Not For The Weak Of Art Artfest ‘97 Combines Art With Food, Music And Crafts

Yes, Spokane Falls certainly are spectacular this time of year, but also worth seeing this weekend without the thundering vertigo - is ArtFest ‘97, Spokane’s annual juried festival of art and fine crafts, good food and music.

ArtFest begins Friday at noon on the Cheney Cowles Museum campus in historic Browne’s Addition just west of downtown. The alfresco production is a joint venture of the Spokane Art School and the museum.

Fifty-eight artists, 18 musical groups, 12 art demonstrations, 10 food vendors and one beer garden combine in this recipe for fun. Admission to ArtFest is free, and admission to museum gallery exhibits and the Campbell House will be reduced to half-price during the festival.

Music for every ear plays every hour all weekend long, ranging from hot acoustic delta blues to old-time cowboy songs and including reggae, Jewish and Native American groups, jazz, harp and a drum ensemble. Little guys can enjoy Saturday’s Celtic Nots children’s concert at 10 a.m., and their parents can look forward to that evening’s beer garden concert by Seattle’s Three Track Mind.

While mom and dad are there, kids can listen to stories in the CCM auditorium from 5:30-8:30 p.m., courtesy of the Spokane Storytelling League. Also special for kids every ArtFest day are supervised “Make It Art!” activities where children create art themselves. Materials for each hands-on project cost between 50 cents and $1.50.

Organizers also have arranged a free shuttle service between CCM and a big off-site parking lot. ArtFest and the Spokane Transit Authority teamed up to spare visitors the frustration of hunting for parking along the old neighborhood’s narrow streets during this popular event. The addition of an STA trolley will permit twice the passenger load of last year, which was some 8,000 riders.

The nose count at ArtFest ‘96 was 25,000, and this year’s edition expects to top that figure by 10 percent - rain or shine. “The high quality and wide variety of the artwork and activities year after year brings people back,” says CCM spokesperson Jan Wigen, “and they bring friends to share the fun.”

In the market for a birchbark birdhouse? It’s here, waiting for boarders. Is jewelry your weakness? Turn it into a strength with pieces handcrafted from precious metals, watch sprockets, gems, glass or fibers. Whirligigs, weavings, glass goblets, majolica pottery, harps and dulcimers, little boxes for things, photos and feather masks may prompt more than one sweep through the grounds. Sales are expected to top the $140,000 mark set in 1996.

This year’s juror was Josh DeWeese, executive director of the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena. DeWeese selected the festival artists from 213 entries from Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Oregon and Montana. He will present a free lecture about contemporary ceramics and the Archie Bray Foundation Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the CCM auditorium.

Among the 58 chosen artists is Spokane painter Donald Clegg, whose in-demand still lifes come to ArtFest for the first time in his 15-year professional career. “I prefer to work on location, set up still lifes, or study and then work from memory,” says Clegg. “I feel that after many years of practice, I have found my own voice, and … I paint what I find beautiful.”

Another local artist is Kathleen Cavender, who works in pastels as well as watercolor and oil paints. Returning for her seventh ArtFest, Cavender is also among the 12 artists who will demonstrate their art during the fair. “I really love the whole thing about ArtFest,” she says. “I love the music and the people and the food, and I always buy the jewelry! Also, this is one of the few occasions I get to visit with artist friends from out of town.”

Cavender also teaches at the Spokane Art School, and is prepared to tell onlookers about her work during her demo on Saturday afternoon, when she will complete a pastel painting. “Pastels are wonderfully challenging and different from everything else I’ve ever worked in,” she says. “They’re pure pigment, and you can’t mix colors - so they’ve taught me a lot about color.

“The one thing that’s important to remember when you’re painting a picture is that it’s more about process, and mistakes can be your friend,” she says. “Painting involves a great deal of creating and solving problems.”

Another demonstrator-artist is Gordon Vales. He profiles people the old-fashioned way - with handmade silhouettes torn from black paper. Vales says he learned his craft from a woman at Lakeland Village when he was a child in the 1940s. “I like animals, people, airplanes and sailboats,” he says, “so I go through quite a bit of paper.”

In addition to ArtFest, Vales makes silhouettes of visitors to Manito Park’s Park Bench cafe and the Spokane Interstate Fair.

Hour-long demonstrations also include twined basket weaving, watercolor and acrylic painting, pottery, Fimo work, parfleche, and a “surprise” at the capable hands of Harold Balazs.

MEMO: Half-price admission to CCM gallery exhibits and the Campbell House is available during ArtFest: $2 for adults; $1.50 for seniors; $1.25 for students and children 6-16; $5 per family. Current exhibitions include “The Radiant Object: Self-taught Artists from the Volkersz Collection,” and “They Sacrificed for Our Survival: The Indian Boarding School Experience.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: PREVIEW ArtFest will be held on the grounds of the Cheney Cowles Museum, 2316 W. First, on Friday from noon to 8:30 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Free parking for a free shuttle is available at the Inland Automobile Association (AAA) parking lot, 1717 W. Fourth.