The Old Hotel Art Gallery
Gallery Director Jenn Stevenson sits at the front desk of the Old Hotel Art Gallery in Othello, surrounded by a case of jewelry, postcards, information, and some art by Sandy Taggares in the background.
CALEB PEREZ/SPECIAL TO THE COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Four photos of birds taken by the Old Hotel Art Gallery’s artist of the month, Sandy Taggares. They are titled “Reflection,” “Bluebird of Happiness,” “Eastern Bluebird in the West” and “Courage and Beauty.”
An original clock from the building that now holds the Old Hotel Art Gallery surrounded by historical photos. This clock was donated back by Allen White.
A room filled with bird memorabilia at the Old Hotel Art Gallery in Othello. There are bird photos and paintings as well as different pamphlets, magazines and books.
OTHELLO — The Old Hotel Art Gallery in Othello is a place where local artists can have their arts and crafts displayed and sold on consignment.
According to Gallery Director Jenn Stevenson, they fill many pairs of shoes in the community besides art. The main focus of the gallery is to promote art and art education, she said.
Every month the gallery selects an artist of the month, and for March it is Sandy Taggares. She is a photographer of birds and wildlife and her family has deep roots ino Othello, Stevenson said.
“We’re always looking for new artists,” Stevenson said. “Both to sell their items on consignment and to just feature as artist of the month.”
There is a wide range of art that is both local and regional. Except for a few artists from the Greater Seattle area, the Old Hotel does not allow art from outside the Basin. Local people want to see local images, she said.
“We don’t have a lot of Mount Rainier or Mount Hood because that’s not what sells in Othello,” she said. “People want to see local images and stuff like that so we really focus on that sort of thing. Not a lot of mountains, more of sagebrush-steppe area.”
Some other aspects of the community that the gallery focuses on is keeping historical buildings maintained, acting as a visitors center where they promote tourism in Othello and cooperating with other cultural groups in Othello, she said.
The gallery also buys some items from various local vendors and acts as a gift shop for the area. There are items like local bird plushies, jewelry, postcards, and even food items such as Killian Korn, Foster’s pickled asparagus, Sweets by Keeks freeze-dried foods, Rills foods soup mixes, and Taste-a-Treat chocolates.
“We always make sure that we always have plenty of local foods,” she said.
One major tourist event that Old Hotel Art Gallery participates in is the Othello Sandhill Crane Festival, she said.
According to the official Sandhill Crane Festival website, it is a celebration of the migration of nearly 35,000 sandhill cranes as they make their way back north to Alaska to their breeding grounds. This year’s festival took place just this last weekend.
“During the Crane Festival we’re like a big hub for maps, sightings, just general information,” said Stevenson.
The festival is the largest tourist event in Othello so along with a vendor booth and helping out any way it can, Old Hotel Art Gallery also holds Taste of the Heart of the Basin on Saturday afternoon the week of the festival, featuring wine-tasting and local food sampling, she said.
The gallery sponsors an art contest during the festival. Art pieces are collected all month and judged Friday night of the festival. The art is displayed throughout the festival and then returned to the owners, she said.
Most entrants are students, who can enter by age group with four different media. There are also prizes for the best entrees in the contest, she said.
“We usually have a really big turnout for that,” she said.
The building the gallery resides in has a history. Built in 1912, it was both the fourth hotel in Othello at the time and also the railroad hotel, said Stevenson.
“Milwaukee Road is the name of the railroad company. It was the world's largest electric railroad company,” she said. “They are what started Othello.”
This hotel was where the executives of the railroad company would stay, so it wasn’t just an everyday working man’s hotel. The hotel has had many owners through the years. In 1974 a murder took place at the hotel and shrouded it with controversy and conspiracy. In the end, the then-owner went to jail and the hotel sat vacant for a while, Stevenson said.
“Then there were three businesswomen that met on the porch and they had this grand idea to turn it into an art gallery,” said Stevenson. “They voluntold their children and anyone else in the community that they could coerce and took six months to clean it all out.”
Finally, in October 1975, the place opened up as an art gallery. The business is now the longest-running owner of the building, she said.
Stevenson said over the years they have tried to continue to keep the original charm and functions of the building while also modernizing it and maintaining it for visitors for years to come.
Caleb Perez is a freelance writer, a graduate of Moses Lake High School and is currently attending Big Bend Community College studying communications.
