Our arts and culture writers reflect on their favorite and most meaningful stories of 2022

click to enlarge Our arts and culture writers reflect on their favorite and most meaningful stories of 2022
Young Kwak photo
Musician Devonte Pearson took the pandemic years to expand his skillset.

When looking back at 2022's highlights from the region's creative movers and shakers — the artists, actors, musicians, writers, thinkers, makers, athletes, community organizers and so many others — it's becoming harder to recall that it wasn't so long ago when our world was completely upended by a global pandemic. This year, we finally saw the return of many cherished in-person performances and events, like Terrain's flagship arts showcase in October. We celebrated collaborations and renovations, but also mourned death and disappointment.

Looking back on the year that was, our core arts and culture writing team accomplished a lot. We had a blast, too, and it was our sincere privilege to bring the following 12 stories to Inlander readers around the region. (To re-read these stories online, visit Inlander.com/culture, or search our archives at Inlander.com/issuearchives.)

— CHEY SCOTT, Inlander Arts & Culture Editor

RURAL RESTORATION
Historic preservationists in rural communities across Eastern Washington race against time to save old buildings, Jan. 13

Around this time last year, I had just finished compiling months' worth of reporting into this five-piece cover story on efforts across rural Eastern Washington to restore and preserve historically significant buildings.

Throughout fall 2021, I drove around to these small towns to hear about projects like Austin and Laura Storm's vision for the 130-year-old St. Ignatius Hospital in Colfax, and a communitywide effort to save Depression-era bunkhouses in LaCrosse. Closer to home, a nonprofit in Cheney had recently raised enough money to move and preserve its historic passenger train depot, set to become a museum and multiuse public space. I also learned about a decade-plus of careful restoration work at Harrington's Hotel Lincoln, aka "the Electric Hotel," led by Karen and Jerry Allen. The fifth building profiled, Palouse, Washington's St. Elmo Hotel, still waits for the right buyer to come in and attempt to bring it back to life.

The Allens, meanwhile, just celebrated the opening of a retail storefront, The Mercantile in Harrington, on the hotel's first floor, offering locally made goods. And this summer, the Storms were able to finally replace St. Ignatius' deteriorating roof, which had threatened the integrity of the entire structure and was a first major step in saving it. (CHEY SCOTT)

MOM AT THE MAC
A Stained Glass Mom's Take on the MAC's Tiffany Exhibit, Feb. 8

When I saw that the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture would host "Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection," I knew I had to take my mother when she visited town. After all, she's a stained glass artist herself.

Going through the exhibit and hearing her perspective on Tiffany, the history of stained glass and the modern troubles for the medium brought it all to life with insight that even an ace tour guide wouldn't have been able to provide. While most folks would probably wander through such an exhibit merely taking in the artistic beauty, she would marvel at the specific skills, effort and work it requires to actually make these things. It recentered things. Art is ethereal, but there's plenty of tactile humanity poured into a creation before it reaches its final state. (SETH SOMMERFELD)

FOR ART'S SAKE
Across disciplines, local artists and cultural organizations are emerging from the pandemic a little wiser and with renewed zeal, April 14

If ever there were a testament to the resilience and the resourcefulness of the local arts community, this would be it. Despite pandemic-related setbacks that completely upended every stage of the creative process across every discipline, artists managed to find new ways to support one another, to derive strength from hardship and to reach their audiences. Make no mistake: It's going to take a long time to recover from the havoc caused by COVID. Many of the old certainties have been shaken to their foundations. But as the artists, advocates and organizers who I interviewed collectively point out, each obstacle they faced was also an opportunity for growth and rethinking the status quo. (E.J. IANNELLI)

HECK YES!
Jon Heder reflects on the "boom" of Napoleon Dynamite as he readies for Spokane visit, April 14

When Napoleon Dynamite came out in 2004, it was an immediate cultural phenomenon. You could hardly find a corner of the internet that didn't mention voting for Pedro or tots. That was 18 years ago, and the film is still widely loved today. Shortly after this story came out, Jon Heder, who plays the movie's titular character, and Efren Ramirez, who portrayed his sweaty bestie Pedro, gathered local Napoleon lovers at the Fox Theater for a screening of the film.

