The community of Manchester may be the best kept secret in Kitsap County.

It’s the kind of town you stumble upon when you are lost, but it’s hard to find if you’re trying. There aren’t any signs on the main highway pointing to it, and it’s not even clearly marked once you arrive. One minute you’re driving along in the rural countryside near Port Orchard, the next you’re in a community of houses on a slope facing east, with a view of Seattle and the Puget Sound islands that Bainbridge Islanders would kill for. There’s even a sandy public beach and boat launch.

But a new gallery in town may just put Manchester on the map, particularly the cultural map.

The simply named “Manchester Gallery” is run privately by retired art professor Paul Nuchims, and opened in October 2005.

Nuchims and his life partner Joan Brooks moved to Kitsap County so she could be near her aging father.

Nuchims, 71, retired in 2001 after a career in academia, ending as a professor of art at West Virginia State University, but he wasn’t ready to settle into a rocking chair.

“Retirement has such negative connotations,” he said recently, seated in the Manchester Gallery, taking in the view of the Seattle skyline and Mt. Rainier. “It means to vegetate, and not be a constructive member of society. When you’re retired you’re not part of the larger system. The motivation here is to still be a vital part of the system, in this case, the human species.”

In addition to his teaching career Nuchims has shown his work and been involved with galleries in Michigan, New York, West Virginia, where he owned Nuchims’ Gallery, and Bellingham, where he lived prior to moving to South Kitsap. Opening a gallery in Manchester was a natural choice.

Nuchims staged a modest opening featuring works from his extensive and varied artistic portfolio last October, then drew in the local arts community in February with an exhibit and contest called “The View.”

“Calling it ‘The View’ touched a central nerve with the arts community,” he said. It was something that every artist could relate to.

The exhibit garnered 71 entries, with still lifes, landscapes and portraits dominant. The exhibit, which runs through April 29, features many familiar names, including Anna Hoey, Larry Parker, Loretta Anderson, Alan Newberg and Davina Parypa.

The exhibit attracted the attention of a Northwest artist who is also known as a preeminent mountaineer, Dee Molenaar.

Molenaar submitted two works for “The View:” “Sunset Rainier” and “Olympus from High Divide.”

Nuchims said Molenaar asked if he could make a presentation at the gallery, and he was happy to oblige, even though as a relative newcomer to Washington he didn’t know that Molenaar was a local legend.

Molenaar has been climbing mountains for decades, and the author of the award-winning book, “The Challenge of Rainier.” Among his accomplishments, he was a guide and National Park ranger at Mt. Rainier for many years, has summited K2 in the Karakoram, climbed Mt. Kennedy in the Yukon with the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and has hiked mountain ranges from the Himalaya to the Andes.

He comes to Manchester Gallery 7:30 p.m. April 27 to present a talk on hiking, photography and art, “High and Wide with Camera and Paintbrush.”

The next night Bremerton artist Alan Newberg presents a slide show and paintings, also at 7:30, on “Art and Microcredit.” Newberg is involved with a non-orofit organization called RESULTS, which works to end world hunger and poverty, particularly in South America.

He has several series of work based on fact-finding trips to the region.

In mid-May, Nuchims will open an exhibit of his works entitled “Value and Metaphor: A Brief History of the Future.”

Stop in and look around, he’ll be happy to give you an art lecture, or just talk about gardening.

The Manchester Gallery is located at 8075 E. Main St., Manchester. The easiest way to get there is to head for downtown Port Orchard and follow Bay Street through town. Hug the coastline and within a few miles you’ll come to the stop sign which marks the middle of Manchester. The gallery is on the left, just before the public boat launch.

The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m.