Othello’s Old Hotel’s class offerings to grow

OTHELLO — The Old Hotel Art Gallery’s art classes are in full swing, and soon there will be more to choose from. 

“The kids really seem to enjoy them, and adults too,” said the gallery’s director, Samantha Copas.

The gallery has been offering classes in a variety of artistic endeavors all summer, Copas said, including making kaleidoscopes and fairy gardens. Classes continue into August, when classes are scheduled in rock painting and stained glass. 

The variety of classes has been greater this year, Copas said. 

“We actually had quite a few different teachers sign up to teach classes,” she said. “It's a bigger variety this year because it's not, like, me and one other volunteer, like it was last year. There's a lot more experience and knowledge and talents available this year.” 

Attendance varies, Copas said; some classes have only two or three participants, while others get 10 or 12.  

“Our biggest struggle (is) trying to get the word out, so people are aware of it and finding out what time and day of the week works for most people,” she said. 

Besides the classes, the gallery is planning to invite local children in to help paint a mural on the side of the art building, Copas said. The time frame for that isn’t determined yet, she added. 

“It’s just barely beginning,” she said. “I don’t even think we have primer on there yet. So, once we get farther along and painting the rest of it, then we’ll come up with a date.” 

August’s Artist of the Month is watercolor painter Duke Stoker, Copas said. It’s not Stoker’s first time with that honor — he was also Artist of the Month in April 2023 — but this time there’s an additional twist. Patrons who come to the gallery and vote on their favorite painting of his will be entered in a drawing to win an original painting of sandhill cranes on the ground and in flight. The drawing will be held Sept. 2. 

Copas said the gallery hasn’t determined what classes will be added, but some of them will be at other times of the year than summer, possibly with holiday themes. 

Expanded classes are possible because of an $11,850 grant the Old Hotel received in June from the Innovia Foundation. The foundation awarded $1.25 million in grants to 113 organizations in eastern Washington and North Idaho, it announced. Other local recipients were Columbia Basin Allied Arts, which received $3,500; Lighthouse Community Center, which received $15,000 and the Othello Food Bank, which got $10,000. 

The Old Hotel Gallery has a lot to offer, Copas said. 

“We've got lots of great gift ideas,” she said. “Besides the art classes and those types of things, we are an art gallery, and a lot of people don't know that we're here, and-or if they do, they don't really know what's inside. So, if you're curious, just stop by sometime.” 

    This watercolor painting by Duke Stoker, the Old Hotel’s Artist of the Month, will be given away in a drawing Sept. 2.