Heder made it very clear during my interview with him that he's not ashamed to be known as Napoleon Dynamite: "I hope that we can bring in a new generation of Napoleon lovers. It changed my life and so many others, it's such a special thing." (MADISON PEARSON)

click to enlarge Our arts and culture writers reflect on their favorite and most meaningful stories of 2022
Erick Doxey photo
Zooming through town with the Mild Riders.

SCOOT ON OVER
Meet the Mild Riders, Spokane's chillest (and only) scooter gang, May 19

On an unusually chilly spring day, I pulled on my winter parka to whiz through Spokane's West Central neighborhood on the back of a scooter for this delightful piece on the city's fledgling "scooter gang," the Mild Riders. While the group is currently on a winter hiatus (do they even make snow tires for scooters?) its members meet weekly during warmer weather for group rides around the region, often led by founders Tiffany Patterson and Ruben Villarreal.

"You absolutely cannot have a bad time riding a scooter," Patterson says in the story. "I think if people tried it once, there would be a lot more people on scooters." (CHEY SCOTT)

MONUMENTAL UNDERTAKING
A North Idaho man joins unique U.S. military-led effort to protect and preserve global sites and objects of cultural significance, June 30

Three years is a long time to track a story, but what a story — a monumental one with international derring-do, rare artworks and a local Boy Scout-turned-soldier. This piece shares the route North Idaho's Tyler Douglass Lowe took to becoming a member of the Monuments Men and Women, a group of art historians and other academics working with the U.S. military that began during World War II and continues to be tasked with preserving objects of cultural heritage in potentially dangerous situations.

"All descriptions point to this being a physically demanding role in sometimes really stressful environments" Lowe told us. "We kind of joke about it, but we are having to prepare ourselves to be nerdy Rambos." (CARRIE SCOZZARO)

RENEWED
The Central Library welcomes the public for the first time in over two years, and it's been well worth the wait, July 14

Nearly four years after a $77 million bond was approved, Spokane Public Library's downtown branch, now dubbed the Central Library, welcomed the public back into its newly renovated halls in July 2022. While walking through the building just a few days before the grand opening event, I realized just how much thought went into the renovations. Libraries aren't just for housing books; libraries are a space that members of the public use to connect with one another. Since reopening, the Central Library has been a hub of community and culture within the downtown area. Use your public libraries! (MADISON PEARSON)

A LONG-AWAITED RETURN
Terrain's flagship event is back after a two-year pause, showcasing more local art than ever, Sept. 22

COVID put a major damper on the arts scene, but in 2022 we finally saw the light again. Terrain's flagship event came back in full swing after a two-year hiatus, highlighting more local art than ever before. While reporting for this story, I fully understood the impact that Terrain, as an organization and an event, has on the local art community.

"In this new normal that we're living in it's more important than ever to the soul of the city to support local artists," Terrain's operations director Jackie Caro says in the story. "We need to invest in and support our creative community in a significant and meaningful way. Terrain accomplishes that." (MADISON PEARSON)

STILL IN PLAY
After 40 years as the Civic's playwright-in-residence, Bryan Harnetiaux continues to turn out new work, Sept. 22

Two incidental observations stand out from the long conversation I had with Bryan Harnetiaux that informed this article. One: Informed, civil (well, mostly), honest analysis of local work was once a regular part of the general cultural conversation in Spokane and, along with strengthening artists' work through feedback, it made for some amusing anecdotes. And two: Spokane has a richer history of progressive artistic collaboration than we might give it credit for. A detail that didn't make it into the story is how proud Bryan is of his daughter Trish, who's not only followed in his footsteps, but has even topped his success as a playwright. (E.J. IANNELLI)

DEARLY DEPARTED
Spokane painter Mel McCuddin passes away at the age of 89, Sept. 27

