On the Docket: Hometown Halloween in Downtown Winslow Tomorrow, First Friday Art Walk, Unique Dot Paintings at the Library

The Island Wanderer | Posted on October 30, 2024 |

Sometimes you have to ask a relative newbie to our community what they think of one of the island’s signature events to flush out the enthusiasm. “Bainbridge Island’s Hometown Halloween is a wonderful small-town event that’s been going on for decades,” says City Manager Blair King, a big fan, who’s been in his post for just under five years.

Indeed, Winslow Way is closed to traffic and hundreds of children – kids of all ages – gather to trick-or-treat in and out of Downtown businesses. There’s music and other festivities. “Really, what can be better than hundreds of kids dressed up in costumes hyped up on candy on Winslow Way?” King exhorts.

“The creativity in the costumes is fantastic. There are witches, monsters, unicorns and dinosaurs. I like it when families dress up as a unit. I wonder if there will be a new favorite costume this year. We could see several Inside-Out character costumes. My favorite Hometown Halloween costume of all time was the person who dressed up as Elizabeth Holmes with the chalk board for the mug shot hanging around her neck. It still makes me laugh.”

The event happens from 4-6 p.m. on Thursday Oct. 31st every year – that’s tomorrow evening, if you’re checking your calendar. Activities will include:

Complimentary hot apple cider
Chili and hot dogs at Eagle Harbor Church for a UNICEF donation
Look for your favorite teacher scooping at Island Cool (previously Mora)
DJ near Winslow Mall
Hometown Halloween Photo booth on Madrone Lane
And of course, trick-or-treating at our downtown businesses and community tables!

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Eagle Harbor Books - Celebrating 55 Years!
Island Edge Knife Sharpening
Island Volunteer Caregivers
Bainbridge Island Senior Community Center
Bainbridge History Museum
Indigo Painting Company
Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce

Winslow Way between Ericksen and Madison will be closed to through traffic from 3- 7 p.m.

Hometown Halloween is presented by the Bainbridge Island Downtown Association and co-sponsored by the City of Bainbridge Island with support from Cook Family Funeral Home, Safeway, Town & Country, Bainbridge Island Rotary, American Legion, Dana’s, Blue Coast, and Island Cool and the Bainbridge Island School District Teachers.

Check out Images of Unique Dot Paintings at Bainbridge Library

Bringing spiritual Aboriginal images to lighten the dark days of November, this month’s presenter, Jeffrey Moose hosts an exhibition of dot paintings titled “Home of the Fire Dreaming” by indigenous artists from Yuendumu in Australia’s Central Desert.

The exhibit opens for First Friday Art Walk, November 1, 5-7 pm and continuing through the month of November during regular library hours.

Dot paintings are images rendered from an aerial perspective that use symbols to represent people, animals, plants, weather systems and other forms to tell ancient creation stories.

In their original form, these stories are part of the Song Lines, complex sets of story-poems recited in rhythmic patterns that link sacred places across the Australian continent. Several works by Yeundumu Artists are on display in The Seattle Art Museum’s third floor galleries. Mr. Moose has been exhibiting Australian Aboriginal art since 1998 and representing Yuendumu since 2002.

Few communities are more important to the genre: Papunya, Yuendumu and Utopia led the way. 2021 was the 50th Anniversary of the first Dot Paintings. Traditional ground paintings by the Yuendumu artists, known as Warlukurlangu (Home of the Fire Dreaming) made history in Paris in 1989, part of the international survey, “Magiciennes De La Terre.”