, a Western student there to see the current playing movie, “The Runaways.” “It’s definitely an experience.”
Taxpayers worry where dollars are going
Recent additions to the funding have not come without controversy, however.
On April 25, The Bellingham Herald Editorial Board wrote an editorial describing the state’s $250,000 grant to the Pickford as a demonstration of the governor’s inability to prioritize.
David Huey, vice president of the North Pacific Division for 7-Eleven, Inc., said he hopes the Pickford does well, but that it is the wrong time to be spending taxpayers’ money on a project like this when cuts to education and other state programs are being made. Anytime an investment is made, it is debatable whether the outcomes will match what was expected, he said.
Supporters of the grant going to the Pickford have explained that the money came from the capital budget, which is separate from the operating budget. The operating budget covers the day-to-day state funded programs, such as state patrol, prisons and public education, while the capital budget goes to building projects and renovations, Huey said.
“Capital budget or operational budget, it’s still tax dollars,” Huey said. “Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is not small jelly beans however you look at it.”
Pickford to help other businesses
The new Pickford project will not just benefit the organization itself, but instead will bring economic stimulus to all of downtown as people will eat dinner and get drinks after a movie, Ross said.
“I really want for our project to help revitalize the downtown because we think it’s an important neighborhood to do that in,” Clark said.
Steve Meyers, a projectionist for the Pickford, emphasized the visibility of the new location and that it would be a new tourism spot. Right now, the theater is hard to see unless it is the destination of choice already, he said.
“This is a time where things are starting to come back up,” Meyers said. “You have to put money into things that will bring more money later.”
Businesses near the new location are looking forward to the presence of a new hot spot in downtown, according to Jonathan Lawson, owner of the Black Drop Coffeehouse on West Champion Street. There is nothing bad about “more people coming to our little neck of the woods”, he said.
“I hope to capitalize on the increasing foot traffic,” Lawson said. If the shop’s revenues will increase, Lawson will be more than happy to see some of his tax dollars go to the Pickford, he said.
The Bay Street location is slated to open late this year, but further donations will be necessary to keep construction going, said Clark.
According to the meeting minutes, Council Member Terry Bornemann told the Bellingham City Council that he hopes the tourism funding will encourage donors to put money forward.
“They’re real close and this is the opportunity now to get behind it because the finish line is right there and it is a great project,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Pickford on Cornwall Avenue is still up and running, with highlights from the Seattle Children’s Film Festival starting May 22 and a film titled “Babies” starting May 28.
Donations to the Pickford Film Center can be made online at www.pickfordcinema.org.

Creation and celebration: The Procession of the Species parade

Downtown Bellingham residents celebrated all forms of life on Saturday, as they marched as animals in the seventh annual Procession of the Species parade.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Wild animals made from recycled materials marched through Downtown Bellingham Saturday, as residents celebrated the seventh annual Procession of the Species parade.

From a family of unicorns, to jelly fish and a caterpillar, Bellingham residents young and old lined up at 3:30 p.m. outside City Hall ready to join together and show off their handmade costumes.

Missy Taylor, a regular spectator of the parade remarked on the community bonding that occurs each year.

“It is a cool community event that gives people the creative fuel to get people together,” she said.

The Procession of the Species began in Olympia in January 1995 to mark the 25th anniversary of Earth Day and to celebrate the renewal of the Endangered Species Act, according to the organization website. The celebration spread to Bellingham in 2003 and has since become an annual spring event.

“They come out to celebrate diversity of life and species,” said Keri Heagle of the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department. “It is such a happy parade, I just love it!”

The parade started at Bellingham City Hall and headed down Commercial Street, West Holly Street and finally ended up at the Maritime Heritage Park for commencement activities, said the website. This year, joining the festivities was the Duke of Hominy Brass band, dressed in full white suits and tall furry hats.

The Bellingham Police Department estimated the crowd size to be between 800 and 1200 people last year, and there were even more people this year, Heagle said.

Saving the earth, one costume at a time

To help those who needed ideas to get started, the Procession of the Species artists held free workshops throughout April, teaching parents how to turn strollers into monsters and helmets into elephant masks. The workshops were free, although they accepted donations, and all materials provided were recycled, according to the Procession website.

Carol Oberton, director of the Procession in Bellingham, was dressed as a beetle made out of an old iMac monitor shell, onion bags and kite fabric for this year’s parade.

“I hate using plastic. I try to make a point of using materials that are going to be thrown away anyway,” she said.

