“We are delighted when people compare our Park to the new Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle and Buchart Gardens in Victoria.” Kay Kammerzell

Kay Kammerzell has been asked many times by artists, patrons and students how she and her husband Arnie Klaus began the Westcott Bay Sculpture Park.  How did it turn from a dream into a nationally known Sculpture Park?  How did she bring the artists and volunteers together to have the park open to the public in just three short months?  How did she make a 19-acre farm field into the premier sculpture park for over 100 northwest sculptural artists?  This is a story about partnerships and people working together to create an inspiring place.  Roche Harbor Resort management had the foresight to see the benefit of Kammerzell’s idea to their guests and to the island residents.  They saw the ability to attract more people to their resort, the island, and the County.  It would become the biggest cultural arts attraction for the islands.

  
Born in 1960 in Bellingham, Washington, Kammerzell grew up in Ferndale, a small river town north of Bellingham.  Growing up around the water: clamming, swimming, boating and walking the beaches of the mainland and islands were a big part of her life. “We would hunt rabbits during the 1960’s and swim in the cold coastal waters with our cousins.  Knowing that every time we stayed with our relatives in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, I would someday be an “island girl”.
 
As a new student at Western Washington University’s campus in Bellingham, her passion for art was amplified as she discovered the great sculptural collection of contemporary artists placed around the campus: Noguchi, di Suvero, Holt, Ireland, Caro, Judd, Serra, Abakanowicz, Morris, Pepper and others.  The more she found out about the significance of this collection the more she was driven to pursue her art career. She filled her agenda with art and creating projects in the sculpture department, learning about each sculpture, giving art tours and then working with the artists coming in to contribute to the collection. When George Trakas, Alice Aycock and Michael McCafferty were there to install each of their works, she leapt at the opportunity to work with each of them.  This experience cemented her passion and love for sculpture. 
 
Throughout the years she continued to create, both sculpture and “art furniture” winning national awards and exhibiting her work.  She was appointed to the Bellingham Arts Commission where she organized a rotating exhibition for the city for seven years.  She was invited to teach in the Art Department at Western, where she taught design and sculpture to aspiring art students. It was also during this time that she started dreaming of starting a Sculpture Park.
 
Her later experience with the contemporary Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner as their Director of Development instilled this desire to create an outdoor Museum “a Museum without walls” as Kammerzell describes it.  It wasn’t until 1997 when she met her husband Arnie Klaus that the dream began to take shape.  Kay recalls, “He encouraged me when others had said, “What do you mean you want to start a sculpture park – that’s crazy!”  I told him I had always dreamed of living on an island and that my great, great, grandparents were early settlers on San Juan Island.  He said, let’s do it!”  So, in 2000, with only a passion and a strong vision they uprooted from Bellingham and moved to San Juan Island to start a Sculpture Park.  “I visualized it to be a minimum of twenty acres, have an open field for very large pieces, a forest for more intimate pieces. A pond or lake to place works of art in and around.  I also envisioned it to be near the waterfront”, Kammerzell recalls.  When she approached the Land Bank and the San Juan Preservation Trust, neither were interested, as their land acquisitions involved keeping the land as is. 
 
Kammerzell recalls, “One day, near Roche Harbor Resort, I was walking and came across an open field with a pond.  It was difficult to really see the entire property as it was covered with barbed wire fences going off in all directions.  I climbed over and under fences and even discovered that there was also a forest on the property.  I immediately drove to the assessor’s office to find out who owned the property and find out how big it was.  I also learned that there was a pristine little salt-water estuary on the property and it was called Westcott Bay!  Roche Harbor Resort owned it and it was 19 acres! One acre shy of my vision!”  Later that week she telephoned the manager of the Resort and he agreed to meet with her.  Through several meetings it became clear to him that this idea would be a community benefit while at the same time show the resorts concern for protecting a sensitive estuary area.  It would also promote the arts and create a community space. Kammerzell showed that it would become an attractive destination to draw visitors to the island.  Eventually they came to an agreement that allowed for a free lease on the land and a later agreement that involved putting the Land in to “permanent open space” with the County.
 
The day after the agreement was signed she and Klaus began removing old fences, old tires, old irrigation pipes from the pond and removing lot’s of garbage - four truckloads full.  Then they had the task of designing and building the trails.  The owner of a local tool and equipment shop contributed what was the very first donation, a blade cutter to create trails.  A non-profit organization was formed and eventually they gained 501(c)(3) status. 
 
The driving theme for the Sculpture Park was to integrate the art with the nature.  Kammerzell states, “We didn’t want to have it hardscaped or landscaped.  We wanted to leave nature as it is, and place the artwork within the natural setting.  Our hope was to awaken peoples senses to art and nature, to have an outdoor Museum that would attract all ages, young and old, and even people that might not normally pay a visit to a Museum, to make art accessible to everyone!”
 
The first year began with 40 sculptures, the second year 80, and now the Park exhibits over 100 sculptures that annually rotate, so there is always new work to see.  Each year the Park has been a growing success.  The second year Kammerzell began a series of educational programs with adult workshops, “Artists in Action”, a “Family Art Day” program and a school group program that now involves up to 300 school children each year. 
 
In the summer of 2001 shortly after the Park had opened, planning began to create an indoor Museum exhibition space and an administrative space for the Institute.  Finally in 2005 the “Island Museum of Art” was opened.  In this little Museum (which is the first public Art Museum for San Juan County) the Institute has showcased many of the islands artists as well as special exhibits of some of the regions finest artists such as Gerard Tsutakawa, Steve Jensen, Ross Matteson, Ann Morris, Jack Gunter, and others. The Sculpture Park and the Island Museum of Art have had tremendous community support with over 400 members and many business sponsors (and still growing).  Each year, the caliber of the art increases as artists now contact the Institute wanting to exhibit.  The Park has exceeded Kammerzell’s expectations and has gained National attention through publications including the New York Times, Sunset Magazine, Pacific Northwest Magazine, Southwest Art Magazine and others.   “People write to us from all over the world telling us that the park was the highlight of their visit.  I know the Park will be an inspiring and culturally rich place well into the future.” Kammerzell says.

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Westcott Bay Institute
PO Box 339
Friday Harbor, WA 98250
(360) 370-5050