This year, the annual Juried Show will run digitally from July 17 to August 28. Art from the show will be featured on the Gallery’s website, Facebook and Instagram. We will also be including short audio clips from each of the artists.

The Gallery received 211 entries from 75 different artists. Chris Otten, the juror for 2020, selected 45 pieces from 45 artists.

Chris Otten began taking pictures as a hobby during his first year of college. He would travel country roads in West Oklahoma and Northwest Texas and capture moments of everyday scenery, which had a profound impact on how he viewed the world around him. He went on to study film and digital photography at the University of Central Oklahoma. After receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts, he earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University of South Florida, where he worked with several professional artists. Otten is now a photographer and educator living in Yakima, WA.

Otten viewed the Juried Show in person, in private, and recorded a short video describing his process and announcing his award selection. The video will be available online on Friday, July 10.

You can view the show and vote for the People’s Choice Award at the Gallery website. The award is very important for our artists, so please take the opportunity to vote! You have until August 28 to submit your choice.

Each May, as a way of helping to support visual arts in the community, the Allied Arts Association awards annual scholarships to Columbia Basin College students and students working toward a master’s degree in fine arts.

This year, scholarships went to Rand Hatem, a student attending CBC, and Kelsey Davis, a graduate student at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Rand Hatem has been drawing and creating art since she was a child growing up in Baghdad, Iraq, where she lived until moving to the United States in 2010. Though she was interested in pursuing an education in interior design, she was not able to do so right away. She continued to work on her own art pieces and participate in art shows around the Tri-Cities until her children started school, which finally gave her enough free time to pursue her own education. Now, as a CBC student, Hatem is working towards achieving her goal of becoming an interior designer.

Most of Hatem’s art revolves around themes of cultural history and connecting to one’s roots. She is often inspired by items with rich histories, writing, “Vintage and cultural pieces carry stories and have longevity that transcends seasonal trends.” She tries to invoke this feeling in her own art.

Hatem also draws inspiration from her own culture as a Middle Eastern woman, though she’s aware she is communicating with an audience who may not be familiar with that culture. She hopes to encourage viewers of her art to ponder their own roots, while also bringing a piece of her history to modern times.

Kelsey Davis, the MFA scholarship recipient, is originally from the East Coast, but moved to Oregon ten years ago to pursue an education in English literature and studio art at Lewis & Clark College. After graduating, she co-founded a nonprofit gallery space and spent several years bringing exciting, culturally-relevant art shows and art education programs for both children and adults to the community in Yamhill County, before she decided to pursue art at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Though she works in the visual arts, Davis has been deeply touched by the aesthetics of poetry and abstract language. Growing up, she felt a connection through the written words of others, but struggled to convey herself and her own perspective. Now, she approaches the creation of art as a way of connecting to others and to the self. 

Davis states, “My work is about the isolation of the self within the body, the anxieties over our own vessel, and the ways in which we reach for connection.”

Her works are often about specific personal experiences and feelings, such as “the trauma and joys of growing.” She is interested in portraying “experiences so personal and nuanced that they become once again universal.” At its heart, Davis’ art is about connection.

This February, stop by the Gallery at the Park to experience “Herstory,” an art show inspired by American women’s history. The exhibit includes a broad range of women’s history, though it focuses primarily on the history of the suffrage movement in Washington state, Washington state women’s history and American suffrage history.

In the lead-up to the show, “Herstory” considered submissions from U.S. artists over the age of 14, with over 50 works from over 30 different artists now on display. The artworks encompass a wide array of media, including paintings, collages, quilts, sculptures, ceramics and nontraditional media.  

“Herstory” will be on display at the Gallery at the Park from Feb. 4 through Feb. 29. The reception will be held on Sunday, Feb. 9, from 1 to 3 p.m. 

During the reception, the Mid-Columbia Mastersingers will perform selections from their upcoming concert, “Votes for Women: Voices for All,” celebrating the centennial of U.S. women’s suffrage. Additionally, the Richland Players will be showcasing period costumes, and the League of Women Voters will act as jurors for the show and present awards to the winners.

This January, the Gallery at the Park welcomes back the Tri-City Quilters’ Guild! The Guild has been regularly featured at the Gallery at the Park for more than 30 years.

Since its origination in 1982, the Tri-City Quilters’ Guild has been dedicated to promoting the art of quilting through education and fellowship. Today, its membership has grown to more than 300 quilters. Their goals include sharing information about quilting, creating comfort quilts for local agencies and enjoying other activities related to quilt creation, collection and appreciation.

The Tri-City Quilters’ Guild produces one of the largest annual quilt shows in Washington, filling Kennewick’s Three Rivers Convention Center with more than 400 quilts. Guild members also participate in monthly meetings, friendship groups, community service sewing days and many other activities.

Stop by the Gallery at the Park to see the Tri-City Quilters’ Guild’s raffle quilt for 2020. Every year, the Guild raffles a quilt made by local members, and the proceeds from raffle ticket sales go towards fabric and other materials used to create comfort quilts, which are given to local human service agencies.

This year’s raffle quilt is called “Modern Metamorphosis,” and it is a collaborative creation of the Make It Modern friendship group. Tula Pink provided the pattern, In the Beginning donated the fabric and Dana Pearson designed the quilting.

Purchase a raffle ticket at the Gallery for $1.00. The winner of the raffle  will be announced at the annual quilt show, located at Three Rivers Convention Center, on March 21 at 4 p.m. Visit the Tri-City Quilters’ Guild website at tcquilters.org to learn more.

The quilt show will be on display at the Gallery at the Park from Jan. 7 to 31, and the reception will be held on Jan. 12.

This October, don’t miss Neva Scott’s one-of-a-kind exhibit at the Gallery the Park!

Growing up in a small town in Nevada, Neva Scott always wanted to be an artist, but between raising children, working as a realtor and shopkeeping, she simply didn’t have enough time to commit to the arts as fully as she would have liked. Then, Scott turned 65; she retired, and her children were all adults, so she was finally able to turn her attention to this new venture.

After studying the basics of encaustic painting under Alicia Tormey, Scott now loves to manipulate wax and resin with a blowtorch to create new works of art.

Scott has also been influenced by Joseph Cornell, Orphan Pamuk, Louise Nevelson and Kurt Schwitters. These artists used found objects to create assemblages, with Schwitters saying, “objects shown out​ of context startle the viewer.” Inspired by these works, Scott began making assemblages out of abandoned toys—she is, after all, a grandmother.

“When imagining a new piece of art, I summon up a mix of contrasts,” Scott says, “clarity and chaos, exactness and freedom, control and randomness, precision and free flow.”

Scott’s daring and colorful exhibit will be on display at the Gallery at the Park from Oct. 1 through 25. The artist reception will be on Oct. 4.

To view more of Neva Scott’s work, visit her gallery, Neva Scott Art, at 511 Lee Boulevard in Richland.