The Week Ahead
December 8, 2025
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Bainbridge Island enters this week with a mix of creative, community-centered events that highlight the range of artistic work happening across local venues. December often brings a high concentration of activity, but this particular stretch stands out for how directly each event invites participation—whether through reflective writing, hands-on making, or shared performance. Rather than functioning as passive entertainment, these gatherings encourage audiences to step into the process: to respond, to create, or simply to pay closer attention to the worlds—natural or imagined—that surround them.
The first event, led by writer Latria Graham as part of her residency at Bloedel Reserve, focuses on the connection between observation and expression. Graham’s work has long examined how environment and identity intersect, particularly in regions marked by environmental strain or cultural transition. Her session at BARN extends this interest to the local community, asking participants to treat the natural world not as abstraction but as a source of concrete information. Graham’s approach positions creativity as a tool for describing what we witness daily—weather shifts, changes in soil and plant life, small markers of broader environmental patterns. The event frames writing as both documentation and interpretation, reminding attendees that attention has value even outside formal scientific or artistic contexts.
A different form of participation is at the center of Corks & Strokes’ crushed-glass art workshop, which provides a practical, material-based experience. Where Graham’s event focuses on language and reflective practice, this session emphasizes construction and tactile decision-making. Participants work directly with color, texture, and light, assembling a small suncatcher that is completed within the evening. The workshop reflects a broader trend in community arts programming: short-duration, skills-accessible events that offer a clear beginning, middle, and end. They meet a desire for activity-based social time while still producing something functional to take home. In a season often dominated by passive viewing, this workshop offers a straightforward way to engage the hands as well as the mind.
The third event, a full production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, presents the most traditional performance setting of the week but carries its own form of engagement through scale and storytelling. Unlike the first two events—both intimate and participant-driven—this production relies on collective experience. The story’s themes of isolation, social judgment, and the search for belonging resonate beyond their historical setting, and the musical’s choral structure allows the ensemble to function as a kind of civic voice. While audience members are not participants in the literal sense, the production invites them into a shared encounter with a narrative centered on community, exclusion, and moral choice.
Across these three events, a throughline emerges: each one, in its own way, asks people to consider how they relate to their surroundings—natural, social, or narrative. The week’s programming demonstrates that Bainbridge Island’s cultural calendar continues to support not only entertainment but also the types of experiences that encourage observation, creativity, and reflection.
Featured Events:
Latria Graham: Iron in Blood, Iron in Clay
This week, Bainbridge Island welcomes writer Latria Graham for a focused, one-hour program that examines how our personal histories intersect with the environments we inhabit. Graham, Bloedel Reserve’s December Creative Resident and an award-winning journalist from Spartanburg, South Carolina, will guide attendees through a session blending reading, discussion, and applied creativity. The event is free and takes place on December 8 from 3:30–4:30 PM at BARN’s Great Room.
Graham’s work often addresses the relationships between land, memory, and identity, and this program extends that exploration. She opens the hour with a short reading that grounds participants in her own experience with the natural world—a way of demonstrating how personal narrative and ecological observation can work together. Rather than presenting nature writing as an abstract ideal, she shows how it emerges from paying attention: to weather patterns, soil conditions, plant life, animal behavior, and the ways these external markers shape our internal responses.
After the reading, Graham leads a structured conversation on the practice of nature writing today. The discussion centers on understanding environmental change through lived experience. As climate-related disruptions become more visible, she suggests that everyday observations provide a valuable record—and a starting point for creative work. Participants are encouraged to consider how their surroundings inform their thinking, and how writing can help clarify those insights.
The session concludes with a series of writing prompts designed to be practical rather than theoretical. These prompts aim to give attendees a way to continue their creative process beyond the event, whether through journaling, storytelling, or structured reflection. While the program is not a full workshop, it offers concrete tools for anyone looking to build a writing habit rooted in environmental awareness.
The event is free, though reserving a ticket is recommended to ensure seating. For Bainbridge residents and visitors interested in creativity, environmental storytelling, or personal reflection, “Iron in Blood, Iron in Clay” provides an accessible entry point. It asks participants to engage with the natural world not as a distant concept but as a daily presence—one that can shape both artistic practice and personal understanding.
