Suspended Pieces Of Stained Glass Brighten East Side Branch Library

The vaulted ceiling inside Spokane’s East Side Branch Library shimmers with colored light filtering through five stained-glass rosettes. Artist Victoria Street of Battle Ground, Wash., was commissioned to create the kaleidoscopic panels under a city policy of including art in new buildings.

The East Side branch opened 16 months ago. Street received $7,500 for the art, or 1 percent of the construction cost of $750,000.

The luminous panels are about 54 inches in diameter and are made with different types of glass, including some sections of color that Street created with a fusing process.

Each rosette hangs from the vaulted ceiling by a single strand of cable. Each turns slowly with the air currents, casting colored light in different directions.

“The idea for the kaleidoscope motif stems from my passion for color,” Street wrote in her proposal to the Library Board. “More importantly, the kaleidoscope theme symbolizes the multifaceted community in which the (branch) library is located.”

Library Board member Jennifer Roseman said the artwork reminds her of being inside a church. The architecture of the building, with the high ceiling and skylights, adds to the ambiance, she said. Churches have been important in the life of the East Central Neighborhood, and the stained glass provides a nice link, said Roseman, a longtime resident of the area.

In creating the panels, Street used zinc and lead to join the pieces. Brass and steel provide structural strength. Each piece weighs about 31 pounds. Street grew up in Hawaii and holds a degree in interior architecture from L’Ecole Regionale des Beaux-Arts d’Angers, France.

, DataTimes