North Country Artist Trails

Professional artists and artisans are invited to be a part of the 3rd annual “North Country Artist Trails”.

“North Country Artist Trails”, a program of Colville Arts Foundation, is a folded 4” x 9” professionally designed brochure detailing artist’s studios and galleries located in Stevens and Ferry counties. The website is: www.northcountryartisttrails.com
Mission StatementNorth Country Artist Trails, a CAF program, provides an alternative venue for artists & craftspeople residing in Colville & N. E. Washington State. Collectors & appreciators of fine art now have the unique opportunity of touring working studios & galleries, meeting the artists, while traveling through the spectacular scenery of Northeastern Washington.

North Country Artist Trails will include:
o 1-2 full-color photographs of each artist’s work along with a 3-4-line description, phone number and opening times, along with address, web site or any other pertinent information.
The guide will list studios and galleries stretching from Northport to Hunters, Colville to Republic, Orient, Kettle Falls and other towns via a full-color map.
The guide gives the artist an incredible opportunity to build up a clientele for their fine art & fine crafts—selling directly to art lovers, collectors and/or interior designers.
Membership in the Colville Chamber of Commerce and the International Selkirk Loop’s website

Distribution:
Over 158 hotel/motel sites throughout Spokane, including Museum of Arts & Culture, Felts Field Aviation, Executive Lounge, Westcoast Ridpath Hotel, and Service Stations.
Riverfront Park – IMAX Building in Spokane
AAA Auto Club Visitor Centers throughout Spokane
Service Stations in Spokane
Deer Park, Liberty Lake, Chewelah, Colfax, Green Acres, Mead, Clarkston, and Pullman, WA to name a few towns included in the distribution
Chewelah, Colville, and Ritzville Chambers of Commerce
Spokane International Airport
Many more sites to numerous to list!

Experts predict two significant travel trends will dominate the tourism market in the next decade:
Mass marketing is giving way to one-to-one marketing with travel being tailored to the interests of the individual consumer; i.e., the art lover and art collector.
A growing number of visitors are becoming special interest travelers who rank the arts, heritage and/or other cultural activities as one of the top five reasons for traveling.
The combination of these two trends is being fueled by technology, through the proliferation of online services and tools, making it easier for the traveler to choose destinations and customize their itineraries based on their interests— namely, ART!
If you are interested, please email ncat@hughes.net for more information, or call 684-3002.
To provide an optimum experience for visitors on the Trail, participants must be committed to open their studios at least two days per week between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Opening your studio or gallery more days is encouraged but is, of course, up to the discretion of the individual Artist/Craftsperson.

This year, we’re focusing on the last weekends of June, July and August for all studios to be open. The exact dates are: June 29, 30, July 1st, and July 27, 28, and 29, and August 24, 25, and 26.

Appeared in the Statesman Examiner February 27 07

PO Box 375 Colville WA 99114

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Dear Editor,

I disagree with the letter from Evelyn Romo of CVPAA who claimed their organization was the only organization to “sponsor professional artists”. She should have stated “sponsor professional performing artists”. Colville Arts Foundation has strived to present many professional visual artists in our community, and worthwhile visual arts exhibits and displays. Working with the Colville Chamber of Commerce, who has been extremely supportive, we have worthwhile programs such as “Art Around Town” placing art in different business venues to give more visibility to our local PROFESSIONAL VISUAL artists. Also, the only 3-county self-guided arts tour, “North Country Artist Trails” presents a dazzling compilation of professional visual artists in the 3-county area to tourists and locals alike.

In its 5-year existence, Colville Arts Foundation has garnered very little support, yet we continue to believe in the arts, continue to support artists and performing artists. I beg to differ with Ms. Romo about the performing artists. Recently, a blues concert was held at Orient Elementary School with over 200 people in attendance. The Fat Tones were clearly professionals. Last year there were professional performing artists from The Blue Door Theatre in Spokane, (improvisational artists and actors), at Colville’s now defunct “Art Burst” (its demise due to a lack of attendance and support!). Art Burst’s performing and visual arts venue was an incredible effort by Dot Javorka and Jan Beardsley and many others, but its demise is a sad reflection of the lack of support. In 2004, Colville Arts Foundation sponsored Jason Webley, a professional musician from Seattle.

As the administrator of a generous Washington State Arts Commission grant, we are pleased to have “Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre” from Bellevue visit Orient and Valley Schools. This event is sponsored by Orient/Inchelium/Valley Arts Consortium. There are professional visual and performing artists in and around Colville but they are tough to find out about. This particular visit is sponsored by the Washington State Arts Commission.

I support all the arts, as an artist myself, but have found it necessary to go outside this community to present my own art, as the Bible states, “a prophet is not honored in his own hometown”. I hope we (as supporters of the arts) are growing in number and will have a voice--someday. Maybe we’re just a bit ahead of the curve.

Two years ago, Colville Arts Foundation lost its art gallery space, and if not for Colville Woodworking and Stained Glass and the library, there is NO community venue to display local PROFESSIONAL Visual artists’ work. Hence, the aforementioned, “Art Around Town” which valiantly conspires to display local professional visual artists’ works.

Please support the arts in any way that you can! In general, artists are the most educated and underpaid of the population. As Stuart Wilde, a metaphysical writer stated his book, The Little Money Bible, “We don’t remember the businessmen of Rome or the various generals that fought the Trojan wars. Even the kings and queens of old are fairly uninteresting. What we value is the art, the architecture, and the feelings of bygone societies. What they believed in, what they did, the art they left behind—the Colosseum, Versailles, paintings, books—those are the things that have meaning, and so they last.”

We have the Spokane Symphony’s Woodwind section visiting Orient and Kettle Falls Elementary Schools. It doesn’t get any more professional than that.

What Stevens County needs is an arts council, a clearing house for performing and visual artists, a clear indication of its support for the arts. A local arts agency that can attract performing and visual artists, and support the local artists performing in and around Colville and the whole of Stevens County—providing venues and exhibition halls for dancers, actors, musicians and visual artists. It’s sad that we do not have such an entity.


Sincerely Yours,



Gloria de los Santos
Colville Arts Foundation Director
Visual Artist

Children at Christmas

Wondering what to write, looking at art, seeing art, getting my son up at 5.30 am for high school!

Thinking of the painting show here that I gave away for the Colville Christmas Tree Extravaganza! What a wonder. I love to paint with encaustics.