On Saturday, the Chewelah Children’s Art Festival is set to return for a day full of easel painting, weaving, collaging, Shakespearean theater, shaving cream marbling and much more.
Spokane-native Jeff Olson left town for Seattle but still comes back to the city he was born and raised in to participate in First Friday, a monthly event featuring artists, musicians, restaurants and other creative aspects around Spokane.
Many visitors brought home souvenirs from Expo ’74 – T-shirts, pins and buttons, postcards, even commemorative plates and spoons, all emblazoned with the blue, green and white Expo logo designed by Lloyd L. Carlson.
Music, cider and readings by area poets and writers, paired with panoramic views of the Saltese Uplands Conservation Area offer an inspirational way to welcome summer.
I first heard of John Conley while working as an intern at KHQ-TV back in the 1980s. Fondly referred to as, “that guy who bought all of the Expo stuff,” by co-workers, I later learned Conley had purchased all 280,000 pieces of leftover Expo ‘ 74 merchandise after the event ended. The items fueled a steady stream of flags, wallets, coloring books and other funky fair souvenirs in his two Spokane White Elephant stores, which have since closed. Decades later, remnants of Conley’s investment in Expo ‘ 74 history can still be found scattered across the Spokane-area landscape in homes, thrift stores and collectibles shops.
This is the story of the Carousel of Happiness in Nederland, Colorado. It is a fairly long story, over a century in length ... It starts in Utah, at an amusement park called Saltair, and then takes us south of Salt Lake City to a town called American Fork, where the carousel operated for a few decades. Then it moves to Colorado, to the town of Nederland. – Janette Keene Taylor in “Don’t Delay Joy: The Story of the Carousel of Happiness.”
Felisa Carranza Englund’s life canvas is embellished with tales of romance, adventure and fate. Now in her 90s, the story of her journey as an artist is as intriguing and vibrant as the paintings she creates.
ArtsFund and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation announced $10 million in funding for more than 800 arts and culture organizations throughout Washington late last month.
On a recent cloudy afternoon in Seattle’s Sodo neighborhood, Baso Fibonacci dipped the slender tip of his brush into a glob of white gouache and painted the shape of a skull on a scrap of fentanyl-stained aluminum foil.
Resting atop a hill, a headless deer gazes down at a city. Without eyes, the deer manages to appear sentinel. This was artist Emilija Blake’s first creature, artwork that serves as a stand-in for her disabilities and symptoms. The deer is disassociation, “feeling like you’re outside of your body, existing somewhere else, like your head is in the clouds,” Blake said, sitting with her mom, Taffy Hunter, in Hamilton Studio, while Don Hamilton, Hamilton Studio co-owner, busied himself setting up projectors, and her service dog, Kasper, a goldendoodle, stayed by her side.
Two queer artists were both showing work at John’s Alley Tavern in Moscow, Idaho, toward the beginning of Moscow Artwalk’s 2023-24 season. After talking for hours about their art and mutual love of zines, they became best friends and were editing two zines together within weeks.
When the World’s Fair in Spokane shuttered in November 1974, archivists quickly packed up 246 boxes from the corporate Pavilion offices and archived them within what was then called the Cheney Cowles Museum.
Visual artist Jiemei Lin may be based in Pullman, but she’s left her mark – literally – on Spokane. As you admire the Black Lives Matter mural, you’ll see Lin’s vibrant orange, red, yellow and blue flowers in the first ‘T’ in “Matter.”
To mark Expo ’74’s anniversary, The Spokesman-Review, in partnership with Spokane Public Schools and Expo 50, held a writing and art contest for high school students.
