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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Gotta Love It Cheney Cowles Combines ‘Works From Heart’ Preview With Visual Arts Tour

Suzanne Pate Correspondent

Is romance in the air? Tastefully framed in the context of the Visual Arts Tour, this Friday is the first big date for the Cheney Cowles Museum and the Davenport Arts and Entertainment District.

More than just an artsy fling, the joint venture mixes business with pleasure in the heart of downtown Spokane.

“Feb. 7 is going to be a BIG night out on the town,” said Ralph Busch, outreach coordinator for the city’s Arts Department.

The Visual Arts Tour’s 23 venues include 11 downtown businesses that are host sites for paintings, sculpture and mixed-media work for the museum’s 12th annual “Works from the Heart” auction later in the month.

This week, Cheney Cowles art curator Barbara Racker installed 110 pieces of art in storefront windows and lobbies for passers-by to enjoy and to promote the museum’s major annual fund-raiser. Racker said pedestrians clustered at the windows to watch her install the art, and a number already have inquired about auction tickets.

“It was really interesting to see people gather around at every stop to see what we were unloading from the van,” said Racker. “On an educational level, we’re bringing art…to the people instead of waiting for them to come to us. I’m seeing that people are very interested in art when it’s in their environment.”

The Visual Arts Tour’s traditional bus ride to the event’s outlying galleries pulls away from the STA Plaza at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

The evening begins at 5 with a champagne reception for the auction artists at the Metro Mall Art Gallery, 921 W. Sprague. Not only is the event free and open to the public, but you’re invited to lace up your plimsoles and walk off the bubbly in the care of two designated tour guides. Plan on hoofing it for about an hour.

City planner Steve Franks and ALSC architect Dave Shockley will lead groups of 20 around the Davenport Arts District. They plan to leave the Metro Mall at 6 and 7 p.m. to see some of the auction art and explain the history and potential of selected older buildings.

Stops will include the Steam Plant, Andrew Baucom’s ceramic tile studio on South Monroe, and renovation projects in the Whitten Block on Sprague. The businesses and galleries will stay open late to receive tour-goers.

“Projects like Andrew’s ‘Art By Yourself’ are putting life back into these buildings,” said Shockley. “We really want people to see what is under way in the neighborhood. Things are really happening - it’s not just a pipe dream.”

Shockley’s enthusiasm extends to proposals for a farmer’s market near the old Greyhound bus depot, and the possibilities for housing and studios in underused warehouses.

Arts district chair Mary Ellen Johnson said the ball started rolling last fall when the museum’s Jennifer Park approached the A&E board with the idea to simultaneously show off the auction artwork and the downtown businesses.

“It’s all about relationship-building,” said Johnson. “We decided that instead of finding a business and trying to recruit it to come downtown, we’d spotlight the businesses that are here and are thriving - and then people will want to come downtown when they see what’s here already,” she said.

“I have been amazed at how receptive the businesses have been. Not a single business said no when we asked them to participate,” Johnson said.

From the museum’s point of view, the collaboration will strengthen its ties to the community and heighten public awareness of its collections and programs. Visibility and accessibility are critical issues for the museum, which hopes to expand its Browne’s Addition facility early in the next century through a $20 million capital campaign.

The Works from the Heart art will remain in downtown windows until Feb. 15, when it goes on the block in the Davenport Hotel. This is only the second time in the auction’s 12-year history that the event has moved off the museum’s secluded campus, and the first time its name has changed.

The Cheney Cowles anticipates 300 bidders at its auction and hopes to double last year’s art sales of $20,428. “It’s really tough to have that kind of event in the (museum’s) front gallery,” said Racker. “I saw people leaving last year because it was so claustrophobic in there.”

The auction benefits the museum’s art acquisition fund, earmarked to pay the final $30,000 toward the purchase of “The Jesus Corner” by the late Ed Kienholz.

Park said the original “Works of Heart” was renamed “Works from the Heart” by the participating artists. “When the auction began 11 years ago, it was pretty small-scale and revolved around Valentine’s Day - either with a heart actually depicted in the work somewhere or with the idea that the work would make a great Valentine gift,” said Park. “In the artists’ minds, that was a limiting theme.”

The auction catalog remarks, “Many of the artists … have donated their work to the auction throughout its history … Such a gesture is certainly ‘from the heart.”’

The 1997 auction features the work of more than 106 artists, most of whom call this area home. Twenty-nine donated their work to the auction. In years past, very little - if any - percentage of sales was rebated to artists. The policy was changed last year to return a “living wage,” 50 percent of sales to the artists who opt for it.

“A lot of retailoring was due to our ethical obligation to treat professionals as professionals,” Park said.

Also contributing to the change was the pinch many artists felt from repeated requests for donated work. Some remarked that they felt obliged to contribute if they wanted to be considered for shows at the museum, and others said they felt exploited by non-profit groups who “lived off the backs of artists.”

Contributed work became smaller scale, more prints appeared, and quality took a dive with donations that clearly were pieces that couldn’t sell and had been pulled from closets.

“We have bigger, more expensive and very high quality pieces in the auction this time,” said Racker. “This is an event that people don’t want to miss.”

MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story:

1. VISUAL ARTS TOUR The Spokane Visual Arts Tour will be held from 5-9 p.m. Friday at 23 sites. Bus stops may include the Jundt Art Museum at Gonzaga University, and the art galleries at Eastern Washington University and Spokane Falls Community College; bus rides are $1, with tickets at the Bus Shop in the STA Plaza. The bus leaves the STA Plaza at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, and also will pick up passengers at the Spokane Art School. For more information, call 625-6050.

2. MUSEUM AUCTION The Cheney Cowles Museum’s “Works from the Heart” auction will be held from 5:30-10 p.m. Feb. 15 in the Davenport Hotel. Admission is $50 person, with reservations required by calling 456-3931, ext. 101 or 122. The evening includes entertainment, a sit-down dinner and cocktails; silent and live auction; black-tie optional. Catalogs ($5) and auction tickets are available at the museum and from the 11 downtown businesses with auction art in their windows.

These 2 sidebars appeared with the story:

1. VISUAL ARTS TOUR The Spokane Visual Arts Tour will be held from 5-9 p.m. Friday at 23 sites. Bus stops may include the Jundt Art Museum at Gonzaga University, and the art galleries at Eastern Washington University and Spokane Falls Community College; bus rides are $1, with tickets at the Bus Shop in the STA Plaza. The bus leaves the STA Plaza at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, and also will pick up passengers at the Spokane Art School. For more information, call 625-6050.

2. MUSEUM AUCTION The Cheney Cowles Museum’s “Works from the Heart” auction will be held from 5:30-10 p.m. Feb. 15 in the Davenport Hotel. Admission is $50 person, with reservations required by calling 456-3931, ext. 101 or 122. The evening includes entertainment, a sit-down dinner and cocktails; silent and live auction; black-tie optional. Catalogs ($5) and auction tickets are available at the museum and from the 11 downtown businesses with auction art in their windows.