KINGSTON — “Boardwalk,” a watercolor by Gerald Dowell, has such detail and clarity that at first glance it can be mistaken for a photograph. And it was a third-place winner.

Imagine the other great art you’ll see at the 53rd annual Kitsap Arts & Crafts Festival July 27, 28 and 29 at Kingston’s Mike Wallace Park, next to the Kingston Ferry Terminal.

Hours are July 27, noon to 6 p.m.; July 28, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and July 29, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The event showcases the best in art by local artists and raises money for scholarships for local high school graduates. The headline event at the festival is the Juried and Open Art Show and Student Art Show. More than 180 student, open and juried artworks were on display at the 2011 festival. Kitsap Arts & Crafts has helped keep arts education alive in local schools, which don’t often don’t have the funding to keep their own programs going. Kitsap Arts & Crafts, nonprofit, cultivates and promotes the arts in Kitsap County by awarding art scholarships to qualified students, supporting the Art Docent Program in public elementary schools and producing the annual Arts & Crafts Festival, as well as presentation of awards to winning artists. These programs are supported by festival proceeds and by contributions.

Since 1975, Kitsap Arts & Crafts has awarded 181 scholarships to local youths to help further their arts education. The program gives $2,000 annual scholarships with three conditional renewals.

“This year, we will be giving $8,000 thanks to the success of our festival, contributions of our sponsors, and the dedication of our volunteers,” according to the association web site. For more information about the scholarship program, contact association president Bryan Monroe at (360) 297-3975 or email shasta77rio@me.com.

2011 scholarship winners were Sierra Moon, Kingston High School, Northwest College of Art; Megan Oost, North Kitsap High School, Whitman College; Madeline Trower, West Sound Academy, Rhode Island School of Design; Emily Zach, Kingston High School, Western Washington University.

“The Kitsap Arts & Crafts Association scholarship has greatly encouraged my decision to pursue an art education,” said Oost, scholarship recipient 2008-2011. “The financial support of the scholarship has provided opportunities that would not have been accessible to me otherwise.”