The three rules rule

A favorite at the Procession was Doug Dodd’s raven with 10-foot wingspan mounted on a bike. This mode of transportation was used to respect the first of the Procession’s only three rules. “No motorized vehicles. No words, written or spoken. No live animals,” the website said.

“They keep the scale and ingenuity different. If you mount it on a car and drive it you experience it differently,” Oberton said. “It’s an interesting experience to be wearing a big puppet like that.”

As far as limiting spoken and written word, the goal is to avoid commercial sponsorship and politics so that people of all kinds can feel comfortable, according to Oberton.

“Every year some people you would never ever connect with can come together, you can experience who they are as a person with politics out of it,” she said.

Hoping for more help

One puppet was missed this year, however. The giant 12-foot spider made out of plastic bottles for the legs and an old two-person tent for the body was created collaboratively by sculptor Thor Myhre, Carol Oberton and others. It requires a person to man each of the legs, and in the off season lives in Fairhaven College’s Outback Farm, Oberton said.

This year, the spider got a break from the festivities, and was replaced by Myhre’s dragonfly, which could be powered by one person instead of eight.

According to Oberton, the Procession’s biggest competition is soccer, as families have games on the weekends and do not feel that they can commit to the parade. Their goal is to get more Western Washington University students involved, she said.

The Procession of the Species was sponsored by Start Here Community Arts and the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department. Everyone is invited to attend or participate in next year’s events and no registration is necessary, according to the website.

See www.bpots.org for more information and picture archives.

Women take charge in new Whatcom Museum exhibit

Northwest women shine at the new Whatcom Museum of Art exhibit, which opened Saturday, April 24, at the Lightcatcher building.


Young and old, nobodies and legends, painters and sculptors, women and well, only women. The new exhibit at the Whatcom Museum of Art’s Lightcatcher building opened Saturday, April 24, and features Northwest women artists from 1880-2010.

The exhibit, “Show of Hands”, includes over 90 pieces created by 63 female artists from Washington, Oregon. and British Columbia. The collection’s display marks the centennial of women’s suffrage in Washington state, according to the Whatcom Museum website.

Many artistic mediums are included in the collection, from oil paintings to a paper-mâché rhinoceros. Lorna Libert, a visitor at the museum, noticed the variance in presentation.

“I like the combination of fine art, paintings and photography, sculpture and video. It’s all included,” she said.

The Lightcatcher enlightens Downtown

As the development of Downtown Bellingham is constantly changing the storefronts and skyline of the neighborhood, museum visitors said they are enthusiastic about the influence of the new Lightcatcher building that opened in November of last year.

Gesturing to Angie’s Bail Bonds and the used bookstores across the street, Karen Frances, a museum member, said she feels that the new museum “completely changes the face of downtown.”

“It’s nice to know that you don’t have to go to Seattle to see fine art anymore,” Frances said.

Cory Budden, the researching assistant for the art curator of the exhibit, said that this is the first time that art from so many places and times has been in Bellingham.

“It’s something Bellingham hasn’t seen on this scale before,” she said.

Museum volunteer Kathy Jacobson described the new museum as “cutting edge”. She said it has brought in different kinds of patrons in comparison to the old museum in City Hall, including more guests from Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Not everyone is as pleased with the new museum taking over. Budden said that there has been some backlash from the elderly community about the closing of the City Hall location. The old museum is now only open for special events, as there is not enough funding to staff both locations.

Exhibit offers wide range of backgrounds

According to Budden, the celebration of women’s suffrage was just a starting point for Barbara Matilsky, curator of the exhibit. Instead Matilsky wanted to demonstrate Northwest women’s impact on the art world and to highlight the quality of their work, Budden said.

Matilsky did not just choose well-known artists, said Budden, but also wanted to include “nobodies” whose talent had yet to be portrayed. Some of the women did not start their artistic careers until their 60s, as their societal constraint called for them to do other things first, she said.

However, “None of it is outright feminist art,” Budden said.

The works vary in medium as well as intended message. From a tall stack of blankets labeled with personal stories to a sculpture made out of 16 mm film and rayon cord created to discuss stereotypes in the media, various thoughts are conveyed.

The art spans 130 years, allowing for a demonstration of the changing influence of women artists over time, Budden said. The pieces were found in Seattle and Portland galleries, with one discovered outside, next to a dumpster, she said.

Also to be seen at the Lightcatcher are “Expanded Horizons: Panoramic Photographs by J.W. Sandison” and “Outside the Home”, a collection of photographs depicting women in the workplace.

“Show of Hands” will be open until Aug. 8. A family event for the exhibit will be held on Saturday, May 8, from noon-4 p.m.