Sou’wester 13th Anniversary Special

Come celebrate with us! April 18th-20th is our Arts Open House and 13th Anniversary – so much fun to be had. Enjoy 20% off your stay plus receive our Artist Collaboration release. Details Below.

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For new reservations only. Valid for stays over our anniversary weekend

SOU’WESTER 13TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Fri, April 18th – Sun, April 20th | Free and open to all.

EVENTS:

Fri, April 18th in Ilwaco, WA

6pm-8pm 

  • Ceramics gallery opening at Ilwaco Artworks Gallery. 109 1st Ave N, Ilwaco, WA.

8pm

  • Window Gallery celebrates its grand opening with Dryer 16, a ceramic sculpture exhibition by Hans Miles. 110 1st Ave S, Ilwaco, WA.

These hollow ceramic sculptures by Hans Miles, presented in the exhibition Dryer 16, create a scene of human scaled objects that suggest self ownership and a strong physical presence. They exist in a state of stillness, like a frozen gathering, subtly disrupted by the presence of the viewer. Their forms hover between familiarity and ambiguity, remaining on the edge of clear definition, yet their textured surfaces invite touch and interaction. They embody both distance and intimacy, always just out of reach yet calling to be felt.

Miles explores the way we physically, visually, and perceptually relate to objects. Dryer 16 examines the quiet mass objects contain, the way they interact with and respond to our bodies, and the expressions they seem to reveal while also withholding. There is an underlying tension between their stillness and the unseen forces they carry, emphasizing the hidden magnitudes within everyday forms and their ability to appear passive while holding deeper meaning.

8pm 

  • Live Music at Ship Wrecords & Moor – 108 1st Ave S, Ilwaco, WA
    • Old unconscious. Led by composer Cory Gray on trumpet and keyboards, Old Unconscious bring their unique brand of intoxicating grooves that serpentine around the mind, front and center.
  • Elizabeth Venable

Sat, April 19th at The Sou’wester Lodge

3728 J Pl. Seaview, WA

5pm 

  • Scavenger Hunt
  • Release of our next artist collaboration by Anis Mojgani: 

A Pocket-Sized Companion Book for Artists, Dreamers & Seekers

This limited-edition, guide book—designed by Anis, printed by Scout Books of Portland—is more than just a pocketbook. It’s a landing place for thoughts, sketches, memories, and quiet moments of reflection. Created in support of the Sou’wester Artist Residency Program, all proceeds from this book directly benefit the artists who find inspiration within our walls. This guide book is for more than just artists-in-residence. It’s for travelers, poets, doodlers, foragers, tinkerers, and memory-makers of all kinds—anyone who wants to capture the magic of the evergreen coast in their own way. Whether you’re filling its pages with words, drawings, lists, or simply the echoes of your time here, this little book is an open space for you to occupy. With a cover illustration and words by Anis, this is more than a keepsake—it’s an invitation to explore, reflect, and create, wherever you are. Available 4/18 in our market—OR receive one complimentary guide book by booking our 13th anniversary or art lovers special.

  • Exhibition Opening at the Art Trailer Gallery

Edge Effect: A Liminal Bodies Photo Artifact by Lilly Do

Edge Effect was a collaborative movement piece for Sou’wester Art Week 2025. It explored renewal and transformation through contemplative and ritualistic movement, creating openings to make meaning and define new ways of belonging and relating as emergent beings and descendants of Asian Diaspora people. In preparation for the piece, Lilly and performers No “Noli” Reyes, Ezri Galban Reyes, and Miro held a photoshoot on the Washington coast as a way of capturing in photos the emotions and themes explored in the performance. Inspired by Filipino martial arts and color schemes in movies like Zhang Yimou’s Shadow, Lilly played with distance and closeups to explore how the characters relate to each other, the struggle of being in relationships, and the connections between the characters and the environment around them. Costume design by Olivia Giammalva and mask created by Wendi YuLing. Original movement piece was a collaboration between No “Noli” Reyes, Jamae Ann Sabangan, Ezri Galban Reyes, Miro Jooyoung Oh, Limanjaya, and Lilly Do. 

Lilly Do (she/her) is a queer Chinese American facilitator, instructor, and multidisciplinary artist. When she isn’t facilitating writing workshops, Lilly spends her time engaging in the BIPOC, AAPI, and queer and trans communities in Portland as the cofounder of Liminal Bodies, a PNW-based queer and trans writing project focusing on movement as a process for deepening our writing practices. Lilly is also the Program Manager at Write Around Portland, a free writing program that consists of participants writing, sharing, and giving strength-based feedback. Her piece, “Survival Artists and Their Generational Lessons” can be found in the first issue of Significant Beings.

6pm 

  • Film Screening in the Red Bus Theater – Holding Back the Tide by Emily Packer

This impressionist hybrid documentary traces the oyster through its many life cycles in New York, once the world’s oyster capital. Now their specter haunts the city through queer characters embodying ancient myth, discovering the overlooked history and biology of the bivalve that built the city. 77 min. 

8pm 

  • Live music by MEGADOSE

Sun, April 20th at Ilwaco Artworks

109 1st Ave N. Ilwaco, WA

10am-6pm Pottery Sale