And the Winners Are? Annual Island Treasure Awards for Outstanding Arts and Humanities Work is Set for March 29th

Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye, the Island Treasure Awards (ITA) are just around the corner. Presented annually to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in the arts and humanities on Bainbridge Island, the ITA will be celebrating its newest Island Treasures at the Buxton Center for Performing Arts (BPA) on Saturday March 29, 2025.

This year’s award winners are: Andrew Joslyn: Music Composition, Performance and Music Advocacy, and Akuyea Karen Vargas, for Humanities: Cultural Anthropology, History, and Multicultural Studies.

The process for selection after the nomination period is modeled after the same process used by the MacArthur Foundation Fellows. “Nominators write a confidential letter to the Island Treasure Awards committee, answering a few questions about their nominee describing the person they are nominating,” explains Ellen Bush, Island Treasure Awards Coordinator. “The nominations focus on the quality and the creativity of the nominees work and how this work has benefitted the cultural fabric of Bainbridge Island. These nominations are researched by the ITA committee and then passed on to the members of the selection jury. After the jury has made the selection, the names are presented to the ITA committee who then notifies the winners. The winning candidates are asked not to tell anyone outside their own family until the results are announced publicly in (January).”

Each winner was selected by the jury that serves confidentially, and are chosen for their extensive experience and familiarity with the arts and humanities on Bainbridge Island. “The jurors bring experience from many different cultural perspectives,” Bush says. “The jurors are given a packet of nomination materials and then meet for a day of deliberation guided by a facilitator. The jurors arrive at their decisions and then disband after promising not to reveal any aspect of the procedure or their participation.”

During the ceremony each Treasure receives an unrestricted $5,000 cash award and a commemorative candleholder designed by Island artist Kent Van Slyke. Tickets for the celebration can be purchased at  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-island-treasure-awards-celebration-tickets-1202830812339?aff=oddtdtcreator or by calling 206.842.1246. Tickets are $50-$125.

Brief Bios About the Winners 

Andrew Joslyn’s dedication to music and music advocacy has always been at the core of who he is. I have watched with admiration as he developed into a skilled violinist(indeed, there was no one else who could have played the titular Fiddler on the Roof in the 1998 Bainbridge High School production; he created beautiful melodies and stage pictures.

He carried that talent and drive through his college years and into the world of popular music, first as a member (and, mor or less, the manager) of a rock band, and later as a sought-after arranger and performer with a wide variety of acts large and small, including Grammy-winning hip-hop artist Macklemore, Kesha, and Pedro the Lion's Dave Bazan (among a great many others), both in recording studios (including his own in Pioneer Square) and on stage.

At the same time, he became a committed advocate for musicians’ rights and spent several years as a trustee of the PNW chapter of the Recording Academy (Grammys). He&#39’s even found the ability amidst all of that to release a pop album of his own and to provide original scores for several feature films. Most recently, with his hiring as Associate Director of Popular Programming for the Seattle Symphony, Andrew has taken yet one more great step on an incredibly rich and rewarding career.

To the Island's great benefit, Andrew decided a few years ago to return home with his family. Before long, he began concentrating that immense breadth of talent and energy back into the Bainbridge community, as both a programmer of classical and popular local music events and as the leader of his own neo-classical group, the Passenger String Quartet. He is a board member of Bainbridge Performing Arts, has performed with the Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra, and helps arrange musical events at Lynwood Center, BIMA, and other Kitsap venues.

Andrew cares deeply about what he does and, just as importantly, the people he does it for. He has been tireless in his dedication to bringing musical opportunities to Bainbridge Island for musicians and audiences alike because he understands as well as anyone can the value and power of music to bring people together in common enjoyment and understanding. He's learned through years of experience that the very same energy coming from an audience of thousands in an arena can likewise emerge from a single person in a restaurant at Pleasant Beach connecting with an indie artist in a profound and unexpected way.

Akuyea Karen Vargas’s energy, enthusiasm and spirit are contagious. She uplifts all those around her. She was part of the creation of what now is an annual event of a day learning Black history and listening to an African American style gospel choir sing the favorite songs of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the day we honor him. 

She was a liaison who helped bring The Total Experience Gospel Choir to the Island from Seattle for an afternoon choir workshop followed by participants sharing and socializing over soul food dinner together. There was also a community SING OUT! with additional concerts to benefit Helpline House and the Schools Foundation. 

The annual event honoring of the life of MLK Jr. with a community choir was a huge success with 225 singers the first year. And that was when we first met Karen. She brought a few carloads of students from her youth leadership program at Emanuel Apostolic Church in Bremerton. The concert sold out a week ahead of time. It was filmed by Bainbridge Broadcasting for cable TV.

The following year,1,500 filled the high school gym to share the singing of TEGC and the Bainbridge Chorale. Karen became very active in Bainbridge Island School District’s Multicultural Advisory Committee (MAC) where her children were students. In addition to a community Sing Out, Karen was part of school committees that helped coordinated the High School's annual MLK Jr assembly and awards.

Akuyea was also part of a dynamic team who have created in a year's time one of the finest museums, the Northwest African American Museum, that is now also home to Bremerton's Black Historical Society. Through her research, Karen has added to our knowledge of local Black History, exploring archives at several museums and college libraries and has helped create many of the historical exhibits.

While researching street names around the nation that honored Rev. Dr. King, Jr., she found that none existed in Kitsap County. She led the multicultural committee in proposing that theIsland have one. In 2013, People arrived for MLK Day Sing Out at BHS via a new campus entry road that had no name. She was responsible for presenting to the audience a new name for the road.

With permission and encouragement from the High School Principal, the student body, the School Board and the City, the road is now named Rev. Dr. MLK Jr. Lane NW. In addition to the MLK Sing Outs, Karen has enlightened our community through exhibits for special occasions at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. She is an important liaison for many of the Museum’s events.

Akuyea Karen Vargas may not do all her work on Bainbridge Island, but she is an untiring worker to help Islanders learn more and appreciate Black Culture.

About The Island Treasure Awards – The Story So Far…

In 1998, during a meeting of the then Arts and Humanities Fund, committee member Tom Schworer raised the issue of how to recognize and appreciate fellow Islanders for their unique creativity and commitment to the arts or humanities. The committee looked at a national model established in the early 1980’s: the MacArthur Foundation (“Genius”) Awards. Its program dedicated awards to people who in the everyday world might not be appreciated or recognized for their originality, creativity, and self-directed pursuits. Cynthia Sears took the lead in turning this idea into a reality on Bainbridge Island.

It took more than a year to get the award procedures and celebration up and running. The basic idea was to shine a spotlight on perhaps less well-known individuals whose body of work displayed their unique voice and vision and their ongoing commitment to their field. As to process, there would be no application; the key principle would be anonymity – not easy in a community as close-knit and loquacious as Bainbridge! This would apply to everyone involved: the nominees, the nominators who identify and propose potential candidates, and the jurors who decide on the winners. This is still how the process operates and it has kept the awards free from pressures or politics, and allowed it to be an authentic representation of the community’s choices. To date, more than 250 Islanders have served as nominators and jurors and have helped choose the Island Treasures. Although they are anonymous, their work in support of recognizing our cultural heroes is greatly appreciated.

The Award is sponsored by the Island Treasure Foundation, a Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

*Information and images provided by Ellen Bush, ITA Coordinator and the ITA website.

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