Moses Lake Museum celebrates 60th anniversary

MOSES LAKE — Sasquatch – or what people thought they saw when they thought they saw Sasquatch – and a new take on a legendary exhibit will be among the major exhibits as the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2018.

Along with the exhibits in the main gallery, museum officials will present separate exhibits on local history. The first of the “Be the Curator” exhibits, “The Art of Model Trains,” is currently on display.

Sasquatch, or rather the impressions of people who think they’ve seen Sasquatch or found traces of him, opens in June. “He (Sasquatch) is going to be fun,” said museum director Freya Liggett. It’s not so much a history of Sasquatch as a history of the Sasquatch phenomenon in the Pacific Northwest, Liggett said. The curator “has created a lot of dioramas and models,” detailing what people thought they saw.

Museum officials also plan to revive one of the most popular exhibits in the museum’s history, detailing an important Grant County farming commodity. “Reheated: Baked, Mashed or Fried” will feature potatoes – paintings, sculptures, whatever medium artists want to use, but all about potatoes.

The original “Baked, Mashed or Fried” was on display for years. “It ran for close to a decade. Possibly longer,” Liggett said. Some of the original works, among them a dancing potato sculpture, are still in the museum’s collection. “Reheated” opens in October, with a call for submissions going out in the spring.

The "Be the Curator” displays tell local stories. The current exhibit showcases the model train collection of the late Ross Sterling. Sterling built towns as background to his trains and commissioned murals as well. He was meticulous about details – one of the exhibits at the museum is a commercial facility, complete with a little tiny hazardous materials sign in an carefully crafted security fence.

Portions of the collection will be on display through March. The exhibit was installed by Emma Lou Bishop and railroad historian Dan Bolyard.

The Karneetsa (local) chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution will sponsor the second “Be the Curator” show, a display of World War I memorabilia from the families of local veterans, marking the 100th anniversary of the war’s end. A lecture on the role of Washington state in World War I is scheduled for late April.

The first exhibit of 2018 opens Friday. “I Do” features the wedding photography of Moses Lake photographer William Hilderbrandt. He sold cameras and recorded important occasions in Moses Lake and Grant County for more than two decades. Along with the pictures will be a display of wedding dresses and accompanying wedding finery, ranging from the early 1900s to today.

Award-winning illustrations from children’s books will be featured in the “Young at Art: A Selection of Caldecott Book Illustrations.” The Caldecott medal is awarded for outstanding illustration in children’s books.

“Cyber art 509” is a group of eastern Washington artists. “They converge on a place and put up artwork from many, many different members of their group.” Liggett said. A group show from artists Richard Nicksic, Brian Holtzinger and Delma Taylor is scheduled, and Spokane artist Ric Gendron will have a one-man show.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.