Art & Wine evening returns to Kerby with gallery opening

The quarterly Evening of Art & Wine in Kerby will return to Illinois Valley on Friday, April 24, beginning at 5 p.m. with two special additions:

A celebration marking the reopening of Southern Oregon Guild’s Gallery & Artists’ Center at RCC’s Business & Entrepreneural Center.
A new raffle program that will offer potentially eight free opportunities to win valuable prizes during the four Kerby Evenings of 2009.
To begin the evening on Friday, visitors can enjoy the wide variety of artwork now on exhibit at the Guild Gallery in the bright, airy addition to the RCC building across from Kerby Mart (formerly Joe’s Market).

The guild is anchor tenant in the new Business & Entrepreneurial Center recently added to the Kerby Belt Bldg. by Rogue Community College. The ingenious design of the gallery display units allows the floor in the addition to be cleared for gatherings and conferences related to business development in the region.

While at the guild site, visitors can pick up a rack card that serves as a map to the evening’s attractions and, if fully signed by Kerby merchants on the tour, an opportunity to win a major prize at the end of the year. More tickets will be available during the year, but at a cost. This one will be free when you return your signed card.

Attendees might also want to purchase raffle tickets for the evening’s raffle of fine art and crafts, and sample Windridge wines and the guild’s hors d’oeuvres buffet.

Walking north on the east side of the street, you will find the Kerbyville Museum open. To take you back to the early days of white settlement in the Illinois Valley, the museum has a new exhibit of early mining and railroad logging.

A bit farther, Harvey and Joy Shinerock’s It’s a Burl gallery and grounds will be open for you to examine both the raw materials and the exceptional craftsmanship and beauty of burl art.

At the north end of town on the west side of the street is Yanase Jewelers, the studio of Michael & Karen Yanase. Diamond is April's gemstone of the month, and the Yanases’ custom designs for the event will feature this precious symbol of love and permanence. They also will pour nonalcoholic wines from Draper Valley Vineyard.

Dale DeVorss Kerbyville Farm next door to the south will offer homemade pies and pastries.

A little farther south, the nationally renowned pole furniture and accessories at Kauffman Wood Products will set the stage for valley musician and songwriter, Libby Goines. She will perform her unique blend of Jazz and Folk music on guitar and piano. Co-owners Delbert & Helen Kauffman will pour wine from Bridgeview Vineyards Winery.

Back at the south end of the tour with your card, you will find Fred & Gabrielle Hampton at Hampton’s Rock Shop, across from the RCC building.

The Hamptons will be featuring petrified wood specimens and fabricated petrified wood jewelry for this event. In addition, Jackie Henry-Ross, new owner of Kerby Mart, will perform Spanish classical music on acoustic guitar.

Henry-Ross started playing at 9 years of age and toured the Republic of Mexico for seven years. She studied with Andres Segovia, father of the modern classical guitar movement, who died in 1987. Segovia was named the number-one classical guitarist in the world, an honor not received by any guitarist since. This will be Jackie’s premier performance in Illinois Valley.

After visiting all open locations, visitors can return their completely signed rack cards to the Guild Gallery to obtain their free ticket for the big end-of-year raffle and discover the results of the evening’s raffle. It will be held at 8 p.m. at the gallery.