Childhood Experience Spurs State Arts Leader

Rosemary Selinger thought she would swing through the States and then beat it home to Britain.

But during her Yankee tour she met her future husband, a cardiac surgeon in Philadelphia, and she skipped the return.

That was 30 years ago.

Selinger, a red-haired dynamo whose English accent brings to mind afternoon tea and cucumber sandwiches, is devoted to the arts, and this year is chairwoman of the Washington State Arts Commission.

“I thought I would spend a year in the United States and then go back to England and make my fame,” she said.

Selinger grew up in Melbourne, England, a village of 20,000 souls.

She moved to Spokane 18 years ago, “when the kids were young.” She calls the Indian Canyon area home.

Her decision to side with the New World was the queen’s loss and Spokane’s gain.

In addition to her work with the state Arts Commission, Selinger for many years has raised money for the Spokane Symphony and served on the boards of the Cheney Cowles Museum and a fledgling opera company at Whitworth College.

Selinger’s involvement with the arts began early - in that small village where she grew up.

“In my village we had a Gilbert and Sullivan company,” she said. “We had theater. And, of course, everyone learned how to sing.”

Once settled here, Selinger wanted to re-create her experiences with the arts stateside.

Why? Because Selinger believes that art brings communities together.

“The difference between us and the animals is that we’re human and we connect,” she said.

Art often serves as a bridge between different cultural and ethnic communities, she said.

“With all the social problems, we better learn how to connect,” she said.

And art can also have an enormous impact on children, developing the intellect, fostering creativity and exposing them to history, she said.

Selinger would like to see the Cheney Cowles Museum expand.

A new building would house the $20 million collection of Plateau Indian artifacts. Many of the artifacts are now in storage due to a lack of display space, Selinger said.

“The collection could prove such a draw and is so important, especially given that Native Americans are our largest ethnic population.”

If funds were available, Selinger would also like to see Spokane produce an arts festival on the order of Seattle’s Bumbershoot or Ashland’s week of Shakespearean patois.

Festivals demand individual artists, and Selinger is also sensitive to their needs.

“We expect our artists to perform free of charge,” she said. “We can’t pay our symphony players enough to make it a full-time position.”

Economically speaking, the addition of art to any city tends to attract more tourists, which attracts more businesses, she said.

“The quality of life is more than just the outdoor life,” Selinger said. “Art can be such a draw.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo