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This year, raising a glass to the artists featured in the annual Art's Alive! festival will be a cinch.

Instead of sipping your wine or beer outdoors in a tent – a measure taken in 2021 to keep the unseen but ever-present COVID-19 virus from crashing the party – you can offer your toast face to face with the artists during the Friday night opening gala Nov. 11.

Add in some scrumptious appetizers and the 38th Art's Alive! weekend will start with "a more traditional gathering of townspeople to welcome the artists into La Conner and kick off the event," said Sheila Johnson, a board member of the La Conner Arts Foundation, the 501c3 organization that plans and produces the show under a contract with the Town of La Conner, using funds from hotel-motel tax revenues.

Planning begins about nine months before the opening gala. With the leadership of curator and Foundation director Sylvia Strong, an annual theme is chosen. For 2022, the theme is "Peace and Solidarity." The Foundation then reviews proposed artists and selects them.

"Our theme last year celebrated our rich art legacy and the light we were hoping to see from our lockdown days," said Johnson. "This year the concept of peace and solidarity is important to all of us."

While participating artists don't have to work with that theme, sculptor Tracy Powell has been carving and selling Peace Doves since 2003. All proceeds go to nonprofit groups working for peace and nuclear disarmament.

Powell is one of 12 artists who accepted the Foundation's invitation to exhibit. To keep the show engaging and fresh, the committee mixes art by new regional artists with pieces by local artists such as, this year, Powell, Maggie Wilder, Alfred Currier and Anne Schreivogl.

Six are first-time participants. Local photographer Nancy Crowell is very excited for people to see her prints in a gallery rather than on her web page. Some of Ria Harboe's art was influenced by her seasonal work in Antarctica, where she observed its stark light and the lack thereof. Mercer Island multi-media collage artist Amy Ferron, Monroe magical realist painter Janie Olsen, international award-winning pastel artist Janice Wall of Vashon Island and pastel artist Barbara Noonan from Camano Island are first timers.

Demand for spots in the upstairs open show was so high that the application process closed early. The 60 artists include previous open show participants and invitational artists, plus La Conner School District residents who are showing for the first time.

Whether you are a newcomer or a long-term patron of Arts Alive!, don't forget to lift your wine glass a second time to the 30 volunteers. With board members, they wear many hats before, during and after the weekend.

On Wednesday, Nov. 9, a crew of 10 will transform Maple Hall into an art gallery. They'll set up temporary walls, install gallery lighting, greet artists, inventory art and hang the downstairs show. That process will be repeated upstairs for open show artists Thursday.

When the show gets underway, volunteers greet arrivals, staff the reception and facilitate purchases. Once the doors close and the show has been cleaned up, a couple months of accounting, lodging tax calculations and reporting follow.

Doors open to the public Friday at 1 p.m., so that people who are COVID-19-hesitant can enjoy the show without crowds. The gala begins at 5 p.m.

The show runs 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday.

"We are grateful for everyone who is helping pull off what we think is a really fine show," said Johnson.