Artist Will Leave Manito Park Studio

Thu., Sept. 18, 1997

Amy Scribner Staff writer

Local artist Ken Spiering, well-known for the giant Radio Flyer in Riverfront Park and his colorful Bloomsday posters, has until next July to vacate the Manito Park art studio he leases from the Parks Department.

Spiering and Woodland Montessori School are the only private tenants whose leases won’t be renewed by the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department, said Taylor Bressler, operation division manager.

“We’ve had a wonderful relationship with our tenants, but how much longer can we go on when we have a facility that we’re not using?” Bressler said.

“These spaces are very, very rentable, but I think we need to put it back into public use. They are in fact public buildings, and that is the bottom line.”

Spiering has used the building at 2100 S. Tekoa in Manito Park as a studio since 1981, when by a stroke of luck he inquired about the space the same week the Parks Department decided to find tenants.

“I thought it was pretty gracious of the city to allow us to come in here in the first place,” he said.

But after 15 years in the park, Spiering said he wasn’t too upset when the city notified him early this summer of the decision.

“The time is right,” he said. “I’ve outgrown this space. It’s been an absolutely fabulous place to be, but it’s become kind of Grand Central Station.

“To get work done, I do have to find a little more solitude.”

Spiering has begun renovations on a place south of Spokane to serve as a new studio. He said he’ll be ready to move in by the time his lease expires next summer.

, DataTimes

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