Affairs of the art

ArtFest, that annual, family-friendly art and music festival that unofficially kicks off the Inland Northwest’s outdoor fair season, returns Friday for its 19th year.

The three-day event, sponsored by the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and Spokane Art School, is once again back on the museum grounds in Browne’s Addition.

Returning are 70 of the Pacific Northwest’s best artists and crafters, a score of live music groups on two stages and a dozen fun children’s art activities.

“Kids are really welcome at ArtFest,” said Sue Ellen Heflin, executive director of Spokane Art School. “This is a festival where the whole family can come and have a lot of fun.”

Where to find things

If you attended last year, everything is essentially in the same place. The 10 food vendors are along First Avenue. The Main Stage and beer garden are in the huge grassy area between the food vendors and the museum administration building. The Family Stage is located in the outdoor amphitheater next to the museum.

The kids’ Make It Art zone once again will be set up on the expansive shady lawn near the Campbell House and the artists’ booths will be grouped on the east side of the museum grounds.

Helping to make ArtFest a quality event each year is the high caliber of artists competing for the 70 vendor spaces.

Ken Shores, master potter and professor emeritus from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, was asked to make the final cut from more than 210 applicants.

“I was very impressed with the quality of crafts, paintings and sculpture,” said Shores. “There wasn’t a weak area that I could find. It was very difficult to make the final choices.”

Festival goers will be able to browse booths brimming with photography, jewelry, ceramics, paintings, sculpture, glass, metal, silkscreen and furniture.

On Friday, Shores will visit each booth and select 10 artists from different disciplines for individual awards.

Glass blower Steve Adams, a past award winner, will be back this year with his hand-blown bowls, vessels and candlesticks.

“I was one of the small group of artists at the first ArtFest,” recalled Adams, who has participated in about half the festivals. “This year I’m bringing a new series of trumpet and bud vases.”

Oil pastel painter Brett Varney of Bellingham is also showing recent work. “This is the first major art fair of the season,” said Varney, who is returning for his fifth ArtFest. “I will have the best of my new work with me. Spokane will have first crack at it.”

Back for his second year, ceramist Gil Harrison of College Grove, Ore., is showing his highly stylized porcelain vessels.

“The whole thing for me is to have sculptural elements in my functional wear,” said Harrison. “I love silhouettes and strive to make each vessel unique.”

Continuous live music

With two stages and 29 performances over three days, there is a wide variety of musical acts including West African rhythms, alternative county, Irish fiddle tunes and jazz standards.

The Main Stage headliner for Friday night is Milonga, with sizzling Latin sounds. On Saturday the Geoffrey Castle Band brings its “wild world music extravaganza,” and the closing act on Sunday is the Planetary Refugees’ reggae and “joyous” world beat.

On Saturday and Sunday the Family Stage spotlights high-energy groups geared toward young audiences. Expect lots of drums, dancing and puppets.

Another place for kids is in the Make it Art area. For a nominal fee young artists can stretch their creativity and take home their own works of art in clay, paper and wood.

New this year are animal hats made from construction paper. Returning are hands-on projects such as dip-and-drip paper dyeing, sand candles, wood sculpture and face painting. Proceeds from Make it Art support the educational programs of the museum and the Art School.

Special family art workshops are scheduled for kids of all ages. Adults are welcome to share in the fun of creating silk-screened paper bags, weaving, fish painting and finger painting.

Artist demonstrations

Over the three-day run of the festival, 11 artists will share how they dream up ideas and create art. Included in the lineup on Sunday is hand-sewn book maker Ellen Lebitz of Ferndale, Wash.

“I’ll be demonstrating how we tear down the pages and get the book ready to be sewn,” said Lebitz. “Then I’ll show how we sew the book using functional yet decorative spine stitching.”

All during ArtFest, the museum and Campbell House will be open for half-price admission. Exhibits on view include “A Ceramic Continuum: Fifty Years of the Archie Bray Influence” and “Mexican Devotional Art: The Cristo Cana de Mais and Retablos from the MAC Collection.”

The museum’s Orientation Lobby is free and is showing the oil paintings of contemporary artist Lanny DeVuono. The Café MAC is also open for sandwiches and coffee.

With an expected 35,000 visitors and limited parking near the museum grounds, Spokane Transit Authority is once again providing continuous shuttle service from the free parking lot under I-90 at Jefferson and Fourth streets. Shuttles leave every 15 minutes and cost 25 cents each way.