Arts & Culture Events for May! -📍 Vancouver & Clark County, WA

Here's what not to miss in arts & culture in May, 2026!

🗺️ Find the events we talked about here:

• ​Celebration of Sculpture​ 
• Washougal Studio Artist Tour 
• The Columbia Writers Series
• Documentary filmmaker Beth Harrington shows Our Mr. Matsura at History on Tap
• Pomeroy Living History Farm’s Summer Gardening Workshop For Beginners
• Vancouver Symphony’s Season Finale Concert

👀 For more, visit the episode page.

⭐️  Thanks to our sponsor, Gardner School of Arts & Sciences. Enrollment is open and financial aid is available!

Transcript

Welcome to I’m Into This Place, your deep dive into the local arts, culture, and heritage of Clark County. From fabulous new restaurants to quirky art installations to the historical sites you never even knew to look for, we’re inviting you along. Whether you're a Clark County connoisseur or just starting to get to know her, get ready to fall head over heels for this place we call home. I'm your host, Adriana Baer, and I'm into this place. Let's go.

Welcome to next month's events where every month I give you a highlights reel of what's coming up in Arts Culture and Heritage in Clark County in the coming month. We are talking today about May, 2026. 

Before I jump in with my top picks for what's coming up in May, I want to remind you that we have an events listing page on our website. You can click through the link in the menu bar and find events that are for the entire next coming up month, and we update that all the time so you can check back throughout the month. And also, as a reminder, I always do highlight upcoming events for the week. Our weekly newsletter that comes out on Tuesdays. So if you are not already signed up for that, take a second to do that. The link is in the show notes. It's free, no spam, no sales, just me letting you know what's coming your way. 

So let's start with some art. Vancouver's got a Celebration of Sculpture coming up. This is a six week exhibit that's going to be located at the Arts Hub on Mill Plain. This exhibit is going to showcase local sculptors and their work, and it opens this Friday, May 1st, at First Friday. And there will be some panel discussions with arts educators and the sculptors themselves. And then the event will be followed by a Flamenco performance by Aliesha Bryan. So that's really exciting. If you can't make it to the first Friday this week, the sculpture exhibit will be up for the next six weeks. So you can see that all the way through mid-June. 

We've also got the Washougal Studio Artist Tour coming up this weekend. This is your chance to visit local studios, see artists at work, and discover original creations in all kinds of mediums: glass, textile, bronze, painting, jewelry, lots and lots of things. Each piece is available to purchase directly from the artist too, so make sure to check out the Washougal Studio Artist tour May 2nd and 3rd. That's this coming up weekend and it runs all day long on both Saturday and Sunday. 

Before I move into my next events for you, a reminder that a link to each of the things that I mention on today's episode can be found through the show notes and on the episode page on our website. So make sure to click through and you'll be able to find the links to all of what I'm talking about today, so you can go straight there and find out all the info you need. 

In the literary arts world, we've got the Columbia Writers’ Series, which is produced by Clark College. Upcoming on May 12th is Emma Pattee, a climate journalist and fiction writer. And then on May 14th is Camille Dungy, who's an author and poet. If you wanna know more about these women and their work, you can click the link to the Columbia Writers Series and read their bios. I have to say I'm super interested in this series. Um, I think it's bringing a lot of really interesting folks into our literary scene. 

In the world of film, if you liked our interview with documentary filmmaker Beth Harrington from a few months ago, I am so excited to let you know that her most recent film, Our Mr. Matsura, which we talked about a lot on the podcast, is going to be screened at History on Tap, which is presented by the Clark County Historical Museum. This month History on Tap will take place in Ridgefield at the Old Liberty Theater, and this is May 21st at 7:00 PM you'll get to see the film and then hear from Beth about the history of Mr. Matura and his incredible photography. 

So speaking of history, we have an opportunity to support the Pomeroy Living History Farm. Many of you know Pomeroy Farms. They are a historical farm that has a lot of wonderful demonstrations and historical documents and artifacts about the farming culture from Yacolt and our region starting in about the early 20th century all the way through now. They are a wonderful, wonderful organization. We actually featured the Pomeroy Cellars, which is their winery, their family owned winery, on a previous episode. But the Living History Farms is, um, presenting a summer gardening workshop for beginners, which is hosted by a wonderful woman who goes by the name of The Joyful Tender. Now, this two hour hands-on workshop gives you the opportunity to learn about summer gardening and growing your own plants, and you're going to go home with the materials to start creating your own summer garden and being able to cook right from your own backyard. Now, this is a wonderful crossover where we have the culture of food, the history of the land, and the opportunity to put our creative minds to work while figuring out how to also engage with the world around us. 

And finally, some music for you. Vancouver Symphony's season comes to a close with Dvořák’s New World Symphony. Also, The Chairman dDances a fox trot for orchestra, and the concert features rising star violin virtuoso Inés Issel Burzyńska performing Prokofiev's Violin Concerto Number Two. This is, as always, at Skyview High School in Vancouver, May 30th and 31st. 

I hope you get a a little thrill just knowing how many interesting and wonderful things are happening in our community coming up next month. This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the wonderful things happening. I hope you'll take a look at our website and make sure you're subscribed to the newsletter so that you get all of the updates about what's coming up in our community every single week and every month. Thanks so much for listening, and have a great week.