First Friday: 28 venues offering free entertainment
Here’s a mental-health boosting, local arts-supporting New Year’s Resolution you can feel good about: Attend more First Friday Downtown Arts Walks in 2019.
For this very first First Friday of the new year there are 28 venues participating with free offerings of live music, tastings and visual art. Most venues open from 5 to 8 p.m., unless otherwise noted. For a full list of all the activities and artists, visit
Painter Tom Quinn has delighted multitudes in Spokane for decades as his murals have enlivened the city from their perches all over town. However, the bulk of his works come in more attainable sizes, still twinkling with humor, fantasy and mastery. Several of these pieces will be on display this month at Craftsman Cellars in Kendall Yards. Grab a pour and pore over the acrylics, oils and watercolors by an artist who will make you smile … or wonder. From 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 1194 W. Summit Parkway.
Just across the alley from Craftsman Cellars, Marmot Art Space will present works by Steven A. Scroggins. The Coeur d’Alene-based creative is an award-winning, internationally collected painter, photographer, ceramicist and assemblage artist. 1202 Summit Parkway.
Kendall Yards solidifies its reputation as the place to see this month with bright inks and acrylics by Colleen Devlin at William Grant Gallery & Framing, just a block east from Marmot. Devlin’s renderings of iconic landmarks ever-present in our commercial landscapes are strangely arresting. 1188 W. Summit Pkwy.
A short stroll west on Summit Parkway will be the moody works of Jodie Stejer at Maryhill Tasting Room. She uses a torch to fuse together beeswax, resin, pigments and shellac to create abstracts inspired by her inner emotions. 1303 W. Summit Parkway.
Also on the north side of the rive, Avenue West is hosting nature-inspired paintings by Jan Hess and watercolors by Ernie Weiss. Continuing this month is the exhibit, “Spokane River Landscapes” by Gonzaga University students Morgan Wald, Mason Dellutn, Grace Karam, Alyssa Lobkov, Kenny Koning, Jenny Albert, Mary Pierce, Abigail Kirsten, Ava Mandley, Kevin Barr. 907 W. Boone Ave., Suite C
In two exciting exhibits south of the river, at Saranac Art Projects, member-artist Remelisa Cullitan-Stillinger will share her visual bi-racial narrative “A Life of Rice and Bread.” Guest artist Jessica Earle will engage the public with a mixed media interactive installation “They Could Begin to Thrive Again.” 25 W. Main Ave.
The Kolva-Sullivan Gallery will present Robert Grimes’ first solo show in Spokane. The artist has been represented at the Art Spirit Gallery in Coeur d’Alene for the past 10 years, so it’s about time. Grimes’ three-dimensional wood pieces and etched paintings are bridges to other worlds, haunting and fantastic, playful and heavy. 115 S. Adams St.
Pottery Place Plus will feature fiber artist Jaquetta Holcomb, who creates her own one-of-a-kind rustic yarns. A typical day finds her at home in Spokane Valley, washing locally grown wool and then immersing it into roasters of colorful dyes, then hand-spinning it on her Louet spinning wheel. All day until 9 p.m. at 203 N. Washington St., the Liberty Building.
Dodson’s Jewelers hosts its final First Friday ever tonight, featuring a dozen local and regional artists, including Charles Palmer, William Elston, Kim Matthews Wheaton and Lila Girvin. Soak in the stellar art, the local history, and try not to tear up when you pat the ever-faithful Daisy goodbye.
Head over to the downtown Spokane Public Library to pick up this month’s official First Friday poster by artist Ryker Murdock. The Southeast Idaho native featured silhouettes of some of Spokane’s most iconic places on his collectible poster, “Maiden Voyage.” If you get to the library between 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., you can also hear the guitar stylings of Lucas Brookbank Brown on the community stage on the second floor. 906 W. Main Ave.
Bart Templeman of Dare Designs will show his latest works of mixed media and furniture at Berserk Bar from 3 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. at 125 S. Stevens St.