Art museum envisioned

Unsurprisingly, the Spokane Valley Art Council is interested in promoting public art. But in recent years the relatively new arts organization has been putting its money where its mouth is.

In 2009 the group dedicated a larger-than-life bronze statue of a mountain man near what would become the new Discovery Playground. This year the organization will use the proceeds from its annual art auction to pay for a bronze statue of a Native American woman called “Berry Picker.” The new bronze could cost up to $100,000 and will probably be located a block west of the mountain man statue.

It took three years for the annual auction to raise enough money for the first statue. It has taken less than a year to raise the money for the second one. “We started an event from scratch,” said council president Jim Harken, a Spokane Valley dentist. “We’re gaining momentum.”

In addition to the auction the council is selling a limited edition of 12-inch-tall replicas of the “Berry Picker” statue, some of which will be available at the annual event on Sept. 18 at CenterPlace.

But after the newest statue is complete and in place, the council plans to set its sights even higher. Members are discussing plans to build a Spokane Valley art museum, largely to house Harken’s collection of more than 3,000 pieces of art. He’s been collecting for 42 years and wants to donate much of his collection to a museum when he dies. Harken, 76, donates several pieces to museums every year to keep his taxes down. He said the University of Montana is interested in his collection, but he’d rather donate it to a local museum and keep it together.

Any museum is years away, but Harken said the art council has voted to start putting money away for the effort. “That’s a huge task,” he said. “It takes a lot of resources. It takes years to do that sort of thing.”

Harken’s house is stuffed with a mind-boggling amount of art from all over the world, everything from paintings to glass to sculptures. A display case in the library includes a basket woven from pine needles and porcupine quills. In the living room is an Egyptian bust of King Tut carved out of pure amber. Navajo rugs are draped over the pool table “It’s called eclectic,” Harkin said of his collection. “It’s everything. Whatever is quality.”

Works from many local artists line the walls and Harkin can walk the halls rattling off information about each painting and its creator. Even the bathroom is full of sculptures. Two rooms in the basement have rows and rows of canvases stacked against the walls. The artist names in Harken’s collection are a who’s who of the art world. Peter Max. Salvador Dali. Nancy McLaughlin. Harold Balazs. Jerry McKellar.

Harken has been putting some of his collection on display at CenterPlace since the building opened. He rotates the items every three months. “We’ve never had the same piece twice,” he said.

The collection started innocently enough. In 1968 his first wife bought a piece from one of her art professors. A year later on a trip to Hawaii, Harken visited an art gallery. “I walked out with six paintings,” he said. “That was the start of it.”

Since then he has learned art history and become a discerning collector. He has no thoughts of stopping. “It’s a compulsion, sure it is,” he said.

Though his house is protected by a security alarm and his outdoor sculptures are bolted down, Harken said he is not worried about having someone steal his collection. “It’s all original,” he said. “It’s not fenceable.”

Harken said he plans to give as much of his art as he can to his children, but says there will be plenty left over for a museum. “I came into this world with nothing,” he said. “I’m going out the same way.”

But he does like the idea of having his collection on display for people to appreciate. “Collecting isn’t for everybody,” he said. “But the arts, in one form or another, are for everybody. Art is food for the soul.”