Festival and campout coming to Spokane River gorge and Kendall Yards

Robyn Nance by PAUL R. LA MONICA

The Bearing Public Sculpture Project is hosting a pilot event in Kendall Yards and Spokane City Park.

The Project is working toward placing a life-size Bearing bronze sculpture in Spokane, focusing on advocacy and fundraising.

The group is working in conjunction with Kendall Yards Greenstone Developer Jim Frank on a fall foods, campout, and music festival in Kendall Yards and the Spokane River gorge, called the RAVEN event. Dates of the event are September 28, 29, 30 and October 1, 2018.

This will be a 100% nonprofit public arts & music benefit dedicated to Native American musician Jim Boyd scheduled to take place in Spokane’s Sunset Park in the Spokane River gorge and throughout Kendall Yards business district (The Nest) and Olmsted Park (The Wing). A regional fall foods focus in Kendall Yards Business District and Olmsted Park, campout in the upper meadow and lower river areas of the City of Spokane’s Sunset Park and live music with beer and wine garden in Olmsted Park (The Wing). Other surprises and ticket information to come. Event planners want this to be an event Spokane claims with pride and great community enjoyment.

The event called RAVEN was conceptualized by Bearing Project board president Patricia Kienholz and concert promoter Craig Heimbigner and is part of a community collaboration that spawned from efforts to revitalize Downtown Spokane and highlight the City’s outdoor activities and river access while encouraging public art placement in the City of Spokane. The RAVEN name stems from nationally recognized artist Kay O’Rourke’s painting “The Circling Raven Prophecy.” O’Rourke’s painted series “History of The Spokane River Gorge” was commissioned by Kendall Yards Business District Developer Jim Frank and can be viewed in Spark Central. Both the artist and Jim Frank donated use of the series of paintings for promotional purposes only and O’Rourke will be the events highlighted artist.

O’Rourke said of the piece “Prophecy of the Circling Raven” that “Chief Yureerachen foretold the coming of the white men. He hiked to the highest levels of our Mount Spokane. He sat; he waited as he viewed the world below. He had a vision. That vision came in the form of ravens circling. As he watched, he saw them, the first white men, the “black coats”. The Chief prepared his people for the unknown.” The Raven image is also prevalent in many tribal creation myths as the one who takes the sun, moon & stars to the sky, thus giving light to the world. The significance of the Spokane River gorge as the tribal homeland for the Spokane Tribe and other area tribes, along with revitalization of the Spokane area outdoor uses are focal points of the event.

The dedication to internationally recognized Native American musician Jim Boyd, who served as Chairman of the Confederated Tribes of The Colville Reservation, was a member of the Arrow Lakes Band, and served as a Trustee for the State of Washington at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (dba “MAC”). Boyd’s widow Shelly Boyd (Colville), president of the board of directors for the Inchelium Language and Culture Association will speak at the event and its dedication.

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