This day in history: Debate on art sparked mass resignation from Spokane museum board. Spokane voters backed auditorium and schools as Seattle elected first woman mayor

From 1976: A dispute over how to present art in Spokane resulted in the resignation of 10 members of the Eastern Washington State Historical Society Art Committee.

“We felt change was happening either so slowly that it wasn’t apparent or it wasn’t happening at all,” said Louise Kodis, who resigned as the committee’s chair.

She said it was time to “open the museum up,” and added that “it is a state museum, not a private one.”

Fred Ploeger, the Cheney Cowles Memorial State Museum art curator, responded by saying the 10 “had backed away” from the original goals of the volunteer group, which were to advise him on the technical aspects of art.

He said those 10 members had focused on lobbying for a new art museum downtown, rather than a planned addition to the existing museum on property purchased several years ago.

From 1926: Spokane voters approved a ballot issue for an ambitious new civic auditorium.

The issue, intended to gauge public support, was approved by a margin of nearly 2 to 1.

This did not mean, however, that a new auditorium was a sure thing. The Spokane city commissioners now had to “work out auditorium details” : how big the auditorium should be, how much it would cost and how it would be financed. A plan would then have to be “submitted to another vote of the people.”

Civic boosters had long argued that Spokane needed a big new auditorium to attract conventions and traveling shows.

Voters also strongly backed a $690,000 bond for the Spokane School District. In Seattle, voters elected Bertha Landes as mayor. She was the first woman elected mayor of any major American city.