Art has the power to impact us profoundly. So do artists. We marvel at their unique way of seeing and interpreting the world we all live in. We wonder what motivates them, why they do what they do. As an arts writer, I get to ask these questions and more, including of the incomparable Mel McCuddin, whose painting career dated back seven decades. In September 2022, McCuddin passed away not entirely unexpectedly, which allowed me time to ask questions of McCuddin's many admirers. I hope I did his story justice. I hope it brought our readers who knew him some closure. And for others, I hope it impacted them just a little. (CARRIE SCOZZARO)

TOP ARTS & CULTURE STORIES OF 2022 ON INLANDER.COM
1. "Meet three local makers repurposing vintage fabric, quilts and clothing into sustainable, on-trend pieces" Chey Scott (May 12)
2. "The bittersweet end of the Chet Holmgren era at Gonzaga" Seth Sommerfeld (March 28)
3. "Jay Mohr on addiction, stand-up and why he named his newest special after a deadly Rolling Stones concert" Dan Nailen (Feb. 24)
4. "The nine worst new TV series of 2022" Bill Frost (March 3)
5. "The resonance of Hamilton in 2022 as the Broadway phenomenon makes its Spokane debut" Seth Sommerfeld (May 6)
6. "On loving the Seattle Mariners, even when it seems like a terrible idea" Mike Bookey (April 7)
7. "Shrek, sharks and Kung Fu Panda: Spokane becomes the first U.S. destination for new Dreamworks Animation exhibit" Madison Pearson (April 14)
8. "Drew Timme and the real problem with the transfer portal" Seth Sommerfeld (April 8)
9. "Historic preservationists in rural communities across Eastern Washington race against time to save old buildings" Chey Scott (Jan. 13)
10. "Author Leah Sottile discusses her deep dive into two dead children in Idaho, and where extreme religion meets extreme conspiratorial fervor" Dan Nailen (June 23)

WOE IS THE MARINERS FAN
The Seattle Mariners Flip the Script Over Wild Card Weekend / The Seattle Mariners and the Numbness of Nothing, Oct. 10 & 17

The joy and agony of sports fandom is enough to give supporters the emotional bends. Perhaps never was this more clear than when the Mariners had both their biggest wins and most crushing defeats in 20-plus years over the course of one week.

First, the team made one of the more improbable comebacks in baseball history, rallying to erase an 8-1 deficit to eliminate the Toronto Blue Jays from the Wild Card round. It was the type of thing long-sufferings M's fans couldn't even dare to dream could happen. That type of magic just doesn't happen for us.

But the bliss wouldn't last long, as the Mariners were swept out of the playoffs by the Houston Astros the following week, losing three straight games, all of which they probably should've won. The final jawbreaking blow came in agonizing fashion, as the first home playoff game in Seattle in two decades — which I trekked across state to attend — saw the Mariners score zero runs over 18 excruciating innings. One could only feel numb watching a doubleheader's worth of nothing to send a magical season out with a whimper. At least we still have Julio... (SETH SOMMERFELD)

click to enlarge Our arts and culture writers reflect on their favorite and most meaningful stories of 2022
Young Kwak photo
Kellen Trenal Lewis performs in According to Coyote.

COYOTE, COME HOME
Josephine Keefe is paying homage to her family and tribe with a revival of According to Coyote, Oct.13

Highlighting just one of the dozen or so productions I've ended up covering this year — among them Hamilton, Hadestown, Pass Over and Rocky Horror Show — wasn't easy, but According to Coyote is noteworthy for several reasons. The play isn't just introducing new audiences to the legendary Native American figure of Coyote. Josephine Keefe is also honoring the legacy of her late uncle, the Nez Perce playwright John Kauffman, through its revival. Furthermore, this production of According to Coyote has largely been possible through the collaborative effort and talents of the Indigenous community, from organizations like Red Eagle Soaring to its remarkable one-man cast, Kellen Trenal Lewis. (E.J. IANNELLI) ♦

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe @ TAC at the Lake

Sat., Feb. 22, 2 & 7 p.m. and Sun., Feb. 23, 2 p.m.
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