‘Anything and everything.’ Largest NW summer art show returns to Richland
The 2022 Art in the Park event is right around the corner when you can wander for two days among the hundreds of artisan and vendor booths in the shade of Howard Amon Park in Richland.
This is the 71st year for one of the largest annual summer art shows in the Northwest.
The show is Friday, July 29, from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. and Saturday, July 30, from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m.
The free event will feature over 250 vendors, food trucks, live music and more.
This year’s vendors will offer a variety of artwork, from pottery, jewelry, glass- and metalwork to fiber arts, photography and 3-D pieces, said event Director Brandie Saint-Claire.
“Anything and everything that you as an individual considered to be art is going to be present at the event,” she said. “So it not only has the high art aspect and element to it, it also has that organic feeling of a maker space.”
Among items for sale with a uniquely Tri-Cities twist will be quartz bell jars from the Hanford nuclear reservation’s historic N Reactor that have been turned into candles and nightlights, including some that glow blue in the dark.
The bell jars were purchased by Ray Law, a retired Hanford worker who says he likes to tinker and invent, from surplus sales of Hanford site equipment free of any contamination.
The bell jars were once used to isolate the brazing of the end caps on nuclear fuel elements.
Along with art pieces available for sale, food vendors will include Transient Coffee Company, Sweet Snack Attack and more.
And the Richland Rod and Gun Club and Columbia Basin Fly Casters will be back for their 37th year of serving their popular alder-cooked Yukon River salmon fillets near the “fingernail” stage. Dinners cost $16 and salmon sandwiches are $8.
Proceeds support activities like Kids Fishing Day, the Salmon in the Classroom program and the installation of guzzlers to provide water for wildlife in the arid Mid-Columbia.
Live entertainment is planned both Friday and Saturday morning by the steel drum band Bram Brata.
Barefoot Randy will perform at 4:30 p.m. and Chainsaw! and the Fine Particulates will be on stage at 6:30 p.m. Friday night.
A lineup of performances is set for Saturday, including the Rude Mechanicals, the Mid-Columbia Ballet and more.
More information about the Art in the Park event can be found on Gallery in the Park’s website.
For 71 years, Art in the Park has been a fundraiser for the Allied Arts Association and Gallery at the Park, Saint-Claire said.
Allied Arts is a nonprofit promoting art, art education and scholarships and more within the community. And the annual event is the main fundraiser for the group’s Gallery in the Park at Howard Amon Park.
Free park shuttles
Art in the Park is being sponsored by multiple local organizations, including STCU and Ben Franklin Transit, which is providing free shuttles to and from the event.
Shuttles run every 15 minutes from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturday to Howard Amon Park from the Richland High School parking lot off Thayer Drive.
Stops will be made at the Knight Street Transit Center, across from Greenies at George Washington Way and Lee Boulevard and John Dam Plaza.
Any donations for the rides will benefit Communities in Schools Benton-Franklin and SARC.
Kiwanis Richland breakfast
Richland Kiwanis Club will host its annual fundraiser pancake breakfast at Jefferson Park in Richland to coincide with Art in the Park.
Normally, the club hosts the breakfast for Cool Desert Nights. Since the event, now called Speedfest, moved to West Richland this year, the club decided to schedule it for the Saturday of Art in the Park instead.
The breakfast is open to all and is 7-11 a.m. on July 30 at the Jefferson Park Gazebo near George Washington Way and Symons Street.
The all-you-can-eat breakfast costs $7 for 12 and older, $5 for ages 6-11 and free for kids 5 and under.
