Big Art on the Little Spokane

Don't let the name fool you: The Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour is no small event.

Professional artists travel from across the Northwest to show and sell their work on the Tour, and the Little Spokane River Valley boasts more than its own share of artistic wealth. Studio tour hosts include nationally recognized artists Hulda and Ken Bridgeman, who sell their wearable art in venues like the Smithsonian and the American Craft Council shows. Studio host and Gonzaga University art faculty member Gina Freuen's ceramic and multi-media art career spans 30 years. Host Jill Smith, a longtime Spokane potter and business owner, currently organizes art activities at the Women Warriors retreat at her Cowgirl Co-op on Green Bluff. The hosts open their studio spaces to the public for the Tour, to sell their creations and allow a glimpse into the creative life of working artists.

The Tour this year includes twenty-two invited artists in three locations. They include Kyle Paliotto, recently featured in a solo show at the Art Spirit Gallery in Coeur d'Alene; Melissa Cole, whose new 21'x24' painting Riverdance hangs in the Spokane Convention Center lobby, and Gordon Wilson, a Whitworth art faculty member who spent six weeks painting in Italy and Austria this summer, and will bring the resulting work to the Tour.

If painting isn't your thing, the Little Spokane Tour still has plenty to offer. Woodworker Steve Baran creates outdoor benches and birdhouses for gardeners and lovers of the outdoors. Bill and Karma Simmons construct sculptural metal garden lights and furniture. Interior decorators can find modern ceramic lamps by Will Richards, pottery by Collista Bejjani, glass by Mercurial Arts Katie Patten and Leonard Tinnell, and photography by Doug Edmondson. For fashionistas, jewelers Cheryl DeGroot, John Blessent and Kris Howell offer one-of-a-kind pieces.

Visitors to all three studios will be entered into a drawing for a gift certificate, and Lindaman's Gourmet-to-Go will offer lunches and snacks for purchase throughout the day at Studio #1.

When asked what first inspired the Little Spokane Tour four years ago, host Hulda Bridgeman responded: "Gina and I have worked together before to present our work and that of other artists to the Spokane public, and we talked about how much we'd like to do that in the beautiful settings of gardens and river valley where we live and work. People loved the studio tour that first year, and the show has grown and added new things each year since."

The peaceful Little Spokane River Valley provides an ideal setting for the creative process, good fortune which is not lost on the tour's artist organizers. Each year, the Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour donates to the Trails Fund of the Friends of the Little Spokane River Valley, to help preserve the natural beauty of the area.

The Little Spokane River Artist Studio Tour begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday,
September 24th, and ends at 5 p.m.