Cost, tickets and logistics:
Monday, December 8th, 3:30-4:30pm
BARN, in the Great Room 8890 Three Tree Lane NE Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
Full details here
Get tickets here
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Crushed Glass Art
For those looking for a hands-on creative experience this week, Corks & Strokes is hosting an evening workshop centered on designing a framed crushed-glass suncatcher. The session is structured for beginners and casual makers, offering a straightforward environment where participants can focus on building something tangible without needing prior art training.
When attendees purchase a ticket, they select a 12-inch wooden-frame design from a curated set of options. Each frame will be prepared in advance so participants can work immediately with the core material: hand-dyed crushed glass. Instructors guide the process step by step, helping individuals layer the glass into the design and then seal the piece with a clear, fume-free finishing solution. By the end of the session, each participant will leave with a completed suncatcher—ready to hang in a window where light can pass through the textured glass.
This event is designed to be accessible. The format emphasizes ease of participation rather than technical skill, making it suitable for anyone age 12 and up. Attendees can come alone or with others; the workshop lends itself to group outings, family activity nights, or a low-pressure creative date. All materials are included in the ticket price, removing the need to bring supplies or make additional purchases on-site.
At $65 per person, the fee covers the prepared wooden frame, the full range of crushed-glass colors, and the finishing materials. The cost also reflects the hands-on guidance provided throughout the evening. For those who don’t regularly engage in artistic activities but want a structured opportunity to make something functional, the workshop offers a manageable entry point. It also appeals to experienced crafters interested in experimenting with texture, color, and light in a compact format.
The event’s outcome is both decorative and utilitarian. Suncatchers work well in kitchens, living rooms, studios, or office windows, and the workshop’s design choices allow for a range of aesthetic approaches—from simple geometric patterns to more detailed images, depending on the participant’s selection.
If your goal is to step away from routine for a couple of hours and leave with a finished piece, this session provides a clear, guided path from start to completion. All supplies, instruction, and cleanup are handled by Corks & Strokes, making the experience straightforward from arrival to departure.
Cost, tickets and logistics:
Monday, December 8, 6-8pm
Eleven Winery 7671 Northeast Day Road West Bainbridge Island, WA, 98110
Full details here
Get tickets here
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame
A new stage production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is running on Bainbridge Island from December 5–21, offering a large-scale musical adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel. Directed by Adam Othman with music direction by Shawna Avinger and choreography by Molly Hall, the show combines narrative, orchestration, and ensemble movement to present one of the more complex stories in the musical-theater canon.
The production uses Alan Menken’s score—well known from The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast—paired with Stephen Schwartz’s lyrics. While the music includes recognizable motifs from the Disney film, the stage version aligns more closely with the tone of Hugo’s original text. The result is a hybrid: accessible in structure but more thematically direct, focusing on isolation, systemic prejudice, and moral responsibility.
At the center of the story is Quasimodo, the physically isolated bell-ringer confined to Notre Dame Cathedral. His limited contact with the outside world shapes both his vulnerability and his curiosity. The narrative follows his attempt to understand a society that fears him, while the supporting characters—Esmeralda, Frollo, and Phoebus—represent different responses to power, compassion, and cultural bias. The creative team’s approach emphasizes these contrasts, using choral arrangements and ensemble sequences to underscore tension between public judgment and individual dignity.
Musically, the production leans on full choral sections, which are key to the show’s architecture. The chorus operates both as a narrator and as the collective voice of Paris, providing context that moves the story forward. This structure allows the production to scale up its sound without relying solely on spectacle, making the score one of the primary storytelling tools.
The runtime includes a 75-minute first act, a 15-minute intermission, and a 60-minute second act, placing the performance at just over two and a half hours. Audiences can expect a traditional theatrical format with a clear division between acts.
While the story is set in 15th-century Paris, the themes—identity, belonging, and the consequences of institutional judgment—remain contemporary. This staging highlights the humanity of its characters rather than reducing the narrative to iconic imagery, which may appeal to viewers interested in character-driven productions rather than purely visual adaptations.
For those looking to engage with a familiar story presented with scale and musical complexity, this production provides a structured and well-established interpretation of a classic text.
December 5-21, 2025
Bainbridge Performing Arts 200 Madison Ave N, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
Full details here
Get tickets here
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