Ritzville art show to feature 60 artists
Participants in the Ritzville Community Theater gather for a photo to mark the Historic Ritzville Days and Ritzville Western Art Show Memorial Day weekend. The actors portray legends, some real, some not, of the historic West.
RITZVILLE - Works by more than 60 artists, 108 years of Ritzville history and plenty of activities downtown will be the featured attractions at the Ritzville Western Art Show and Historic Ritzville Days.
The event is scheduled for May 24 through 26.
An all-school reunion is part of the festivities, with alumni of all 108 years of Ritzville school invited to the annual banquet. The art show and Historic Ritzville Days were founded to complement the banquet, said Jennifer Saunders, part of the art show committee.
Two events have been added for 2013, a Western wear show hosted by the Ritzville Rodeo Association, which includes tack as well as clothes. And the Ritzville Area Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring the Small Town Cache Cow.
The "cache cow" event introduces the pastime of geocaching to town. Participants use GPS coordinates to find hidden treasure.
The art show will feature nationally and regionally known artists, Saunders said. Works will include wood, steel and bronze sculpture; jewelry, leather, weaving, original maps, original posters, acrylics, oils, watercolor, photography and ceramics.
Subjects range from landscapes to cartoons, Western scenes to abstract photography.
The Dutch oven cookoff returns to town for the second straight year, and a number of events are scheduled downtown. That includes demonstrations in rope making, with spectators encouraged to participate.
Ritzville Community Theater actors will be portraying legends of the Old West during the art show.
They will portray incidents of Old Western lore, from spinning a few yarns to gunfights.
Music also is part of the festivities.
The weekend's headliner is Mary Kay Knaphus, a Utah singer specializing in classic Western music. Barbara Nelson, of Pendleton, Ore., will be appearing at the art show for the first time.
Humorist Sourdough Slim, "The Last of the Vaudeville Cowboys," will mix music and storytelling.
Nevada Slim and Cimarron Sue, "Minstrels of the Old West," will perform on stage and walk and sing around town, with a mix of classic country and Western music.
More information about the schedule is available at the show's website, www.ritzvillewesternart.com/home.html.